The Best Short Stories

"The man who would be king" is Kipling's great story of two British ex-soldiers who concoct a nutty scheme to personally conquer an obscure Asiatic province, set themselves up as kings and rob the place blind. They decide to target tribal areas somewhere in Afghanistan...and we know what that means...Gardens of War. Our boys make it, and impressing the gullible and superstitious natives with their rifles and military knowhow, they manage to subjugate several tribal areas and consolidate them into one kingdom. Unfortunately, they didn't factor in religion and women. Well they did, in part. They had made an initial bargain...no women, not until they get back. Well, one of our boys gets a little too full of himself and thinks he can indulge himself with a woman. It is a terrible mistake. Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

"The Man Who Would Be King" has not unreasonably been used to title many a compendium of Kipling's short stories, since it not only ranks as one of his best, but is also so well known because of the John Huston movie marvellously interpreted by Michael Caine, Sean Connery and Christopher Plummer. The short novel first appeared in the "Phantom Rickshaw" in 1888 but was again collected in "Wee Willie Winkie and other stories" in 1895. Kipling for this work was inspired by the travels of Josiah Harlan, an American adventurer who claimed the title of Prince of Ghor in 1840 thanks to the military force he lead into Afghanistan (Read the instructive "The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan" by Ben McIntyre). The story is built with a technique often utilized by Kipling of the picture and frame and is in itself a parable with many possible interpretations, as parables often are. A journalist of a local Indian paper meats a loafer on a train. The man, an ex-military asks him to contact a friend of his in a later date to tell him that he can't meet him presently. After a short time the two friends visit the journalist and tell him they intend to conquer an empire for themselves. Again after two years only one gets back and narrates the adventures the two have been through, that have ended with the death of one of them. The frame of the story is Kipling's present day India with an established administrative empire and the journalist is evidently Kipling, the picture is Dravot and Carnehan's adventure in Kafiristan, the remote Afghan province they conquer for a brief period. The picture represents the early ages of the making of the British Empire that had relied on adventurers, dreamers and military men possessing superior technologies (arms) compared to the natives. The most evident moral of the parable is that once the English neglect their moral duty towards the native populations there is no sense in the permanence of the Empire and it is destined to fail, but many others can be hypothesized. Many critics have identified this story as a form of disillusionment of Kipling with the society he was living in at that time, while instead in his later life he was known to sustain British Imperialism. One aspect that often goes unnoticed in this short story is the importance Kipling (a mason himself) gives to the underground tentacles of the secret Masonic network that consented the British influence in India and in European politics. If you happen to watch the John Huston film this is made very clear. The novella is full of allusions, recalls, citations of different realities and it would take to long to analyse it in depth even though this effort will surely reward the reader. The "Man Who Would Be King" remains one of the milestones of the collective imaginary of our modern world where colonisation is far from forgotten.

If you have the gift of being able to engulf yourself in a story then you are in for an adventure. In this beautiful work by Kipling you are a soldier of fortune headed back into territory with your brother in arms where you both fought bravely for Queen and country. But now its just the two of you with a different victory in mind. This book will put you in the heart of the battle with the characters so that you can go through the trials and experience the victory.

This tale comes with my highest recommendations. Kipling weaves a tale of grand adventure between two friends of the Masonic order who journey across India to become Kings in a little known corner of the world. They follow in Alexander The Great's footsteps and realize he was a Freemason, just like them. Both of the protagonists face many trials and reveal an unbreakable friendship between the two.

This is one of those stories that one must read to lead a full life. It is one of the most poignant and sorrowful stories about friendship ever written, and the words flow like poetry. This short story is emotionally draining because it is such a tragic tale. I highly recommend it.