The story of the survivor, who
escaped after crucifixion, is one of the ghastliest tales in all
literature.
Other tales that Kipling has written of Indian life are scarcely
inferior to these in strange, uncanny power. One of the weirdest
relates the adventures of an army officer who fell into the place
where those who have been legally declared dead, but who have
recovered, pass their lives. As a picture of hell on earth it has
never been surpassed. Another of Kipling's Indian tales that is worth
reading is _William the Conqueror_, a love story that has a background
of grim work during the famine year.
One of Kipling's claims to fame is that he has drawn the British
soldier in India as he actually lives. His _Soldiers Three_--Mulvaney,
the Irishman, Ortheris, the cockney, and Learoyd, the Yorkshireman--are
so full of real human nature that they delight all men and many women.
Mulvaney is the finest creation of Kipling, and most of his stories
are brimful of Irish wit. Of late years Kipling has written some fine
imaginative stories, such as _The Brushwood Boy_, _They_ and _An
Habitation Enforced_. He has also revealed his genius in such tales of
the future as _With the Night Mail_, a remarkably graphic sketch of a
voyage across the Atlantic in a single night in a great aeroplane.
Another side of Kipling's genius is seen in his _Jungle Stories_, in
which all the wild animals are endowed with speech.
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