HarperCollins is proud to present its news range of best-loved, essential classics. 'There is no harm in a man's cub.' Best known for the 'Mowgli' stories, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book expertly interweaves myth, morals, adventure and powerful story-telling. Set in Central India, Mowgli is raised by a pack of wolves. Along the way he encounters memorable characters such as the foreboding tiger Shere Kahn, Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear. Including other stories such as that of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a heroic mongoose and Toomai, a young elephant handler, Kipling's fables remain as popular today as they ever were.

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. ' I am Kim. I am Kim. And what is Kim? His soul repeated it again and again.' Set against the backdrop of Britain and Russia's political struggle in central Asia, Kim, the son of a drunken Irish soldier grows up as a street-wise orphan in the city of Lahore. Upon befriending an aged Tibetan Lama, the playful and spirited Kim journeys with him across India, experiencing the exotic culture, religion and people of the subcontinent. On their travels they come across Kim's father's old army regiment. The Colonel quickly spots Kim's ability to blend into his surroundings and trains him to become a spy for the British Army. As his adventures take him further into the world of secret agents and political intrigue, Kim is torn between his spiritual self and the expectations of his British compatriots. In this exotic tale of mystery, friendship and struggle, Kipling gives a fascinating insight into the British Raj and the volatile age of Imperialism in India.

«Kipling portrays school as the first stage of a much larger game, a pattern-maker for the experiences of life. Implied throughout the stories is the question 'What happened to these fifteen-year-old boys, and how did the lessons they learned at school apply to the world of warfare and imperial government?' The stories are based on Kipling's own school, the United Services College at Westward Ho! in Devon, which prepared boys destined for the army or for colonial service; Kipling himself appears as the subordinate character, Beetle. This edition includes five Stalky stories which did not appear in the original volume, and thus constitutes a «Complete Stalky & Co».»

A unique anthology of Kipling's war stories and poems, from the frontier wars of empire to the Boer War and the First World War.

Each volume in the Collector's Library series has a specially commissioned Afterword, brief biography of the author and a further reading list. The Afterword for this edition of is by David Stuart Davies. The Jungle Book shows Kipling's writing for children at its best. It is a collection of short stories and poems, revolving round the boy Mowgli, who was raised by a pack of wolves in India. We meet the tiger Shere Khan who attacked and drove off Mowgli's parents, Bagheera, the black panther, Baloo 'the sleepy brown bear, and the evil python, Kaa. Other stories include Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, The White Seal and Toomai of the Elephants, and the book contains the original illustrations of J Lockwood Kipling (Rudyard's father) and W H Drake.

How did the camel get his hump? Why won't cats do as they are told? Who invented reading and writing? How did an inquisitive little elephant change the lives of elephants everywhere. Kipling's imagined answers to such questions draw on the beast fables he heard as a child in India, as well as on folk traditions he later collected all over the world. He plays games with language, exploring the relationships between thought, speech, and written word. He also celebrates his own joy in fatherhood. The tales were told to his own and his friends' children over many years before he wrote them down, adding poems and his own illustrations. They invite older and younger readers to share a magical experience, each contributing to the other's pleasure but each can also enjoy them alone, as more jokes, subtexts, and exotic references emerge with every reading. This fully illustrated edition includes two extra stories and Kipling's own explanation of the title.

A family of wolves take a little boy into their home in the jungle. The child learns and plays with the other cubs. But can he really live in the jungle? Will the other wolves want him to stay? And will the dangerous tiger Shere Khan catch him?

Three stories, three ghosts. A young woman marries an older man. His first wife is dead. Or is she? Why does a dead man walk through his house each night? An old woman has a house with a tower. Why does she visit a young man in his dreams?

Three stories, three ghosts. A young woman marries an older man. His first wife is dead. Or is she? Why does a dead man walk through his house each night? An old woman has a house with a tower. Why does she visit a young man in his dreams?

