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The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
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The Jungle Book (1894)

by Rudyard Kipling

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Series: Jungle Books (1)

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English (46)  Spanish (2)  Catalan (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (50)
Showing 1-5 of 46 (next | show all)
Wonderful descriptions...but all the laws that must be obeyed just because get under my skin. Why is Akela "The Lone Wolf" when he is the leader of the pack? This is not the only bit that doesn't make sense.

When I was young I found the stories about Mowgli tremendously exciting and longed to go live in the jungle with a wolf pack myself. Killing my enemy and being the darling of all other reputable creatures in the jungle seemed like great fun. I also wanted to be a mongoose. I found many of the poems moving and evocative.

The chatter of the livestock in the camp in the last story was obviously intended as some kind of allegory about the social structure of the British Empire and neighboring Afghanistan.

As an adult I'm much more interested in finding out the truth behind the tales. For example, fur seal rookeries are really as crowded as Kipling describes them and fur seals really do live out in the ocean for a good eight months at a time. Sexual dimorphism is extremely pronounced with full grown males weighing up to five times as much as full grown females. The seals can way up to 500 lbs. Clubbing the seals was the preferred way to begin the process of skinning them, and so forth.

The reading by Rebecca Burns was too fast, almost breathless. ( )
  themulhern | Jun 8, 2013 |
I loved the parts with Mowgli, but the other stories completely lost my interest, so I didn't read them. They could be good. Maybe great. I will never know. ( )
  ScribbleKey | Apr 7, 2013 |
Not only a ripping yarn, but one with many lessons to be learned -- I have met far too many of the Bandar-Log in my time. It's been quite a while since I've read it, so parents might want to make this a read-aloud to be able to explain some of Kipling's outdated ideas. Take what's good and leave the rest. ( )
  auntieknickers | Apr 3, 2013 |
Rudyard Kipling’s _The Jungle Book_ is an enjoyable read. A collection of short stories, all of which revolve around the lives and troubles of different animals and the people who interact with them, it has a surprising amount of depth coupled with rather pleasant prose. The most famous of these stories are probably those that revolve around Mowgli, the jungle boy raised by wolves in India whose adventures with Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther against the machinations of Shere Khan the tiger are fairly well-known (even resulting in a typically watered-down Disney movie from many years ago).

All of the stories are notable for their fairly even handed treatment of the interactions between animals and men. The tragedy and pathos of the tribulations and abuse animals often have to suffer at the hands of man are not glossed over, but neither is it implied that all interactions between mankind and the animal kingdom are destructive or unwarranted. The animals are presented as having languages and customs of their own and Kipling generally does a pretty neat trick of managing to straddle the line between having his animal characters behave too much like humans and having them fall into unrelatability by being purely ‘animals’. The most significant contravention of this occurs, I think, in the story “Her Majesty’s Servants” in which, in my opinion, a group of animals serving various roles in a British regiment shade a bit more towards taking on the roles of their all-too human handlers. That quibble aside I enjoyed these morality fables and adventure stories, with those centring on Mowgli and his lessons in the Laws of the Jungle topping the list. Good clean fun with enough meat to the bone to give you something to think about.
( )
  dulac3 | Apr 2, 2013 |
Although Mowgli's adventures are the most well-known of the stories comprising The Jungle Book, Kipling's tales of Kotick the seal, Rikki Tikki Tavi and Toomai of the Elephants are just as enchanting. Owning this hardcover edition, with Kipling's original, lyrical prose and matching illustrations by Robert Ingpen, is to feel as if a rare talisman from the 19th Century (with all its now politically incorrect facades in plain view) sits upon your bookshelf.
  Scribble.Orca | Mar 31, 2013 |
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» Add other authors (128 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Rudyard Kiplingprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Detmold, Charles MauriceIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Detmold, EdwardIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Detmold, MauriceIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Frenzeny, PaulIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ingpen, RobertIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kipling, John LockwoodIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Now Rann the Kite brings home the night That Mang the Bat sets free--The herds are shut in byre and hut For loosed till dawn are we.
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This is the main work for The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Please do not combine with any adaptation, abridgement, etc.
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Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0812504690, Mass Market Paperback)

No child should be allowed to grow up without reading The Jungle Books. Published in 1894 and 1895, the stories crackle with as much life and intensity as ever. Rudyard Kipling pours fuel on childhood fantasies with his tales of Mowgli, lost in the jungles of India as a child and adopted into a family of wolves. Mowgli is brought up on a diet of Jungle Law, loyalty, and fresh meat from the kill. Regular adventures with his friends and enemies among the Jungle-People--cobras, panthers, bears, and tigers--hone this man-cub's strength and cleverness and whet every reader's imagination. Mowgli's story is interspersed with other tales of the jungle, such as "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," lending depth and diversity to our understanding of Kipling's India. In much the same way Mowgli is carried away by the Bandar-log monkeys, young readers will be caught up by the stories, swinging from page to page, breathless, thrilled, and terrified. (Ages 9 to 12)

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:24:23 -0400)

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Presents the adventures of Mowgli, a boy reared by a pack of wolves, and the wild animals of the jungle. Also includes other short stories set in India.

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Audible.com

Thirteen editions of this book were published by Audible.com.

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Penguin Australia

Two editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141183659, 0141325291

 

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