Victorian England Week Twentyeight Rudyard Kipling's Kim Wed May 15

Home , John Lockwood Kipling, Kim (novel)

Victorian England Week Twentyeight Rudyard Kipling’s Kim Wed May 15, 2019 Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

1819-1901 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936

"A versatile and luminous narrative gift"

In the early 20th C the most popular writer in the world.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 John Lockwood Kipling, 1837-1911 In 2017 the Bard Graduate Center held an exhibition of his work: John Lockwood Kipling: Arts & Crafts in the Punjab and London.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Alice Agnes

Louisa Giorgiana ThursdayMay 16, 2019 1840-1920 1833-1898 (64)

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 The Grange, North End, Fulham, London

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 1865

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 appointed teacher at Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art and Industry in Bombay,

Little boy in India 1865-1871

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Little Rudy becomes totally ﬂuent in Hindi…parents alarmed their son turning into a Hindu.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 April1871-1877

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 In January 1878, Kipling was admitted to the United Services College at Westward Ho!, Devon, a school founded a few years earlier to prepare boys for the army. The school proved rough going for him at ﬁrst, but later led to ﬁrm friendships and provided the setting for his schoolboy stories Stalky & Co. (1899).

Text

1878-1882

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 1882 RETURN TO INDIA

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 LAHORE

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 The Kipling house at Lahore a grand house they will live in for ten years

Rudyard comes to Lahore to write for the Civil and Military Gazette

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 1889. (23) Kipling returns to London

Rents an apt near Charing Cross and begins career as freelance writer Signs with Macmillan.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 The London 1890 democracy literacy (edu) newspapers magazines

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 The London 1890 Oscar Wilde Trial Fin de Siecle Corruption Degeneration

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 17th Century country stone house: Bateman’s

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 John Kipling, 1897-1915

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 1900

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 THE JOURNEY

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Kim is a novel by Nobel Prize- winning English author Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClure's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by Macmillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901. The story unfolds against the backdrop of The Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. The novel made the term "Great Game" popular and introduced the theme of great power rivalry and intrigue.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Kim is set after the Second Afghan War which ended in 1881, but before the Third, probably in the period 1893 to 1898. The novel is notable for its detailed portrait of the people, culture, and varied religions of India. "The book presents a vivid picture of India, its teeming populations, religions, and superstitions, and the life of the bazaars and the road." In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Kim No. 78 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 THE JOURNEY

Kimball "Kim" O'Hara is an orphan son of an Irish soldier, the protagonist; "A poor white, the poorest of the poor"

Teshoo Lama a Tibetan Lama, the former abbot of the Such-zen monastery in the Western Himalayas, on a spiritual journey.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor Irish mother who have both died in poverty.

Living a vagabond existence in India under British rule in the late 19th century, Kim earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore.

He occasionally works for Mahbub Ali, a Pashtun horse trader who is one of the native operatives of the British secret service.

