Kim - Kipling, Rudyard

. .

Résumé :
First published in McClure's Magazine between December of 1901 and October of 1901, Kim is the story of Kim (Kimball) O'Hara, the orphaned son of a British soldier. Set against the backdrop of The Great Game a political conflict between Russia and Great Britain in central Asia, the novel traces the life of the title character from begging and errand running on the streets of Lahore to his schooling at a top English school in Lucknow, where he is trained in espionage, and ultimately to a government appointment where he himself gets to play in The Great Game. Set between the second and third Afghan War, Kim presents a vivid portrait of 19th century India. Considered by many as Kipling's masterpiece, Kim is a classic novel of espionage and adventure which helped bring popular attention to the political and diplomatic confrontation between the British Empire and the Russian Empire in Central and Southern Asia at the end of the 19th century. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Biographie:
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901) and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899) and If- (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature and one critic described his work as exhibiting a versatile and luminous narrative gift. Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known. In 1907, at the age of 42, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.