Jottings from the Editors Desk
Our joint meeting with the Jane Austen Society went off extremely well on April 19th.
Professor Harry Ricketts, even though suffering from a heavy cold, gave a very interesting talk on both Jane Austen and Rudyard Kipling, after which he met us for individual
discussions and signed copies of his books, his biography of RK selling out first, ahead of One Lady of Warakei.
Over 200 people attended the meeting, organised by JASA, whom we must also thank for attending to the rent of the hall.
We should explore more joint meetings with other literary societies, maybe science fiction, or travel?
Conyan Doyle comes to mind, he was a friend, as was Rider Haggard, and Dickens had a strong Victorian background, there are more.
There are three letters to the editor in this issue, one of which I have grave doubts about its authenticity.
For the record we have two dachshunds at home, Kate and Jimmy, and no cat.
The children’s song has been chosen for this issue, familiar to many of us from our childhood days. I can remember it from services at school, and it emphasises Kipling’s feelings,
indeed sensitivities for children.
Two verses in particular “look for Thee to judge and not our friends” and “delight in simple things, and mirth that has no bitter springs” are particularly relevant today, and not only for
children.
The other reason of course is that “The children’s song” leads into the topic for our next meeting, ”O Beloved Kids”.
We are still looking for a keynote speaker for our meeting on August 23rd.
There have been suggestions that several members would be prepared to give a five or ten minute talk on some aspect of Kipling, Kipling and the Masonic movement, or John August
performing one of his poems come to mind. If you have ideas, suggestions, please let me know at the next meeting.
Sharon and I are going on holiday at the end of May, travelling through Scandinavia and Russia, and, by complete coincidence, Ian Claridge and his wife are also going to Moscow and
also a trip on the Orient Express, shades of Agatha Christie!
Russia has had a greatly increased interest in Kipling in the past couple of years, helped by the lapsing of copyright. And I am indebted to Professor Davidson of Moscow State
University for details. Professor Davidson is working on a biography of Kipling with particular emphasis on Kipling’s influence in Russia.
He states that a bibliography of Russian translations of Kipling’s writings, and of Russian studies of Kipling would require a book!
The first Russian translation appearing in the 1890’s. Kipling was virtually banned 1946 to 1953, but it was not until perestroika and the collapse of the USSR that interest, and translations of Kipling boomed, with an avalanche of new writings and translations. Kipling is not the easiest author to translate, and as for the Russian language, I remember trying to learn Russian at Sandhurst in the early fifties!
It is interesting that Kiplings popularity seems to be growing at a faster pace in France, Russia, United States and even Australia, than it is in the UK. What is the saying about a prophet is not without honour, save.
On housekeeping, the tea charge will change to $4 to bring us into line with other literary societies, and I would appreciate volunteers to man the kitchen, even if you put your name down for only the occasional meeting it would be appreciated.
Nearly halfway through the year and we must decide on our annual luncheon, or dinner. Please have your say at the June meeting. See you there.
- D.W.
Dear Sir,
I would like to lay the serious charge of discrimination against Rudyard Kipling in his treatment of Cats. It is common knowledge that Kipling had a Cat as a companion in his early years, before favouring dogs. He wrote short stories featuring dogs, ’the Woman in his Life’; ‘The dog Hervey”; “Garm a Hostage”; “Teem, a treasure hunter”; and some of his many poems ”Four Feet”; The Power of the dog”; “Supplication of the Black Aberdeen”; and “Dinah in Heaven”; The best, from my point of view were where the dog died, though I find the idea of a dog going to heaven ludicrous to say the least. In the Power of the dog at least he warns against getting fond of them, which shows a modicum of common sense.
“The Cat that walked by itself ” A Kipling classic, was undoubtedly biased, indeed verging on unlawful, appearing to give approval to dogs, small boys and men to chase, throw things and otherwise harass cats, but at the very least it shows us as moral, upstanding free people ( four legged of course) and not subservient slaves like canines.
Yours faithfully,
F.CATTUS |
Rudyard Kipling and Browns Hotel, London.
I’ve been busy planning a trip to London and needed to book a place to stay. I’ve always wanted to go and stay at Brown’s Hotel in Albemarle Street, so decided to look it up on the web and investigate.
The hotel has fascinating Kipling associations. He and Carrie’s had their wedding breakfast there in 1892 and after that he often stayed there when he was in London. Part of the suite he regularly used to occupy is now offered to guests as “The KiplingSuite” and in 2005 these rooms had a 19 million pounds refurbishment. Kipling completed ‘The Jungle Book’ while staying at Brown’s It was also at Brown’s that Rudyard Kipling suffered his fatal brain haemorrhage, he was rushed from there to the Middlesex hospital and died soon after.