Kim is so immersed in the local culture that few realise he is a white child, although he carries a packet of documents from his father entrusted to him by an Indian woman who cared for him.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Chapter 1 Kim • Kimball O'Hara, Kim for short, lives in the city of Lahore in the province of the Punjab. • (Lahore is now in Pakistan, but when Rudyard Kipling was writing, it was part of India.) • Even though Kim feels totally comfortable running around the city talking to the city kids in Urdu, he is English/Irish. • His mother was a nursemaid and his father a low-ranking officer in an Irish regiment stationed in India, • During Kim Senior's drugged visions, he would sometimes talk about "nine hundred first-class devils, whose God was a Red Bull on a green field" (1.2). • The woman who takes care of Kim doesn't understand what the father is talking about, but she tells Kim that his father left him a prophecy: One day a Red Bull will arrive with a colonel on horseback (and then the nine hundred devils). • He also likes to explore the city and to carry secret messages for the local guys in the middle of the night. • Kim volunteers to become the lama's chela—his disciple—and he will help the lama on the road south.• Kim makes the lama leave Lahore early so that they can avoid the people searching for Mahbub Ali's message.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 KIM'S AMULET Symbolism, Imagery, Kim's amulet around his neck is a little bag put together by the woman who looks after Kim when his parents die. It has three documents, all of which belonged to Kimball O'Hara, Sr. The first is Kim, Sr.'s "ne varietur" (1.2) as he calls it. Ne varietur is a Latin legal term meaning, "Not to be changed." Masons would put this phrase underneath their handwritten signatures to verify the handwriting of individual Masonic brothers. So Kim, Sr.'s ne varietur is a document proving that he is a Mason. (The Freemasons are a mysterious fraternal organization that claim to go back to the time of Solomon.) The second document in Kim's amulet is his father's clearance-certificate, which provides legal proof that Kimball O'Hara, Sr.'s debts have all been paid and that his estate is settled. This is great—Kim doesn't owe anyone money on behalf of his father. Last but not least is Kim's birth certificate, giving the legal names of his mother, Annie Shott, and his father. When Kim meets up with Reverend Bennett and Father Victor, these documents prove who Kim is, even though Kim doesn't really seem to know himself.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 The Lama • One day, when Kim is playing with two other kids in front of the Wonder-House (the local name for the Lahore Museum (1.20)), he notices a man who looks like no one he has ever seen before. • The new man tells the kids that he is a Buddhist lama from Tibet, and that he is on a pilgrimage. • Kim leads the lama to meet the English curator (modeled after Kipling's own father) • The lama tells the curator that he is visiting the Four Holy Sites of Buddhism. • During his travels though, he has seen evidence of a lot of fake statues and false worship of the Buddha, so now the lama has started on a second quest. • He tells the curator that once, as part of a trial of strength, the Buddha shot an arrow into the air. • Where this arrow landed a river sprang up, and the lama believes that, if he can ﬁnd this river, he will free himself of the pointless cycle of rebirth that is human life (according to Buddhist teaching as told by Rudyard Kipling, at least). • The lama plans to head south to the city of Benares (now called Varanasi). • To help the lama on his search, the curator trades glasses with the man—they both have the same prescription (mostly), but the curator's lenses are much clearer and cleaner. • The lama is thrilled. established" (1.179).

