Kipling Popular Books
Kipling Biography & Facts
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( RUD-yərd; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the Jungle Book duology (The Jungle Book, 1894; The Second Jungle Book, 1895), Kim (1901), the Just So Stories (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers. 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, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood, but declined both. Following his death in 1936, his ashes were interred at Poets' Corner, part of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed with the political and social climate of the age. The contrasting views of him continued for much of the 20th century. Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "[Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with." Childhood (1865–1882) Rudyard Kipling was born on 30 December 1865 in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, to Alice Kipling (born MacDonald) and John Lockwood Kipling. Alice (one of the four noted MacDonald sisters) was a vivacious woman, of whom Lord Dufferin would say, "Dullness and Mrs Kipling cannot exist in the same room." John Lockwood Kipling, a sculptor and pottery designer, was the Principal and Professor of Architectural Sculpture at the newly founded Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art in Bombay. John Lockwood and Alice met in 1863 and courted at Rudyard Lake in Rudyard, Staffordshire, England. They married and moved to India in 1865 after John Lockwood had accepted the position as Professor at the School of Art. They had been so moved by the beauty of the Rudyard Lake area that they named their first child after it, Joseph Rudyard. Two of Alice's sisters were married to artists: Georgiana to the painter Edward Burne-Jones, and her sister Agnes to Edward Poynter. A third sister, Louisa, was the mother of Kipling's most prominent relative, his first cousin Stanley Baldwin, who was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times in the 1920s and 1930s. Kipling's birth home on the campus of the J. J. School of Art in Bombay was for many years used as the dean's residence. Although a cottage bears a plaque noting it as his birth site, the original one may have been torn down and replaced decades ago. Some historians and conservationists take the view that the bungalow marks a site merely close to the home of Kipling's birth, as it was built in 1882 – about 15 years after Kipling was born. Kipling seems to have said as much to the dean when visiting J. J. School in the 1930s. Kipling wrote of Bombay: According to Bernice M. Murphy, "Kipling's parents considered themselves 'Anglo-Indians' [a term used in the 19th century for people of British origin living in India] and so too would their son, though he spent the bulk of his life elsewhere. Complex issues of identity and national allegiance would become prominent in his fiction." Kipling referred to such conflicts. For example: "In the afternoon heats before we took our sleep, she (the Portuguese ayah, or nanny) or Meeta (the Hindu bearer, or male attendant) would tell us stories and Indian nursery songs all unforgotten, and we were sent into the dining-room after we had been dressed, with the caution 'Speak English now to Papa and Mamma.' So one spoke 'English', haltingly translated out of the vernacular idiom that one thought and dreamed in." Education in Britain Kipling's days of "strong light and darkness" in Bombay ended when he was five. As was the custom in British India, he and his three-year-old sister Alice ("Trix") were taken to the United Kingdom – in their case to Southsea, Portsmouth – to live with a couple who boarded children of British nationals living abroad. For the next six years (from October 1871 to April 1877), the children lived with the couple – Captain Pryse Agar Holloway, once an officer in the merchant navy, and Sarah Holloway – at their house, Lorne Lodge, 4 Campbell Road, Southsea. Kipling referred to the place as "the House of Desolation". In his autobiography published 65 years later, Kipling recalled the stay with horror, and wondered if the combination of cruelty and neglect that he experienced there at the hands of Mrs Holloway might not have hastened the onset of his literary life: "If you cross-examine a child of seven or eight on his day's doings (specially when he wants to go to sleep) he will contradict himself very satisfactorily. If each contradiction be set down as a lie and retailed at breakfast, life is not easy. I have known a certain amount of bullying, but this was calculated torture – religious as well as scientific. Yet it made me give attention to the lies I soon found it necessary to tell: and this, I presume, is the foundation of literary effort." Trix fared better at Lorne Lodge; Mrs Holloway apparently hoped that Trix would eventually marry the Holloways' son. The two Kipling children, however, had no relatives in England they could visit, except that they spent a month each Christmas with a maternal aunt Georgiana ("Georgy") and her husband, Edward Burne-Jones, at their house, The Grange, in Fulham, London, which Kipling called "a paradise which I verily believe saved me". In the spring of 1877, Alice returned from India and removed the children from Lorne Lodge. Kipling remembers "Often and often afterwards, the beloved Aunt would ask me why I had never told any one how I was being treated. Children tell little more than animals, for what comes to them they accept as eternally established. Also, badly-treated children have a clear notion of what they are likely to get if they betray the secrets of a prison-house before they are clear of it." Alice took the children during spring 1877 to Goldings Farm at Loughton, where a carefree summer and autumn was spent on the farm and adjoining Fore.... Discover the Kipling popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Kipling books.
