Kim (novel)
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- This article is about the novel by Rudyard Kipling. For alternate meanings, see Kim (disambiguation).
Kim is a spy novel and picaresque novel, written by Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClures's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by MacMillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901. The story is set against the backdrop of The Great Game, the political conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia.
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Synopsis
Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is an orphan son of a British soldier (Sahib). He earns his living by begging and running small errands on the streets of Lahore, where he incidentally makes contact with the British secret service through Mahbub Ali, a horse trader who is one of their native operatives. He attaches himself to a Tibetan Lama who is on a quest to be freed from the Wheel of Life. Kim becomes the Lama's chela, or disciple, and accompanies him in his quest. On the way, Kim accidentally learns about parts of the Great Game and is recruited by the British to carry a message to the British commander in Umballa. Kim's trip with the Lama along the Grand Trunk Road is the first great adventure in the novel.
Along the way, Kim's father's regimental chaplain recognises his Masonic certificate worn around his neck and Kim is sent to a top English school in Lucknow, but he keeps in touch with the Lama and also with his secret service connections. He is trained in espionage; the game of looking at a tray full of mixed objects and noting which have been added or taken away is still used for training spies and is still called "Kim's Game".
Kim rejoins the Lama and together they make a trip to the Himalaya, this time capturing papers from Russian spies, but at the same time the Lama continues his spiritual quest. At the end of the novel, Kim is undecided between the spiritual life of the Lama and the life of action at which he excels.
Influences on other works
Two novels by John Eyton, Kullu and the Carts and Kullu and the Elephant (c. 1929), are clearly derivative of Kim; likewise, Eyton's Jungle-born (1925) appears to borrow elements from the Jungle Books.
Robert A. Heinlein's novel Citizen of the Galaxy was influenced by Kim in the method of exposition of exotic settings, the espionage backdrop, and in details such as the memorization technique.
A novel by John Masters, The Lotus and the Wind, is also set in the Great Game, and one of its main protagonists is a character seeking some form of spiritual enlightenment.
The British double agent, Kim Philby is said to have derived his nickname from the novel.
In March 2004, Laurie R. King released a novel wherein her characters (Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes and Laurie R. King's creation Mary Russell) are sent to India to rescue a now mature Kim, who in this story met Holmes in his youth. The book is set in 1924, and the story explains that Holmes travelled to Tibet shortly after his apparent demise at Reichenbach Falls in Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Final Problem".
Trivia
Kipling inserted a cameo appearance of his father John Lockwood Kipling who was the curator of the Lahore Museum into the scene where Kim meets the Lama.
The 'Kim's gun Zamzamma' in front of the Lahore Museum is called so as Kim's character sits on top of this gun in the novel when talking to the Tibetan Lama.
References
- Quest for Kim: In Search of Kipling's Great Game by Peter Hopkirk (1997) ISBN 0472086340 -- the author visits the locations of the novel and discusses the real-life personages that may have possibly inspired its characters