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Outside the museum, the lama settles down to beg for food. • Kim is much more familiar with the ways of Lahore, so he volunteers to get food for the lama, and hits up a local vegetable-seller for food. • She has been having trouble with a bull who keeps eating stuff from her vegetable stall. • Kim promises that the lama will pray to keep the bull away from her stall if she'll just help them out with a bit of food. • Kim and the lama eat together happily, and we see the beginning of a great relationship • Kim volunteers to become the lama's chela— (chaylah) his disciple—and he will help the lama on the road south. • As they head south, Kim plans to keep an eye out for that Red Bull his dad was talking about. • Kim takes the lama to his friend Mahbub Ali, as they try to find a place to sleep for the night. • Mahbub Ali has an errand for Kim: If he's going south, he will have to pass through the city of Umballa, and at Umballa, Mahbub Ali wants Kim to deliver this message to a specific officer in the army: "The pedigree of the white stallion is fully established" . • (This message definitely sounds like some kind of special code to us.) • And indeed, Mahbub Ali's message is actually about five local kings and a gun- running scheme—in other words, it's about important government stuff. • Mahbub Ali realizes that a random boy traveling with an elderly lama won't attract the attention of robbers or spies, and seizes the opportunity. ThursdayMay 16, 2019 • It's lucky for Mahbub Ali that he passes on this message to Kim when he does, because that night he gets stinking drunk and passes out in the arms of a prostitute. • She and two other guys working for the Five Kings search him and his property, hoping to find this message. • They don't find what they are looking for, but Kim spots them searching the unconscious Mahbub Ali. • Kim makes the lama leave Lahore early so that they can avoid the people searching for Mahbub Ali's message. 1. The Journey. 2. The Quest. 3. “The Game” 4. Britain. 5. British in India Admin., officers, etc. 6. East & West. 7. What is “home” for Kim? 8. “Knowledge” Spirits, prophecy. 9. Buddhism. 10. Kipling’s own personal quest.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 CHAPTER 3 The first freshness of the day carried the lama forward with long, easy, camel-like strides. He was deep in meditation, mechanically clicking his rosary. They followed the rutted and worn country road that wound across the flat between the great dark-green mango-groves, the line of the snowcapped Himalayas faint to the eastward. All India was at work in the fields, to the creaking of well-wheels, the shouting of ploughmen behind their cattle, and the clamour of the crows. Even the pony felt the good influence and almost broke into a trot as Kim laid a hand on the stirrup-leather.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Chapter 4 The Grand Trunk Road Continues • The old soldier introduces Kim, "the Friend of the Stars" (4.4), to his son. • His son conﬁrms Kim's news of war. • He is a member of a regiment, and he has come to his father to ask for money for a new horse and other helpful army stuff. • The son throws Kim some money before the two men leave. • A policeman at the side of the road tries to bully Kim into giving up his money for a made-up government toll, but Kim mocks him and he gives up. • They walk along the Grand Trunk Road, and Kim takes in all of the Road's great diversity of people. • The afternoon starts getting late, and Kim begins scheming about how they'll spend the night.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Chapter 4 Here and there they met or were overtaken by the gaily dressed crowds of whole villages turning out to some local fair; the women, with their babes on their hips, walking behind the men, the older boys prancing on sticks of sugar-cane, dragging rude brass models of locomotives such as they sell for a halfpenny, or ﬂashing the sun into the eyes of their betters from cheap toy mirrors. One could see at a glance what each had bought; and if there were any doubt it needed only to watch the wives comparing, brown arm against brown arm, the newly purchased dull glass bracelets that come from the North- West. These merry-makers stepped slowly, calling one to the other and stopping to haggle with sweetmeat-sellers, or to make a prayer before one of the wayside shrines—sometimes Hindu, sometimes Mussalman—which the low-caste of both creeds share with beautiful impartiality.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Chapter 4 The lama never raised his eyes. He did not note the money-lender on his goose-rumped pony, hastening along or the long-shouting, deep- voiced little mob—still in military formation—of native soldiers on leave, rejoicing to be rid of their breeches and puttees, and saying the most outrageous things to the most respectable women in sight. Even the seller of Ganges-water he did not see, and Kim expected that he would at least buy a bottle of that precious stuff. He looked steadily at the ground, and strode as steadily hour after hour, his soul busied elsewhere. But Kim was in the seventh heaven of joy. The Grand Trunk at this point was built on an embankment to guard against winter ﬂoods from the foothills, so that one walked, as it were, a little above the country, along a stately corridor, seeing all India spread out to left and right. It was beautiful to behold the many-yoked grain and cotton wagons crawling over the country roads: one could hear their axles, complaining a mile away,

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Chapter 4

By this time the sun was driving broad golden spokes through the lower branches of the mango-trees; the parakeets and doves were coming home in their hundreds; the chattering, grey-backed Seven Sisters, talking over the day's adventures, walked back and forth in twos and threes almost under the feet of the travellers; and shufﬂings and scufﬂings in the branches showed that the bats were ready to go out on the night-picket. Swiftly the light gathered itself together, painted for an instant the faces and the cartwheels and the bullocks' horns as red as blood. Then the night fell, changing the touch of the air, drawing a low, even haze, like a gossamer veil of blue, across the face of the country, and bringing out, keen and distinct, the smell of wood-smoke and cattle and the good scent of wheaten cakes cooked on charcoal ashes.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Chapter 4

The diamond-bright dawn woke men and crows and bullocks together. Kim sat up and yawned, shook himself, and thrilled with delight. This was seeing the world in real truth; this was life as he would have it—bustling and shouting, the buckling of belts, and beating of bullocks and creaking of wheels, lighting of ﬁres and cooking of food, and new sights at every turn of the approving eye. The morning mist swept off in a whorl of silver, the parrots shot away to some distant river in shrieking green hosts: all the well-wheels within ear-shot went to work. India was awake, and Kim was in the middle of it, more awake and more excited than anyone, chewing on a twig that he would presently use as a toothbrush; for he borrowed right- and left-handedly from all the customs of the country he knew and loved.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Chapter 5 The Breaking Of partnership. • Bennett pulls Kim into his tent to get a look at him. • At first, he thinks that Kim is a local thief, but then he sees the small pouch hanging from Kim's neck. • In this pouch are several documents from Kimball O'Hara, Kim's father.Bennett calls the regiment's Catholic priest, Father Victor, over to consult. • Kim really wants to go away right about now, but these two priests won't let him. • It turns out that Father Victor was there when Kimball O'Hara married Kim's mother, Annie Shott. • Kim explains himself quickly: both his father and his mother are dead, but he is following a holy man. • Father Victor and Bennett both follow Kim back to the Kulu woman's cart to have a word with the lama. • Bennett wants Kim to go to the Masonic Orphanage, since his father was a Mason. • Kim translates to the lama that these two priests have realized that he is the son of a British soldier, and they want to take him away—Kim's plan is to run away after two or three days to rejoin the lama for their quest to find the River of the Arrow. • But now that the lama knows that Kim has people he can go to, he no longer feels that it's right for Kim to be his disciple. • In fact, the lama decides that his attachment to Kim has probably been keeping him from finding the River. • (This scene is so painful—why can't Kim just keep looking for the River of the Arrow with his best friend the lama forever?)

