This collection opens with The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows, the first story Kipling published as a young journalist in india, and ends with an acknowledged masterpiece, The Gardener, written 50 years later in the aftermath of the great war.

Beloved for his fanciful and engrossing children's literature, controversial for his enthusiasm for British imperialism, Rudyard Kipling remains one of the most widely read writers of Victorian and modern English literature. In addition to writing more than two dozen works of fiction, including Kim and The Jungle Book, Kipling was a prolific poet, composing verse in every classical form from the epigram to the ode. Kipling's most distinctive gift was for ballads and narrative poems in which he drew vivid characters in universal situations, articulating profound truths in plain language. Yet he was also a subtle, affecting anatomist of the human heart, and his deep feeling for the natural world was exquisitely expressed in his verse. He was shattered by World War I, in which he lost his only son, and his work darkened in later years but never lost its extraordinary vitality. All of these aspects of Kipling's poetry are represented in this selection, which ranges...

Rudyard Kipling is one of the most magical storytellers in the English language. This new selection brings together the best of his short writings, following the development of his work over fifty years. They take us from the harsh, cruel, vividly realized world of the 'Indian' stories that made his name, through the experimental modernism of his middle period to the highly-wrought subtleties of his later pieces. Including the tale of insanity and empire, 'The Man Who Would Be King', the high-spirited 'The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat', the fable of childhood cruelty and revenge 'Baa Baa, Black Sheep', the menacing psychological study 'Mary Postgate' and the ambiguous portrayal of grief and mourning in 'The Gardener', here are stories of criminals, ghosts, femmes fatales, madness and murder.

From man's best friend to wild beasts, five of the most enduring tales of animals in literature—together in one collection for animal lovers of all ages. Animals as characters have played a significant part in literature, from Aesop's ancient fables and the Garden of Eden story to contemporary literature. Gathered in this single volume are some of the most memorable animal stories that continue to stand the test of time. The Jungle Book: Travel to the wilds of colonial India in this collection of seven tales centered on a young boy named Mowgli, who is raised by wolves in the jungle—with a supporting cast featuring a bear, a panther, a tiger, a python, and a tribe of monkeys. Black Beauty: A nineteenth-century English horse recounts his dramatic life story, from his carefree youth on the farm to trying times pulling cabs in London. The Call of the Wild: Buck the dog lived a happy life in...

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is often regarded as the unofficial Laureate of the British Empire. Yet his writing reveals a ferociously independent figure at times violently opposed to the dominant political and literary tendencies of his age. Arranged in chronological order, this diverse selection of his poetry shows the development of Kipling's talent, his deepening maturity and the growing sombreness of his poetic vision. Ranging from early, exhilarating celebrations of British expansion overseas, including "Mandalay" and "Gunga Din", to the dignified and inspirational "If -" and the later, deeply moving "Epitaphs of the War" - inspired by the death of Kipling's only son - it clearly illustrates the scope and originality of his work. It also offers a compelling insight into the Empire both at its peak and during its decline in the early years of the twentieth century.

Rudyard Kipling was a major figure of English literature, who used the full power and intensity of his imagination and his writing ability in his excursions into fantasy. This Masterwork, edited by Stephen Jones, Britain's most accomplished and acclaimed anthologist, collects all Kipling's weird fiction for the first time; the stories range from traditional ghostly tales to psychological horror.