Another one I missed in school.

Arrived in the mail today as a gift from jamesmum. Looking forward to reading it - perhaps over the Christmas holidays. Many thanks!

I have to admit that it was a bit of a slog to get through this. I dragged it around with me on the bus for about a month, and for at least the first third of the book, considered giving up on it.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy certain aspects of it. It's an adventure story written over a hunderd years ago, aimed at boys, so it's obvious that it's not the kind of thing I usually go for. But I am interested in all things India, and this book reveals a lot about the author's attitudes as a English colonialist in India - the constant put-downs of the locals, for example, of someone being lazy "in the fashion of Natives", and the use of language that would be highly offensive today. Also the many references to the young boy smoking and drinking and running around with a pistol made me smile. Kipling did make an effort to understand religions and customs of the various sects, though they are very stereotyped in the book.

I can understand how this would have seemed very exotic and exciting to a young boy living in England in 1901. And it's also interesting how Robert Baden Powell took some ideas from this book when he began to develop Boy Scouts. Overall, interesting from a historical perspective, but not something I'd recommend as light reading!

RELEASE NOTES:

Left in 2nd floor women's washroom.