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Gautama Buddha, 560-480 BC

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists. Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. Buddhism originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravada (Pali: "The School of the Elders") and Mahayana (Sanskrit: "The Great Vehicle").

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Most Buddhist traditions share the goal of overcoming suffering and the cycle of death and rebirth, either by the attainment of Nirvana or through the path of Buddhahood Buddhist schools vary in their interpretation of the path to liberation, the relative importance and canonicity assigned to the various Buddhist texts, and their speciﬁc teachings and practices. Widely observed practices include taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, observance of moral precepts, monasticism, meditation, and the cultivation of the Paramitas (virtues).

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Theravada Buddhism has a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia such as Myanmar and Thailand. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen Buddhism, Shingon and Tiantai (Tendai), is found throughout East Asia.

Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian adepts, may be viewed as a separate branch or as an aspect of Mahayana Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth-century India, is practiced in the countries of the Himalayan region, Mongolia.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 1. The Journey. 2. The Quest. 3. “The Game” 4. Britain. 5. British in India Admin., ofﬁcers, etc. 6. East & West. 7. What is “home” for Kim? 8. “Knowledge” Spirits, prophecy. 9. Buddhism.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 The White Man's Burden 1899 Take up the White man's burden -- Send forth the best ye breed -- Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild -- Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.

Take up the White Man's burden -- In patience to abide, To veil the threat of terror And check the show of pride; By open speech and simple, An hundred times made plain. To seek another's profit, And work another's gain. ThursdayMay 16, 2019

Take up the White Man's burden -- The savage wars of peace -- Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch Sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hope to nought.

Take up the White man's burden -- And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard -- The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly!) toward the light: -- "Why brought ye us from bondage, "Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden -- Ye dare not stoop to less -- Nor call too loud on freedom To cloak your weariness; By all ye cry or whisper, By all ye leave or do, The silent, sullen peoples Shall weigh your Gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden -- Have done with childish days -- The lightly proffered laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise. Comes now, to search your manhood Through all the thankless years, Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers! xt The White Man's Burden 1899 Take up the White man's burden -- Send forth the best ye breed -- Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild -- Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.

1899 Take up the White Man's burden -- The savage wars of peace -- Fill full the mouth of Famine And bid the sickness cease; And when your goal is nearest The end for others sought, Watch Sloth and heathen Folly Bring all your hope to nought.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Take up the White man's burden -- And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard -- The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly!) toward the light: -- "Why brought ye us from bondage, "Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden -- No tawdry rule of kings, But toil of serf and sweeper -- The tale of common things. The ports ye shall not enter, The roads ye shall not tread, Go make them with your living, And mark them with your dead! Take up the White man's burden -- And reap his old reward: The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard -- The cry of hosts ye humour (Ah, slowly!) toward the light: -- "Why brought ye us from bondage, "Our loved Egyptian night?"

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Take up the White Man's burden -- Have done with childish days -- The lightly proffered laurel, The easy, ungrudged praise. Comes now, to search your manhood Through all the thankless years, Cold-edged with dear-bought wisdom, The judgment of your peers! The White Man's Burden 1899 Take up the White man's burden -- Send forth the best ye breed -- Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild -- Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child.

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 1890’s

ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 Victorian England Week Twentyeight Rudyard Kipling’s Kim Wed May 15, 2019 Institute for the Study of Western Civilization

1819-1901 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019 ThursdayMay 16, 2019