Strange Tales

By Rudyard Kipling and David Stuart Davies

Some six or seven feet above the port bulwarks, framed in fog, and as utterly unsupported as the full moon, hung a Face. It was not human, and it certainly was not animal, for it did not belong to this earth as known to man' Rudyard Kipling, celebrated author of The Jungle Book, the Just So Stories and other entertaining fictions, was also a master of the short story in which he was able to combine the strange and unnerving in order to draw the reader into the world of his own dark imaginings. This collection presents the best of these strange tales in which ghosts, monsters and inexplicable happenings abound. From the exotic and magical locale of India, to the leafy suburbs of England and then to the blood-soaked trenches of the First World War, Kipling provides us with a chilling array of experiences and images which will linger long in the memory. Contents: Introduction The Mark of the Beast The Return of Imray The Phantom Rickshaw The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes 'They' In the Same Boat The Dog Hervey The House Surgeon The Wish House A Matter of Fact 'Swept and Garnished' Mary Postgate A Madonna of the Trenches 'At the End of the Passage' The Bisara of Pooree The Lost Legion The Dream of Duncan Parrenness The Tomb of His Ancestors By Word of Mouth My Own True Ghost Story

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1840225327
• ISBN13: 9781840225327
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.6" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Interesting Kipling sample

Rudyard Kipling is probably best remembered as a jingoist, British supremicist, and writer of some particularly bad poetry. Without apologizing, for the above criticisms are pretty much accurate, I suggest that readers also discover that Kipling had some level of affection and understanding for those diverse individuals (yes, "natives") who made up the British Empire and that Kipling's prose was good. This collection of supernatural fare includes a few of Kipling's better short stories (at his best, he was a master), as well as some of more mixed quality. The dash of reverence with which he regards Indian folklore provides an intriguing atmosphere for the stories and offers a measure of balance for the air of British superiority which unfortunately pervades all but the best of Kipling's writing.