The hotel was opened in 1837 by a former valet of Lord Byron and has many wonderful literary associations. A.A.Milneheld annual parties there, Agatha Christie used it as a London base and turned it into Bertram’s Hotel in her book ‘At Bertram’s Hotel’ and Miss Marple goes to stay there. Mark Twain and Edith Wharton were also guests and Stephen King was rather disconcerted one night to find the desk he had been writing at was the one at which Kipling collapsed.
However, I’m sad to have to announce that I will not be staying at Brown’s on my visit to London. Room rates start at 650 pounds per night, while a night in the Kipling Suite would set me back 2700 pounds per night. Much as I love Kipling I cannot manage that for a night in his bedroom.
Susannah Fullerton |
Prequels and Sequels by Hrystina Faulk
It is a truth universally acknowledged that classic literature - novels that have withstood the test of time - inevitably attract a prequel, a sequel, and sometimes both.
I blame Jean Rhys for this.
Rhys, born in Antigua in the then-British West Indies, wrote The Wide Sargossa Sea, a much-loved novel in its own right, but also a prequel to Jane Eyre, a tale of the unlucky young West Indian heiress who marries the on-the-make Englishman Mr Rochester.
Bertha Rochester, in Jane Eyre, is the madwoman in the attic who burns Jane’s wedding finery and ends up incinerating the great house in which she has been incarcerated, byt Rhys’ portrayl of Antoinette, her real name, is much kinder.
Romance novels are usually the subjects of the prequel-sequel syndrome (’Gone With the Wind’ produced prequel/sequels dealing with Rhett Butler’s life before Scarlett and the rebuilding of Tara), but adventure novels are also liable to the treatment.
Fans of Fraser’s Flashman series know that Flashman, the reprobate bully of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, grew up, joined the army and shipped out to India, where he acquitted himself well, as you would expect Flashman to do.
But it is Jane Austen’s novels that have attracted the greatest numbers of prequels and sequels. Over 30 sequels have been written to follow on from Pride and Predjudice including Darcy and Elizabeth; Darcy’s Diary; Darcy’s Pemberley; Desire and Duty and Duty and Desire (by different authors!); Lady Catherine’s necklace; and Deborah (an interesting one, this, which feminists will like, about the transformation of Darcy’s over-protected sister into a strong and capable young woman).
Ever since reading P&P as a teenager, I’ve sympathised with the character of Lydia Bennet, giddy, certainly, thoughtless, guilty as charged.
But Lydia was fifteen, the youngest of the Bennet sisters, and despite Austen’s disapproval, Lydia Bennet exhibits many of what we now think of as modern characteristics, ie. Lydia married recklessly, true, but for love, not a ‘suitable’ marriage. In love with Wickham, she tossed aside convection to run away with him, despite the fact that Wickham had only his Army pay and career. (Lydia I envisage as pretty, bounding with energy - Jane Austen tells us she is the tallest of her sisters - unhampered by social mores that held back her sisters. Exactly the kind of heroine to star in an adventure romance!)
My challenge to Kipling readers is to think up sequels or prequels to your favourite characters. What did Daniel Dravot do before he was The Man Who Would Be King? Did poor little Punch of Baa Baa Black Sheep go back to India and become a journalist on the Times of India? And what became of Mowgli and the Seownee wolf pack?
Happy sequels!
Krystina Faulk is writing a sequel to Pride and Predjudice, the adventures of Lydia and George Wickham in India called The Golden Rani.
A Kipling Quiz - Crossword Answers
(See the downloadable PDF for this months Crossword quiz answers- Download Issue 06)
A Kipling Poem
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The Children's Song
LAND of our Birth, we pledge to thee
Our love and toil in the years to be;
When we are grown and take our place
As men and women with our race.
Father in Heaven who lovest all,
Oh, help Thy children when they call;
That they may build from age to age
An undefiled heritage.
Teach us to bear the yoke in youth,
With steadfastness and careful truth;
That, in our time, Thy Grace may give
The Truth whereby the Nations live.
Teach us to rule ourselves alway,
Controlled and cleanly night and day;
That we may bring, if need arise,
No maimed or worthless sacrifice.
Teach us to look in all our ends
On Thee for judge, and not our friends;
That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed
By fear or favour of the crowd.
Teach us the Strength that cannot seek,
By deed or thought, to hurt the weak;
That, under Thee, we may possess
Man's strength to comfort man's distress.
Teach us Delight in simple things,
And Mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And Love to all men 'neath the sun!
Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride,
For whose dear sake our fathers died;
Oh, Motherland, we pledge to thee
Head, heart and hand through the years to be!
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