“The Man Who Would Be King” is a fictional short story by Rudyard Kipling that was originally published in 1888. An English, unnamed narrator living in British India encounters two struggling Englishmen, Carnehan and Dravot, who plan to become kings of Kafiristan. In the story, Carnehan returns to see the narrator, but he has become a twisted shell of his former self in the two years they have been apart. Carnehan spends the body of the story telling the narrator of his and Dravot's manipulation of the natives, their rise to power, and their disastrous downfall. “The Man Who Would Be King” contains within its narrative themes of colonialism, collectivism, and the dangerous nature of ambition.
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The British poet and story writer Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was one of the first masters of the short story in English and the first to use Cockney dialect in serious poetry.
Rudyard Kipli...
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The years 1890-1932, during which Joseph Rudyard Kipling was having his books published in London and New York, coincided with the development of modernism and its establishment as the dominant lite...
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Rudyard Kipling is better known as a poet and short-story writer than as a novelist. He wrote only three novels and collaborated with Wolcott Balestier on another, highly forgettable one. The shorter...
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From the 1890s to the 1920s the most popular writer in the English-speaking world was Rudyard Kipling. He won at the outset of his career the favorable attention of writers and critics, and in 1907 he...
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It is easy to underestimate the variety, complexity, and subtlety of Rudyard Kipling 's writing. He became an extraordinarily popular writer in the 1890s with short stories and poems enlivened by str...
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Biography EssayThe years 1890-1932, during which Joseph Rudyard Kipling was having his books published in London and New York, coincided with the development of modernism and its establishment as the ...
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Rudyard Kipling is praised as a brilliant literary stylist whose rich, rhythmic prose and creative use of language have delighted generations of readers around the globe. He is best known to modern au...
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