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Swing Thoughts and Roundabouts's avatar

Very good and worth doing. Recently reread "The White Man's Burden" and Mark Twain's disappointing misreading. Kipling's critics so often proceed directly to the imperialist who lives inside their head. Genius above the age, indeed.

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John Byron Kuhner's avatar

You started in the best place. I think "Plain Tales From the Hills" is one of the greatest short story collections ever written. Reading it, I thought for sure he was an old master, so subtle and understated was the craft - but he had written them between the ages of 21 and 23! The critics you mention are carping at the edge of what was his great fame - Nobel Prize, Poet Laureate, etc. - and are not entirely indicative. Still I think they were reacting more to his later work, not PTFTH and The Jungle Books.

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