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Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Books
Rudyard
Kipling is best known for his works, amongst others, of The
Jungle Book (1894), and The Second Jungle Book (1895).
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The Jungle
Book (1894) is a collection of stories written by Rudyard Kipling.
Kipling was born in India and spent the first 6 years of his childhood
there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and
worked there for about six-and-half years. All of the stories were
published in magazines in 1893-4. The original publications contained
illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. These
books were written when Kipling lived in Vermont.
The tales in the book (and also those in The Second Jungle Book which
followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli)
are fables, using animals in an anthropomorphic manner to give moral
lessons. The verses of The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down
rules for the safety of individuals, families and communities. Kipling
put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the
Indian jungle."Other readers have interpreted the work as allegories of
the politics and society of the time. The best-known of them are the
three stories revolving around the adventures of an abandoned 'man cub'
Mowgli who is raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. The most famous of
the other stories is probably "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi", the story of a
heroic mongoose, and "Toomai of the Elephants", the tale of a
young elephant-handler. Kotick, The White Seal seeking for his people a
haven where they would be safe from hunters, has been considered a
metaphor for Zionism, then in its beginning.
As with much of Kipling's work, each of the stories is preceded by a
piece of verse, and succeeded by another. The title of each is given in
italics in the list of stories below.
The Jungle Book, because of its moral tone, came to be used as a
motivational book by the Cub Scouts, a junior element of the Scouting
movement. This use of the book's universe was approved by Kipling after
a direct petition of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting
movement, who had originally asked for the author's permission for the
use of the Memory Game from Kim in his scheme to develop the morale and
fitness of working-class youths in cities. Akela, the head wolf in The
Jungle Book, has become a senior figure in the movement, the name being
traditionally adopted by the leader of each Cub Scout pack.
Chapters in The Jungle Book
The complete book, having passed into the public domain, is on-line at
Project Gutenberg's official website and elsewhere.
1. Mowgli's Brothers: A boy is raised by wolves in the Indian Jungle
with the help of Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther, and then has
to fight the tiger Shere Khan. This story has also been published as a
short book in its own right. Night-Song in the Jungle
2. Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack
3. Kaa's Hunting: This story takes place before Mowgli fights Shere
Khan. When Mowgli is abducted by monkeys, Baloo and Bagheera set out to
rescue him with the aid of Chil the Kite and Kaa the python. Maxims of
Baloo.
4. Road Song of the Bandar-Log
5. Tiger! Tiger!: Mowgli returns to the human village and is adopted by
Messua and her husband who believe him to be their long-lost son Nathoo.
But he has trouble adjusting to human life, and Shere Khan still wants
to kill him. The story's title is taken from the poem "The Tyger" by
William Blake.
6. Mowgli's Song
7. The White Seal: Kotick, a rare white-furred seal, searches for a new
home for his people, where they will not be hunted by humans.
8. Lukannon
9. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: Rikki-Tikki the mongoose defends a human family
living in India against a pair of cobras. This story has also been
published as a short book.
10. Darzee's Chant
11. Toomai of the Elephants: Toomai, a ten-year old boy who helps to
tend working elephants, is told that he will never be a full-fledged
elephant-handler until he has seen the elephants dance. This story has
also been published as a short book.
12. Shiv and the Grasshopper
13. Her Majesty's Servants (originally titled "Servants of the Queen"):
On the night before a military parade a British soldier eavesdrops on a
conversation between the camp animals.
14. Parade-Song of the Camp Animals parodies several well-known songs
and poems, including Bonnie Dundee.
Characters
Main article: The Jungle Book characters
Mowgli - Main character, the young jungle boy.