Something of Myself, Rudyard Kipling’s memoir of his writing life, was composed in the year before he died and published posthumously. Its spare, polished phrases and masterly anecdotes offer a unique insight into the mind of this divided man who upheld the Victorian imperialist values of duty, patriotism and obedience, and yet sympathized with outlaws and children. Kipling describes with unforgettable vividness his bitter childhood years in the ‘House of Desolation’, his apprenticeship to the craft of writing through the hard grind of journalism in British India, his beloved parents and his pride in his own work. Reissued with a new introduction by Jan Montefiore, author of the brilliant recent study ‘Rudyard Kipling’, this memoir is indispensable reading not only for Kipling admirers, but for anyone who cares about the art and craft of writing.

«The Jungle Books» can be regarded as classic stories told by an adult to children. But they also constitute a complex literary work of art in which the whole of Kipling's philosophy of life is expressed in miniature. They are best known for the 'Mowgli' stories; the tale of a baby abandoned and brought up by wolves, educated in the ways and secrets of the jungle by Kaa the python, Baloo the bear, and Bagheera the black panther. The stories, a mixture of fantasy, myth, and magic, are underpinned by Kipling's abiding preoccupation with the theme of self-discovery, and the nature of the 'Law'.»

In the jungle of Southern India the Seeonee Wolf-Pack has a new cub. He is not a wolf — he is Mowgli, a human child, but he knows nothing of the world of men. He lives and hunts with his brothers the wolves. Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther are his friends and teachers. And Shere Khan, the man-eating tiger, is his enemy. Kipling's famous story of Mowgli's adventures in the jungle has been loved by young and old for more than a hundred years.

A family of wolves take a little boy into their home in the jungle. The child learns and plays with the other cubs. But can he really live in the jungle? Will the other wolves want him to stay? And will the dangerous tiger Shere Khan catch him?

Rudyard Kipling surprises us again with these five tales from the animal kingdom. Have you ever wondered why elephants have such long noses and why leopards have spots? Do you know why kangaroos hop around Australia? Find out how a clever young sailor tricked a whale and meet many other unforgettable characters.

Kim, a young Irish boy, lives alone on the streets of the Indian city of Lahore. He meets an old Tibetan lama who is looking for a sacred river. The boy and the old man become great friends and travel across British India. This is Rudyard Kipling's greatest book — a story about the British empire, spies, friendship, spirituality and, most of all, India.

«Some six or seven feet above the port bulwarks, framed in fog, and as utterly unsupported as the full moon, hung a Face. It was not human, and it certainly was not animal, for it did not belong to this earth as known to man». Rudyard Kipling, celebrated author of «The Jungle Book», the «Just So Stories» and other entertaining fictions, was also a master of the short story in which he was able to combine the strange and unnerving in order to draw the reader into the world of his own dark imaginings. This collection presents the best of these strange tales in which ghosts, monsters and inexplicable happenings abound. From the exotic and magical locale of India, to the leafy suburbs of England and then to the blood-soaked trenches of the First World War, Kipling provides us with a chilling array of experiences and images which will linger long in the memory.»

«The Jungle Book» introduces Mowgli, the boy foundling adopted by a family of wolves, Shere Khan the tiger, Bagheera the black panther and Baloo the sleepy brown bear. How did the Leopard get his spots? How did the Elephant get his trunk? In Just So Stories Kipling wittily supplies the answers to these and other questions. «Puck of Pook's Hill» relates how Dan and Una's magical meeting with Puck, the last of the People of the Hills, leads to their adventures with Romans and Crusaders, Saxons and Vikings... And later, in «Rewards and Fairies», the three meet an array of characters ranging from Iron Age warriors to 'Good Queen Bess' and Sir Francis Drake. In Kipling's rattling school yarn «Stalky & Co», Stalky, M'Turk and the Beetle are a trio of scallywags with a keen desire to break the rules, their unruly activities give the stories an enduring appeal to all children — especially those who have ever wilted beneath the stern glance of a peevish schoolmaster. Kipling's wry, sometimes tongue-in-cheek style will delight and entertain young readers while adults throughout the world will remember his stories with affection.»

Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk A classic story from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, adapted and illustrated by award-winning artist Jerry Pinkney, this is the tale of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a fearless young mongoose. Soon after a flood washes Rikki into the garden of an English family, he comes face-to-face with Nag and Nagaina, two giant cobras. The snakes are willing to attack Rikki, and even the human family who lives there, to claim the garden and house for themselves. But they do not count on the heart and pride of the brave little mongoose.