Kim
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
In a vividly drawn India of the late 19th century, orphan Kimball O'Hara is on the cusp of manhood. Living as a beggar, it isn't until Kim befriends an aged Tibetan Lama that his life transforms: the old man is on a quest to find the legendary River of the Arrow and achieve Enlightenment, and together they embark on an adventure through this impoverished, beautiful, chaotic nation in the grip of the Great Game, the conflict during which the British and Russian Empires raced to control Central Asia.
But when Kim becomes a pawn in the Game, he must face the most difficult choice of all: his companion or his country?
This delightful Macmillan Collector's Library edition includes an afterword by David Stuart Davies.
Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kipling's inspirational poem the one that begins, "If you can keep your head when all about you/ Are losing theirs" describes how to preserve one's honor by the principled avoidance of political and moral pitfalls. Italian artist Manna imagines the "you" of the poem as a boy journeying through a series of watercolor landscapes: fields under billowing clouds, misty nights, craggy mountaintops. To accompany the poem's first line, Manna paints the boy watching from a great green meadow as storm clouds approach; he stands and watches with a cool head, rather than running in fear. For "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew/ To serve your turn long after they are gone," Manna shows the boy climbing a rocky pitch, the peaks of other mountains poking through the clouds below. Flying kites represent temptation, and dull-eyed marionettes represent allies who can't be trusted ("If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken/ Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools"). Though young readers may not fathom the poem's complexities, the grandeur of Manna's scenes conveys the loftiness of Kipling's sentiments. Ages 6 8.