Father Wolf - The Father Wolf who raised Mowgli as his own cub
Raksha - The Mother wolf who raised Mowgli as her own cub
Grey brother - One of Mother and Father Wolf's cubs
Hathi - An Indian Elephant
Bagheera - A melanistic (black) leopard
Baloo- A Sloth Bear
Kaa - Indian Python
Shere Khan - A Bengal Tiger
Akela - An Indian Wolf
Tabaqui - A Golden Jackal
Chil - A kite
Mor - An Indian Peafowl
Mang - A Bat
Ikki - An Asiatic Brush-tailed Porcupine (mentioned only)
The Bandar log - A tribe of monkeys
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi - An Indian Mongoose
Darzee - A tailorbird
Chuchundra - A Muskrat
Nag - A male King cobra
Nagaina - A female King cobra. Nag's mate
Karait a Common Krait
Kotick - The White Seal
Sea catch - A Northern fur seal and Kotick's father
Sea vitch - A Walrus
Sea cow - A Manatee
Comics
A comic book series Petit d'homme ("Man Cub") was published in Belgium
between 1996 and 2003. Written by Crisse and drawn by Marc N'Guessan and
Guy Michel, it resets the stories in a post-apocalyptic world in which
Mowgli's friends are humans rather than animals: Baloo is an elderly
doctor, Bagheera is a fierce African woman warrior and Kaa is a former
army sniper.
Live-action film
"Toomai of the Elephants" was filmed as Elephant Boy (1937), starring
Sabu Dastagir. In the 1960s there was a television series of the same
name, loosely based on the story and film.
Jungle Book (1942 film) - directed by Zoltán Korda, starring Sabu
Dastagir as Mowgli.
The Jungle Book (1994 film) - starring Jason Scott Lee as Mowgli.
The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo (1997) - starring Jamie
Williams as Mowgli.
The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998) - starring Brandon Baker as
Mowgli.
The Jungle Book, an upcoming adaptation that will begin production in
September 2007 and continue for two years.
Animation
Walt Disney's 1967 animated film version, inspired by the Mowgli
stories, was extremely popular, though it took great liberties with the
plot, characters and the pronunciation of the characters' names. These
characterizations were further used in the 1990 animated series TaleSpin,
which featured several anthropomorphic characters loosely based on those
from the film in an comic aviation-industry setting.
Chuck Jones' made for-TV cartoons Mowgli's Brothers, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
and The White Seal stick to the original storylines more closely than
most adaptations.
There was a Japanese anime television series called Jungle Book Shonen
Mowgli broadcast in 1989. Its adaptation represents a compromise between
the original stories and the Walt Disney version. Many of Kipling's
stories are adapted into the series, but many elements are combined and
changed to suit more modern sensibilities. For instance, Akela, the wolf
pack alpha eventually steps aside, but instead of being threatened with
death, he stays on as the new leader's advisor. Also, there is an Indian
family in the series which includes Rikki-Tikki-Tavi as a pet mongoose.
Finally at the series' conclusion, Mowgli leaves the jungle for human
civilization, but still keeps strong ties with his animal friends.
The Japanese anime was dubbed in Hindi and telecast as "Jungle Book" by
Doordarshan in India during the early 1990s. The Indian version featured
original music by Vishal Bharadwaj (with words by noted lyricist Gulzar)
and a very good choice of dubbing artistes for the voice acting (Nana
Patekar doing the voice over for Sher Khan), which made it quite popular
among television series of that time.
The anime was also dubbed in Arabic under the title "فتى الأدغال "
(Fatah El Adghal: Boy Of The Jungle) and became a hit with Arab viewers
in the 1990s.
In 1973, another animated adaptation was released in the Soviet Union
called "Mowgli" (Маугли), also known as the 'heroic' version of the
story. It's also very close to the book's storyline, and one of the few
adaptations which has Bagheera as a female panther. It also features
stories from The Second Jungle Book, such as Red Dog and a simplified
version of The King's Ankus. "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" has also been released
in 1954 as a cartoon and in 1976 as a feature film. The former made its
way into the hearts of viewers and is even now sometimes aired by TV
stations of the Former Soviet Union countries as a classic of Soviet
animation. Interestingly, in keeping with Soviet ideology, the Colonial
English family in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi has been replaced with an Indian
family.
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