Best Seller Kipling Books of 2024
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Echo Burning
Lee ChildJack Reacher finds trouble in Texas in the fifth novel in Lee Child’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.DON'T MISS REACHER ON PRIME VIDEO! Thumbing across the scorched Texas des...
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Depraved Heart
Patricia CornwellIn Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell has a character as strong as any in popular fiction" Wall Street JournalNew York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the newest...
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Killing Floor
Lee ChildTHE FIRST NOVEL IN LEE CHILD'S #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING JACK REACHER SERIESNOW AN ORIGINAL SERIES ON PRIME VIDEO!“From its jolting opening scene to its fiery final confrontati...
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The Witnesses
James Patterson & Brendan DuBoisThis family has a very dark secretbut even with a retired NYPD cop next door, they can't hide from danger forever . . . The Sanderson family has been forced into hiding after one o...
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The Good Daughter
Karin Slaughter“The Good Daughter is like Law and Order meets The Good Wife.” theSkimmThe stunning new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pieces of Her...
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Killing the SS
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardThe Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller (October 2018)Confronting Nazi evil is the subject of the next installment in the megabestselling Killing seriesAs the true horrors of the ...
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The Killing Game
Toni AndersonRead this thrilling story about a wildlife biologist who will do anything to save endangered snow leopards…even faceoff with an elite Special Forces soldier who is tracking the wor...
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Killing the Killers
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardInstant #1 New York Times bestseller!In the eleventh book in the multimillionselling Killing series, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard reveal the startling, dramatic story of the glo...
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Killing Patton
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardReaders around the world have thrilled to Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and Killing Jesusriveting works of nonfiction that journey into the heart of the most famous murders in ...
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American Sniper
Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen & Jim DeFeliceNOW A BLOCKBUSTER MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOODNOMINATED FOR SIX ACADEMY AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST PICTUREThis special enhanced edition features more than 10 exclusive vid...
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Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II
Rudyard KiplingThe deep and widespread interest which the writings of Mr. Rudyard Kipling have excited has naturally led to curiosity concerning their author and to a desire to know the condition...
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A Killing Tide
P. J. AldermanNew York Times and USA Today Bestselling NovelWhere there's smoke... Kaz Jorgensen is used to fearthe anxiety of negotiating treacherous currents as she captains her family's fishi...
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The Kind Worth Killing
Peter SwansonA devious tale of psychological suspense perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Trainand is soon to be a major movie directed by Agnieszka Holland.In a tantalizing setu...
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The Kept Woman
Karin SlaughterWATCH WILL TRENT ON ABC! “Part True Detective, part The Girl on the Train. All parts gripping.” theSkimm The New York Times bestselling author of Pieces of Her returns with an elec...
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Killing the Witches
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardThe Instant New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller!Killing the Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American h...
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Silken Prey
John SandfordMurder. Scandal. Politics. And one billionaire heiress so dangerous in so many ways. An explosive Lucas Davenport thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford. ...
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Killing Kennedy
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardA riveting historical narrative of the shocking events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the followup to megabestselling author Bill O'Reilly's Killing LincolnM...
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Two for the Dough
Janet EvanovichIt's Stephanie Plum, New Jersey's "fugitive apprehension" agent (aka bounty hunter), introduced to the world by Janet Evanovich in the awardwinning novel One for the Money. Now St...
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Killing Crazy Horse
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardThe latest installment of the multimillionselling Killing series is a gripping journey through the American West and the historic clashes between Native Americans and settlers. The...
