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RUDYARD KIPLING

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Rudyard Kipling Hell and Heroism William B. Dillingham

ISBN 978-1-349-99960-6 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4039-7868-4 ISBN 978-1-4039-7868-4 (ebook) RUDYARD KIPLING William B. Dillingham, 2005. Reprint of the original edition 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-4039-6997-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dillingham, William B. Rudyard Kipling : hell and heroism / William B. Dillingham. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4039-6997-2 (alk. paper) 1. Kipling, Rudyard, 1865 1936 Criticism and interpretation. 2. Pessimism in literature. 3. Courage in literature. I. Title. PR4857.D55 2005 828.809 dc22 2004063843 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: October 2005 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Lorne Lodge (April 3, 2003) Old beyond reason and not to be awakened by the call of reason, She sits sleeping in the big worn chair, covered to her very chin. Freed she is, freed at long last from this place, this house of treason Over which hovers the spirit of abandon like a menacing djinn. She s to be 106 in September, this September, Norma explains, And most of the time she s like this sleeping, sleeping. An ancient virgin who unknowing took upon herself the pains That once had been visited upon a little boy imprisoned in this house weeping, weeping. But it cannot touch either of them now, this feng shui of desolation, Which had so infected and transformed an early resident (a disciple of Truth) That she became vampire-like its trusted helper in desecration, Quoting the Book of Common Prayer but biting deep into the joy of youth. Sleep, assuring blessed immunity, protects her now she of the big chair But the boy, overlooked by angels, was buoyed up beyond despair by a Daemon from imagination s lair.

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Contents Preface and Acknowledgments ix Part I Hell 1 1. Within the City of Dreadful Night 3 2. The City of Dreadful Night Within 45 3. The Immortal Woe of Life: Bereavement 101 Part II Heroism 159 4. Children of the Zodiac: The Jungle Book and 161 Captains Courageous 5. Children of the Zodiac: Stalky & Co. and Kim 205 6. This Secret Society Business 257 Notes 309 Index 363

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Preface and Acknowledgments O n April 18, 1934, the French novelist and biographer André Maurois spoke before a large gathering of the Kipling Society. He began by admitting that he could bring no new facts about Kipling s life to the group but indicated that he wished to try to explain why this particular British author had such a wide appeal to people in other countries, notably his own. In essence his theory was that readers in all nations find in his books an heroic idea of life. 1 No doubt Maurois was aware that hundreds of writers, many of them second-rate, have presented (sometimes preached) an heroic idea of life in their works with varying degrees of fervor and effectiveness. So the next year when he followed up his lecture at the Kipling Society with an essay in his volume Prophets and Poets, he made a conscious effort to make Kipling stand out from these other admirers of heroism: A heroic conception of life this was our first discovery in Rudyard Kipling. But a heroic pessimism, if had been exhibited in an abstract philosophical form, would never have touched men in their hearts. The real secret of Kipling s hold is an instinctive and enduring contact with the oldest and deepest layers of the human consciousness. 2 The three points that Maurois made in this brief statement that the bedrock subject of Kipling s work is not his politics and prejudices but the heroic life, that pessimism is a fundamental aspect of his vision, and that this vision emerges not from some superficial and corny masculine mystique but from his being blessed (and, one might add, cursed) with an extraordinary access to certain powerful but semi-hidden forces in the human spirit these observations, made almost in passing, are actually among the most important ever made about Rudyard Kipling and his work. While Maurois s ability to strike deep into the heart of the matter has been widely appreciated, these particular remarks about the poet of the British Empire have not proved to be until now the starting point of an extended study of Kipling s pessimism, its nature and its place in his life and works, and his concept of the heroic life, from which emerged a complex and carefully crafted creed that was essentially his response to the truth, as he saw it, that life is one of the hells. 3

x PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To write such a book exploring Kipling s pessimism and its relationship to his creed of heroism has been my aim, but of equal importance and motivation has been my wish to reexamine a number of his major writings within the context of his vital concerns with life as hell and with what one can do about it in terms of personal attitude and conduct. These works, I believe, deserve a fresh and close look, for in Kipling criticism as, indeed, in that of a good many major writers a tendency has manifested itself over the years to accept without question readings of long standing as if longevity of interpretation necessarily makes for the most accurate and convincing insight. My own way of looking at these works will not, of course, find acceptance with all readers, some of whom will no doubt feel that I have listened too much to what I thought was a Daemon but was in actuality a demon. Whether Daemon or demon, it has served me well if it brings about a rethinking of some of Kipling s writings on the part of his readers even if that thinking does not turn out to parallel my own. During the seven years hard that I engaged in the reading, thinking, rereading, research, writing, and rewriting of this book, much help has come my way without which difficulty would have turned into impossibility. To Joan Gotwals, former Director of Libraries, Emory University, and to the present Director, Linda Matthews, and to their splendid staff, certainly the friendliest, best prepared, and most eager to lend assistance in America to these splendid people who have not only furnished me with a velvet cave, a hermitage to appeal to any scholarly recluse but also with a model to follow of professional courtesy, I simply owe too much to express adequately. A number of other libraries, such as the Marlboro College Library and the Syracuse University Library allowed me access to their Kipling collections upon my visits or when I could not come in person, honored my requests for materials with dispatch and efficiency. I am especially in the debt of the members of the Special Collections Department of the University of Sussex, who welcomed me there to work in their vast holdings of Kipling material and who helped to make my visit there profitable and pleasant. Numerous members of the Kipling Society, including Lisa Lewis and Roger Ayers, have generously and unfailingly offered support, information, and inspiration. Thomas Pinney, whose commanding achievement in the field of Kipling studies serves as the standard of good judgment and sound scholarship for all who would follow him, has shown me what it means to be genuinely interested not only in the author that one has devoted much of his career to but also in those laboring in the same field. For his kindness and encouragement I shall always be grateful. In the final stages of the project a Heilbrun Fellowship from Emory University made it possible for me to tie up some loose ends of research abroad and to complete the manuscript. For permission to

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi include in this book versions of articles previously published I wish to thank the following journals: The Kipling Journal ( That Shocking Young Kipling, Kipling s Children of Death, and Grief, Anger, and Identity: Kipling s Mary Postgate ); Essays in Arts and Sciences ( Young Kipling: Early Loss and Without Benefit of Clergy ); English Literature in Transition 1880 1920 ( Kipling: Spiritualism, Bereavement, Self-Revelation, and They ); Papers on Language and Literature ( Sorrow and the Redemptive Role of Fate: Kipling s On Greenhow Hill ); and English Language Notes ( Rudyard Kipling and Bereavement: The Gardener ). Herman Melville, when advanced in years and having become recently an avid grower of roses, said through one of his characters, I came to my roses late. By that he meant a good deal more than he actually said, for example that interest in roses had reinvigorated him. I came to Kipling late, but he has made me, like countless others, feel young again. To his memory I dedicate this book about him.