Rudyard Kipling, Plain Tales from the Hills

Douglas Kerr (University of Hong Kong)

Ed. by John Thieme, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1888

Places

India (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

Plain Tales from the Hills, one of the most extraordinary collections of short fiction to appear in the nineteenth century, was published in Calcutta and London in January 1888. A second edition, with revisions, came out the next year, to be followed by a reissue in London and New York in 1890. By that time the Kipling boom was well and truly launched. Henry James and Andrew Lang were among the volume's many metropolitan admirers. Turning its pages, in the opinion of Oscar Wilde, “one feels as if one were seated under a palm-tree reading life by superb flashes of vulgarity”.

A series of thirty-nine short Anglo-Indian stories called “Plain Tales from the Hills” had begun to appear as “turnovers” in the Lahore …

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1204 words

Citation: Kerr, Douglas. "Plain Tales from the Hills". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2777, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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