Kim
by Rudyard Kipling · first published 1901
53% recommend47% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Vivid portrait of India and a spy-adventure plot set during the Great Game; readers value its cultural richness, historical flavor of 19th-century espionage, and its soothing, uplifting effect on rereading.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Kim is Rudyard Kipling's story of an orphan born in colonial India and torn between love for his native India and the demands of Imperial loyalty to his Irish-English heritage and to the British Secret Service. Long recognized as Kipling's finest work, Kim was a key factor in his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.
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…all the 'Sam will kill him if he tries anything' jokes). Tolkien uses this elsewhere; Saruman/Wormtongue is a perverted example. (There is, BTW, another excellent example of this done right in Kipling's Kim, which you should totally read.) None of this, BTW, is any reason why it's bad, because not, it's a great book; and the fact that a 60-year old book holds up so well today is a tribute to just how good…
on “The Fantastic World of Professor Tolkien (1956)” ↗Kim by Rudyard Kipling. Despite Kipling's jingoism in other works, Kim spoke to me in school. It opened me to a world of adventure and fearlessness that I didn't know was possible. I really haven't been…
on “Ask HN: What's one book that changed your life?” ↗I can highly recommend Alexander Burnes' non-fiction Travels into Bokhara and Rudyard Kipling's fictional Kim, which in fact coined the term "The Great Game".
on “When You’re Outnumbered: Lessons from Two British Masters of Irregular Warfare” ↗I reread "Kim" by Rudyard Kipling whenever I feel I'm in a rut. It's pleasantly soporific during reading, but kicks me back out of the rut at the end. No idea why.
on “Ask HN: What are some good inspirational and uplifting books?” ↗…we think we know about his operations is dot connecting. This is true of most historical accounts of spying. A good fictional account of true to life spy craft in the 19th century is Rudyard Kipling's Kim. Some of the characters are based on historical persons in the business. The OG does well to point out the misconception this is somehow a modern invention. It's interesting to read well-researched accounts…
on “Venice's Secret Service” ↗…miss, and sometimes out of step with modern mores. Maybe stick with the Jungle Book, and Just So Stories, and if you like those make sure you read Without Benefit of Clergy, They (short stories), and Kim (a masterpiece of a novel). Once you've got through those, Hemingway is approachable, and the true modernist master. Fiesta / The Sun Also Rises (same book, known by different names in different parts…
on “Maybe the Default Settings Are Too High” ↗…zen stories that drive home a point per story. Suggest thinking about one of the stories for a whole day each and every day. Helped me relax and be okay with who I am and what I am accomplishing. "Kim" (Rudyard Kipling) Great introduction into indian culture as well as the to relations between Britain and Russia during the end of the 19th century. What really stood out to me was the spiritual search…
on “Books That Changed My Life” ↗…insight into some of the influences on the origins of American democracy. One to read before you start the de Tocqueville. https://archive.org/details/historybuccanee02perkgoog/page/n... Rudyard Kipling - Kim A spy thriller set during the great game between Russia and the Indian Raj. Most anything by Kipling is a rollicking good read. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2226 The travel writings of Isabella…
on “Ask HN: Good books written before ~1900?” ↗Not everyone evaluates books from the point of view of politics. Kim was a great novel that basically earned Kipling the Nobel prize at a crazy young age, and it reads like a love letter to India (until the end, when it becomes a dumb spy novel). Was Kipling jingoistic?…
A real gem is the Adrian Praetzellis reading of Kim by Rudyard Kipling: https://librivox.org/kim-by-rudyard-kipling/
on “LibriVox” ↗Centuries ago you could get executed for possessing the wrong map. Maps were considered military intelligence assets, a threat to national security in the wrong hands. Kipling's novel Kim is based on the true history of how the British incrementally mapped the territory of India and neighboring regions.
on “Archive of old military maps published” ↗Historically maps have been closely guarded military secrets. As late as the Renaissance possession of the wrong map could get you executed by European powers, even in peacetime. Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim is largely based on the true story of British surveying and map making in India and central Asia.
on “All Maps in China are Transformed” ↗…posted. A name and phone number could well be a coded signal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_of_the_Galaxy (Heinlein almost certainly took the concept from elsewhere, CotG is based on Kipling's Kim, also about tradecraft. Just reflecting my first association.)
on “Snowden tweets 156 characters, which is deleted; speculation re assassination” ↗I've read more than half of those, and every time I see that list, I really wish that almost every book would be paired w/ one which enhances/comments on either the book or that same theme. e.g., _Kim_ by Rudyard Kipling should be paired w/ Robert Heinlein's _Citizen of the Galaxy_, or _The Grapes of Wrath_, which was cribbed from Sanora Babb's notes w/o permission should be paired w/ her _Whose Names…
on “How to live an intellectually rich life” ↗…Bringing in Kipling into this discussion is hugely ironic considering how much of a royal prick he was in his attitude towards Indians ( Kipling's transparently racist portrayals of Indian characters in Kim and Gunga Din, among others ) The Times article is about genuine medical risks posed by spinal twists and headstands, which are, unfortunately becoming more and more commonplace as sedentary officegoers…
on “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body” ↗