Kim by Rudyard Kipling (Everyman's Library)

Kim is one of Rudyard Kipling’s best known characters in one of his best known novels. It was first published as a serial in McClure’s Magazine and in Cassell’s Magazine. It was published in book form for the first time by McMillan & Co. in 1901. It is the story of a young boy’s coming of age and his recruitment into the Indian secret service to take part in the Great Game in British India during the late 19th century.

“Though he was burned black as any native, though he spoke the vernacular by preference, and his mother-tongue in a clipped uncertain sing-song; though he consorted on terms of perfect equality with the small boys of the bazar; Kim was white.”  Kim is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor Irish mother and was raised by a half-caste Indian woman. He wanders the streets of Lahore and treats everybody equally and has garnered the nickname “Friend of All the World”. 

Kim befriends a Tibetan lama and becomes the man’s chela or disciple. They travel together, each having their own quest. Before Kim sets off on the pilgrimage, he visits Mahbub Ali, an Aghan horse-trader, who he has done odd jobs for in the past.

In exchange for a bit of money, Ali gives Kim the task of carrying a mysterious message to an officer named Colonel Creighton in Umballa, a town located between Lahore and Benares. Kim is to say to the Englishman, “The pedigree of the white stallion is fully established” and to pass on a folded piece of paper with a coded message. Kim deduces that there is more to Ali than just being a horse-trader and is determined to solve the mystery. 

On their journey, Kim and the lama come across a British regiment. Their flag depicts a red bull on a green field, an image Kim was told about in his childhood. His father said to him if he ever sees this image, the people it represents would help him. The chaplain of the regiment discovers that Kim is the son of one of the regiment’s former soldiers and takes Kim away from the lama and sends him to an English school to be properly educated. 

Kim spends three years other than tutelage of the British but yearns to return to the lama and help him complete his quest. However, the British have other plans for him. Kim is appointed to a government job and is trained to join the Great Game. A term given to the political game played out by the British Empire against the Russian Empire in seizing control of Afghanistan and other surrounding Central Asia countries. It is the 19th century version of the Cold War.

Kipling brings to life the intrigue of international espionage in the Raj’s however, the most compelling thing about Kim is India itself - the people, the customs, the interactions among races and religions, all under the rule of a foreign power. The story is written in prose that can be described as poetry in motion. Kim may not be James Bond and Kipling certainly isn’t an Ian Fleming, but the spy story that emerges will make you want to read the book over and over again. ~Ernie Hoyt