Reviews for Plain Tales from the Hills

The average rating for Plain Tales from the Hills based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-01-29 00:00:00 Chris Romanoski This is a difficult book for me to review, since I read it as a freebie e-book. The table of contents sucks, and I can't go back and navigate the book -- at least not in a way that I can figure out. You get what you pay for. That said, a lot of these Kipling short story collections ARE available free. If you want to read these short stories in their original collection context (as opposed to some collection anthology), you can do so. I read Plain Tales over a considerable stretch of time, so it's difficult for me to recall many of the stories (and I think there's something like 40 in the collection). It's not that they're forgettable, it's that many of them exist as short sketches, and do not resonate or follow a story "arc" that readers are normally accustomed to reading. A good comparison would be Hemingway's early (and outstanding) collection, In Our Time, and perhaps the works of Katherine Anne Porter. Basically, what you're getting is a writer's writer, who has a keen eye for observation, but also one who captures the human factor. Descriptions of English life in India, a mixing of two completely different cultures, provide the stuff for Kipling's efforts here. Where I think Kipling differs from Hemingway and Porter (and Mansfield), is that many of these (very short) stories are quite funny. But there is also tragedy, and horror, in some of them. If interested, try the very first story in the collection, "Lisbeth," which is quite sad," There is also racism, and in one case, anti-Semitism. Kipling was a complicated dude. Interestingly, while reading this collection, I stopped to flip through a bio on Conrad, wondering just what Kipling's contemporaries thought of him. In one passage Conrad, and friends, via letters, deplored Kipling's imperialistic views, but acknowledged his genius. If you're going to read this great writer, and he is a great writer, I suggest that the approach be that of Conrad and his friends.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-01-23 00:00:00 Stewart Jotham A young subaltern, ribbed by his regiment for his sweet and gentle demeanour�especially cruelly ribbed by the Senior Subaltern�makes a public promise to repay the debt. A little boy, whose best friends happen to be the Indians he fraternises with, becomes the reason for an amendment in an important ryotwari act. A frustrated young man commits suicide and two of his colleagues come to the rescue of his parents, far away in England� The characters who people Kipling�s Plain Tales From The Hills are a very varied lot, ranging all the way from (and these are in the majority) the �Anglo-Indians�, the Englishmen and women who came out to India, to the natives, to the others to be found then in India: Chinese immigrants, part-Portuguese, part-Indian �half-breeds�, and more. The problems they face and the situations they find themselves in are equally varied, with romantic entanglements being the most common: unwanted loves, unattainable loves, misplaced loves, loves to be drawn back from their straying. The treatment of the stories is very different, too, all the way from the hilarity of yarns like The Rout Of The White Hussars to the poignancy of something like Thrown Away. There is the cuteness of Tod�s Amendment and the somewhat spooky mumbo-jumbo-cloaked crookery of The House of Suddhoo. What I liked most about Plain Tales From The Hills was the immense readability of these stories, and, of course, Kipling�s versatility: he is as adept at humour as he is with drama or tragedy or even something approaching the supernatural. His insight into human character is good, and his characters themselves are often memorable. And the biggest plus: he brings to us the India�especially the Simla�of the British Raj vividly to life.