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No Ordinary Killing
Jeff DawsonThe Empire has a deadly secret... The Number One Historical Thrillers Bestseller1899, South Africa: As the Boer War rages, Captain Ingo Finch of the Royal Army Medical Corps...
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Killing Streak
Merit ClarkLost love, dangerous secrets . . . and murder.Killing Streak, the first installment in Merit Clark’s awardwinning Denverbased mysteries, takes homicide detective Jack Fariel on an ...
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Going Rogue
Janet EvanovichStephanie Plum breaks the rules, flirts with disaster, and shows who’s boss in this whipsmart and fastpaced thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling “crown princess of detective...
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The Works of Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard KiplingEnjoy this classic work today. These selected paragraphs distill the contents and give you a quick look inside:'They haven't got any grievancenothing to hit with, don't you see, si...
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Killing the Mob
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardInstant #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly bestseller!In the tenth book in the multimillionselling Killing series, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard take o...
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Killing Reagan
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardFrom the bestselling team of Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard comes Killing Reagan, a pageturning epic account of the career of President Ronald Reagan that tells the vivid story ...
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Killing Jesus
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardMillions of readers have thrilled to bestselling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, pageturning works of nonfiction that have ...
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Killing It In Paris
Susan Kiernan-LewisLife begins to settle down for Claire after her horrific first year in Paris. Her career as the exclusive private investigator for the Paris expat community continues to thrive whe...
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Anna O
Matthew Blake“A riveting, unsettling crime novel that will keep you turning pages well past your bedtime. Is Anna O a sleeping beauty or a sleeping killer? Matthew Blake's tensionfilled thrille...
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Batman The Killing Joke Deluxe
Alan Moore & Brian BollandOne of the most famous Batman stories of all time is offered for the first time in hardcover in this special twentiethanniversary edition. This is the unforgettable work that fore...
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Game On
Janet EvanovichStephanie Plum returns to hunt down a new kind of criminal operating out of Trenton in the twentyeighth book in the wildly popular series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ja...
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Dirty Thirty
Janet EvanovichINSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERJanet Evanovich, the “most popular mystery writer alive” (The New York Times), is in top form as she sends Stephanie Plum on the trail of a stol...
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On Killing
Dave GrossmanA controversial psychological examination of how soldiers’ willingness to kill has been encouraged and exploited to the detriment of contemporary civilian society. Psycholog...
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Killing Lincoln
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardA riveting historical narrative of the heartstopping events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the first work of history from megabestselling author Bill O'Reill...
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American Sniper
Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen & Jim DeFeliceThe #1 New York Times bestselling memoir of U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle, and the source for Clint Eastwood’s blockbuster, AcademyAward nominated movie. “An amazingly d...
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Mad River
John SandfordThey were average kids looking for something to do. Today they started killing people.A modernday Bonnie and Clyde are on the run through rural Minnesotavictim by victim they’...
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The Killing Hour
Lisa GardnerEach time he struck, he took two victims. Day after day, he waited for the first body to be discovereda body containing all the clues the investigators needed to find the seco...
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Killing England
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardThe Revolutionary War as never told before.This breathtaking installment in Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard’s megabestselling Killing series transports readers to the most importan...
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Kipling
Rudyard Kipling‘If–‘ is, by British readers’ choice, the most popular poem in the language. This selection of Rudyard Kipling’s verse contains not only this classic, but many of his greatest poem...
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Pieces of Her
Karin SlaughterNow on Netflix! Starring Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote!Mother. Hero. Liar. Killer. How can you tell when all you have is...PIECES OF HERWhat if the person you thought you knew ...
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The Killing Dance
Laurell K. HamiltonIn the sixth adventure in the #1 New York Times bestselling series, Anita Blake’s unique skills make her a wanted womanby vampire, by werewolf, and by a hit man... Though sh...
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Killing the Rising Sun
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardThe powerful and riveting new book in the multimillionselling Killing series by Bill O'Reilly and Martin DugardAutumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating ...
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1Q84
Haruki MurakamiNATIONAL BESTSELLER The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in ...