“A hair-raising picture of the sadism of the English public school system” The boys are split into houses and there is also plenty of bullying of smaller boys (or fags as they are known). It is the usual battle between the boys (aged about fifteen to sixteen) and the masters with plenty of internecine rivalry. There is a good deal of slang in the stories and this can take a little getting used to. Public School stories were a popular genre in late Victorian times, stemming largely from Tom Brown’s Schooldays. It was a school designed for those intended for the army and was often a stepping stone to Sandhurst. It’s actually based on the school that Kipling attended, the United Services College in Devon. Stalky and Co is a collection of stories set in an English public school in the 1870s/80s revolving around three boys Stalky, Beetle (Kipling himself) and M’Turk.

There is a hoary old joke which goes: Question: Do you like Kipling. “An Unpleasant book about unpleasant boys at an unpleasant school” (Cambridge History of English Literature 1942). Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers.' Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, 'I've just read that I am dead. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.Īwarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 'in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author.' Henry James said: 'Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known.' In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story his children's books are classics of children's literature and one critic described his work as exhibiting 'a versatile and luminous narrative gift'. His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If- (1910). Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.

Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling