Jungle Book (Illustrated Edition)

Author: Rudyard Kipling
Publisher:
Publication Date: Not available
Features: The Jungle Book If you can understand how a healthy and active mind was once stirred by Tikki with such longing, hope, and ambition, you will surely believe in the true identity of the ape. For the sake of these passions alone, you can accept the fact that Tarzan's mother was a gentle English lady, and his father was an English nobleman of noble blood. Tarzan's true identity was John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, who still held a seat in the House of Lords. The Jungle Book and its sequel contain fifteen stories in total. In the Jungle Book we have compiled, eleven stories are included, seven of which are from The Jungle Book itself, and the next three are selected from The Second Jungle Book. The last story, In the Jungle, is from the short story collection Many Inventions. Among the fifteen stories included in The Jungle Book and its sequel, seven are unrelated animal stories, such as The White Seal and "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" belong to this category. The other eight are a series of animal stories centered around the young boy Mowgli. Mowgli is the son of an Indian woodcutter. When he was still an infant, he was chased by the tiger Shere Khan in the jungle, and his parents fled. He accidentally wandered into a wolf's den and was adopted by the mother wolf, becoming a member of the wolf pack. He grew up to be a brave and intelligent boy. His friends include the kind-hearted wolf mother, the loyal wolf brothers, the clever black panther Bagheera, the gentle old bear Baloo, the upright wolf leader Akela, the mighty python Kaa, and so on. They formed a warm community around Mowgli, teaching him the wisdom of life and the skills to survive, as well as the "Laws of the Jungle" that jungle animals must follow. The tiger Shere Khan still occasionally came to cause trouble. Mowgli possessed human wisdom and learned to use fire. He brought fire, which the animals called "red flower," from the nearby village to help Akela quell the wolf pack's rebellion. He burned the tiger who incited the rebellion to a crisp and fled in defeat. Later, Mowgli was adopted by a village woman who had lost her son and became a herdsboy for the cattle. However, the tiger Shere Khan followed him and sought to harm him. Mowgli and the wolf brothers devised a plan, using the cattle to set an ambush. Shere Khan fell into the trap of the cattle and was trampled to death by their hooves. But Mowgli was driven out of the village by the villagers for offending the local sorcerer and returned to the jungle. In this book, you can also read many of Mowgli's adventures. And the story In the Jungle tells the grand finale of Mowgli's story—he left the animal pack, returned to human society, got married, became a forest ranger, and helped the forest warden protect the forest. In terms of publication date, this story was published a year earlier than The Jungle Book. Kipling explained to his friend, "This story was the first one written about Mowgli, but it tells the later chapters of his life, probably two or three years after he parted ways with his jungle friends." This story is clearly inferior to the later magical Mowgli stories he wrote. Imagine a boy like Mowgli, who was divine enough to awe the fierce beasts of the jungle, being reduced to a minor clerk under the British civil service system and hoping to receive a pension in the future—it is quite "a letdown." However, we should remember that Kipling's inspiration and talent were just beginning to be awakened in this first story and were fully realized in the later ones. Since this story holds a unique place among the Mowgli stories, we have included it here as well.