What could be better than accidently stumbling on what must have been the inspiration for your favorite book? I can't think of much! Let's see how it happened!
Title: Kim
Author: Rudyard Kipling
My start date: 10/17/10
My finish date: 10/23/10
Book count: 62
As you might already now by now, my all-time favorite book ever is M.M. Kaye's great epic The Far Pavilions. I have grown up loving India and loving stories about India. And who doesn't already love Disney's take on India as seen in the Disney version of Kipling's The Jungle Books? It was these factors that initially drove me to read Kipling's original story several years ago and which recently encouraged me to pick up his lesser known novel, Kim. So glad I did!
Immediately in the first chapters I recognized the similarities to certain aspects of Kaye's great work. Both deal with young men, born to white parents in colonial India, but who are early on orphaned and subsequently raised in the local culture. In Kaye's work, the protagonist is unaware of his true identity, while in Kimpling's story the protagonist simply chooses not to acknowledge it, but in both stories fate brings them suddenly back into the care of the Caucasian colonialists who are thrilled to use the boys as spies due to their abilities to blend into any of the cultures. Something about this just thrills me. Maybe it is because I wish I could seamlessly switch cultural identies and blend into another culture. Whatever the reason, I was ecstatic to see the familiar story.
Although I have never seen it mentioned anywhere that Kaye uses Kipling's story as inspiration, I can only assume that to be the case. It seems probable the Kaye would have read Kipling's work in her time and the similarities are simply too striking. While some might find this problematic, I have spent enough time in the literary world to recognize that there are no new stories, just retellings of good ones, a concept I will revisit during me next project. The discovery of this connection is a total treasure to me.
Anyway, considering the utter failure that Conrad's work had been to me, and considering that I am stepping away from "high" literature for awhile, I am pleased to be ending my experiences with the classical canon on a good note. Success!
Keep reading!
Sarah
P.S. Hey look! Cool, Amazon has the B&N classic version on here! Epic Success!
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