Stalky & Co.
by Kipling, Rudyard
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- VG in Wraps
- Seller
-
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Toronto : George N Morang , 1899 . First Edition . VG in Wraps . 8VO . The fragile and rather scarce first Canadian edition in the softcover edition. Eight black and white plates. Spine sunned, wear to spine, rear lower corner exposed to damp causing discolouration of the last few pages.
Reviews
On Aug 3 2011, Feeney said:
Rudyard Kipling was no Franz Kafka. By contrast with the Prague writer, Kipling's narrative genius did not consist in making up characters whole cloth from a vivid imagination. Kipling's men and boys in KIM, THE JUNGLE BOOKS, MULVANEY STORIES and other narratives were based on living three-dimensional people whom he had met, interacted with or whose real-life stories others had told him. Academic and literary careers have been built on tracing Kipling's "originals." One way to look at Kipling's fiction: there is always a lot more Rudyard in it than you might suspect. *** STALKY & CO (1899) is a hugely successful fictional re-creation of Rudyard Kipling's half dozen years as a boarder at the United Services College on the seacoast of North Devon at Westward Ho! In the novel, Kipling is "Beetle," a disheveled, near-sighted poet, editor of the school newspaper, one of three inseparables which includes Irish aristocrat M'Turk and team leader Stalky. The 1899 edition has nine chapters. Down the years Kipling would write more of their adventures. We focus on Stalky, M'Turk and Beetle in their last two years of school, when they are 15 and 16 years old. *** United Services College was an almost brand new prep school whose students were mainly born abroad of parents serving Queen Victoria's Empire, especially in India and Burma. Most of them were being prepared to become Subalterns in the army. ***The three boys are all destined for eccentric greatness when they grow up. They betray signs of this early on. We readers are shown them as deliberate "outsiders" who go their own way (within limits prescribed by loyalty to the school and to the school's beloved Head -- in real life an old school chum of Kipling's family). *** The three boys are indulged and their good qualities much appreciated by the Head and by the school's congenial Chaplain, while thoroughly disapproved of by the four rigorously traditional Housemasters. Nor are the three entirely approved of by their fellow students. *** A constant theme of STALKY & CO is revenge. If wronged, the three will find an appropriate punishment to fit the crime. Thus M'Turk makes friends with a local Irish landowner and receives permission to wander on his estate. Ostensibly this going off campus violates school rules and a house master trespasses in pursuit of them and is punished by the landowner for his sins. And on and on. *** In a reunion of Old Boys 15 years after graduation, the tale is told of Stalky leading his beloved Sikhs out on the northwest frontier of the Indian Raj. He is besieged by two tribes that normally hate one another. While out on a solitary patrol, Stalky employs on a hostile corpse a form of mutilation characteristic of the other tribe. This was the same carving on a chest after tribesmen had killed Stalky's deputy officer. The ploy saved the besieged. What a book! -OOO-
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Details
- Bookseller
- Neil Williams, Bookseller (CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 31204
- Title
- Stalky & Co.
- Author
- Kipling, Rudyard
- Book Condition
- Used - VG in Wraps
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- George N Morang
- Place of Publication
- Toronto
- Date Published
- 1899
- Pages
- 310 pp.
- Keywords
- Bookseller catalogs
- Modern Firsts;
- Size
- 8VO
Terms of Sale
Neil Williams, Bookseller
Safe delivery guaranteed. All books returnable for any or no reason within 30 days of receipt. If misdescribed we will pay return postage.
About the Seller
Neil Williams, Bookseller
Biblio member since 2003
Victoria, British Columbia
About Neil Williams, Bookseller
We have been buying and selling on the Internet since 1992, full- time since 1998. We started as collectors of children's and illustrated books and this is still our largest specialty. We pride ourselves on the quality of our stock and our commitment to the contentment of our customers.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Sunned
- Damage done to a book cover or dust jacket caused by exposure to direct sunlight. Very strong fluorescent light can cause slight...
- VG
- Very Good condition can describe a used book that does show some small signs of wear - but no tears - on either binding or...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...