Kim (100th Anniversary Edition): Illustrated First Edition

This edition has the wonderful illustrations by Rudyard Kipling's father, John Lockwood Kipling, who was the Director of the Mayo School of Art in Lahore and curator of the Lahore Museum.An amazing tour through a time and place long ago and far away . . .

Kim is a riveting novel of adventure with a wonderful spiritual dimension woven throughout. It also makes a good introduction to India under the British Raj--an India that had not changed all that much by 1963, when I spent nine months in a town in Rajasthan. That was a key formative experience in my life, and Kipling's novel brought so many memories flooding back!Read the first couple of pages if this novel and you will find it difficult to put it down before finding yourself in joyful tears at its poignant end.

Wonderful magical story. Love them all, Kim, Teshoo Lama, Mahbub Ali, the Babu, the sahiba, all the characters so real. Read and re-read, always immensely enjoy the immersion into their world.

Currently in chapter 3 of Kim learning about a boy and his friend Lana.

Fantastic read. You won't want to put it down!

I read this book as it is one of Kipling’s more notable works; being listed among the top 100 best English novels of the 20th century. It has a publication date of around 1901. That said, this is not an easy read and the narrative moves at a painfully slow pace. One of the highlights of the book, its descriptive language, is also one of its main drawbacks.In a nutshell, Kim is the story of an orphan boy who is befriended by an old Tibetan lama. They travel around India where Kim later meets a British priest who knew his father. He subsequently goes to a British school and later gets involved with British intelligence in their work against the Russians.The book is noted for its colorful descriptions. The reader will certainly get a good feel for life in 19th century India. Unfortunately, Kipling spends so much time describing a situation that it’s easy to forget what is happening. Thus, the chapters end up being long and tedious.If you want to read something by Kipling or get a feel for 19th century India, this is a great book. Just be aware that Kipling’s writing style, along with the use of many colloquial words, makes this a slow and difficult novel to follow.

This hardcover book has a soft-touch cover. I selected this book because I liked the classic look of the cover art and I hoped the 100th Anniversary Edition would be a well made book. It's not. It's a paperback glued into a low quality hardcover. The boards are warped. Narrow at the spine and flared out at the fore-edge. There are multiple bits of hardened glue on the edges of the covers. The dark front cover has a permanent fingerprint, various smudges and semi-glossy clear splashes of something. The illustrations are poor copies of the originals, with the Pathan and the Jat having horizontal line defects at the top and bottom portions of the illustrations. The text is very nice and easy to read. I bought the book because my previous copy finally came apart. This might make an okay reading copy if I can get past the soft-touch feel. A bit expensive for a reading copy, but I want to read it now.

I thought the episodic story of the 13 year old Irish kid and the old holy man on a quest would be ideal for me. Not. I persevered half way before throwing in the towel. I find [mostly] aimless dialog boring. Comparisons to *Huckleberry Finn* are ignorant.** not finish