To Tangle with Tarzan: Seven Short Stories and an Epic Book

This early collection from Kipling doesn't pull any punches about the behaviour of the British Empire's representatives in India, and has a decidedly unsympathetic, even misanthropic tone to it.

In the first story, 'The Education of Otis Yeere' we get a glimpse into how the smart, bored wives of government officials in India dealt with their ennui - by cultivating the fortunes of hapless men from the rank and file.
Later on in 'A Second-rate Woman', these two are at it again, this time casting their less than benevolent eyes on a sad pair they call The Dowd and The Dancing Master, but again their aim is slightly off.

'At the Pit's Mouth' is a tragic warning against conducting adulteries in a cemetery, 'A Wayside Comedy' is similar warning against conducting adulteries in a secluded little community, and 'The Hill of Illusion' rounds off a loose trilogy with an unsatisfactory dialogue between irresolute adulterers.

The next two stories are based in the barracks, both ending in death. 'Only a Subalten' features an inspiring young officer who goes beyond the call of duty for his men, then 'In the Matter of a Private' is a case of bullying (with the aid of a parrot!) where the worm turns.

The final story, 'The Enlightenments of Pagett, M. P.', is the only one to look at the India question as a whole, and is basically an exercise in informing the good people back home that they don't understand a thing about the country.

At least there were few Indian characters in these stories so there was little of Kipling's condescension towards them. He more than made up for it with the dose he dished out to his British ones. I can't believe that there were many chroniclers of the Empire as scornful as this in 1888. Nor as truthful.

The young Kipling must have been a prematurely sour chap.