Books that surpised you

[JoonT]

Have you ever read a classic that surprised you? I mean something that wasn't what you expected?

I have just finished Kipling's Kim and was astonished. For a start, it's far better than I expected. In fact, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a novel so much. The prose is wonderful, with gorgeous descriptions of food and landscapes and sunsets. Imagine if Dickens had written about India instead of Victorian England. Well, it's quite similar – filled with energy and joy and movement.

But I was also surprised by the tone. Kipling has been more or less 'cancelled' by the woke mob. I can't see why. Maybe his other books are different, but Kim reads like a love letter to India. The Indian people are depicted with immense love and respect. The Tibetan Buddhist, for example, is gentle and wise (at one point, Kipling places him alongside an English vicar, who is portrayed as rude, oafish and small-minded in comparison). He also celebrates multiculturalism and tolerance between people of different faiths. I bet that the woke bullies who want him banned haven't actually read him at all.

Pride and Prejudice is another book that surpised me. I'd expected something rather stiff and dull – tedious descriptions of petty social customs, that sort of thing. But it's so fresh and vivid. God, Lizzie could be living next door. By the end, I felt like I knew her. It's also a genuinely moving (and believable) love story. I can see why both Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky admired Austen.

Kipling has been more or less 'cancelled' by the woke mob. I can't see why…He also celebrates multiculturalism and tolerance between people of different faiths. I bet that the woke bullies who want him banned haven't actually read him at all.

THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN - RUDYARD KIPLING

Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half child.
Take up the White Man's burden—
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hope to naught.
Take up the White Man's burden—
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper—
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go make them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden—
And reap his old reward;
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard—
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:—
"Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden—
Ye dare not stoop to less—
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,

The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden—
Have done with childish days—
The lightly proffered laurel
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

He was an excellent short story writer too. 'Mary Postgate' is my favourite. It was turned into a play for the Edinburgh Festival and brought the house down. I won't say what happened in case someone wants to read it, but one of Kipling's strengths was to be able to feel empathy and compassion for all parties in his work, as in 'Gunga Din'. The rough voices of the soldiers are there, so is admiration for Din's faithfulness and courage

Then there is Sean Connery and Michael Caine in 'The Man Who Would Be King'. Caine and Connery have starred in many fine films but this has to be a best of for both actors.But of course they had Kipling's finely drawn characters and a fascinating story to work with.

And last but not least there is'...If'.

If --
By Rudyard Kipling

you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

There should be an 'If' at the beginning of the first lime.