Author:Rudyard Kipling
'Mind you, it was a pukka, respectable opium-house, and not one of those stifling, sweltering chandoo-khanas that you can find all over the City.'
Kipling first became famous for his pungent, harsh and shocking stories of northwest India, where he grew up. This is just a small selection from his inexhaustibly contentious and various early work.
Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). Kipling's works available in Penguin Classics are Captains Courageous, Just So Stories, Kim, Plain Tales from the Hills, Selected Poems, The Jungle Books and The Man Who Would Be King: Selected Stories.
One of Russia's best living writers ... her tales inhabit a borderline between this world and the next
—— The New York TimesBreece D’J Pancake left behind an astonishing achievement. He was a master of a distinctly American vernacular, which he used to remind us of all the ways that fiction could teach us about ourselves. These stories are absolutely essential reading
—— Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow BirdsThis is an exceptional voice; gritty, mordant, invested with the texture of stroked reality; urgent and haunting
—— Margaret AtwoodMuscular, precise, lyric and unforgettable… Utterly singular
—— Eileen Battersby , Irish TimesSimple, rich with dialogue and precious
—— Anna Fielding , Stylist[Pancake’s] words…combined with an unsparing vision of humanity create the spine-tingling sense that you’re reading an original
—— Max Liu , IndependentHaunting brilliance
—— John Dugdale , Literary ReviewBy any standards, [the story “Trilobites”] is a masterpiece; that it is an artistic debut is astonishing… To say that Breece D’J Pancake is not well enough known is a massive understatement… Quite simply, a literary genius
—— John Burnside , GuardianImpressive
—— Philip Maughan , New StatesmanMisfits and twisted individuals loom large throughout these urbane stories . . . satirically edged.
—— The CulturePaul Theroux combines the traveller's hawk eye with the novelist's keen insight. . .[he has] an uncanny ability to rivet the reader.
—— New StatesmanA masterpiece of wit and elegance.
—— Elspeth Barker , Literary ReviewThe author charts the various stages of life with engaging curiosity and earthy compassion... The publishers, Jonathan Cape, have done a fine job with this handsome and substantial collection.
—— Keith Hopper , Times Literary SupplementAll the customary satisfactions of Burnside's writing – anomie, menace, flashes of violence and cruelty, hallucination and snow – but multiplied.
—— Sunday TelegraphEven Burnside’s most routine stories have beauty and intelligence. He is never less than something like brilliant.
—— Daily TelegraphA tremendous collection from a writer working at the full tilt of his gifts.
—— Kevin Barry , Ormskirk Advertiser