Richard Hayes lectures in English in Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin
Of Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell once wrote: "During five literary generations every enlightened person has despised him, and at the end of that time nine-tenths of those enlightened persons are forgotten and Kipling is in some sense still there." The reasons Kipling's Kim (Penguin, £2.99 in UK) might be despised are clear: the India depicted in the novel is an India seen from the point of view of the colonist, an India where white men rule and natives obey. At the same time, however, the reasons why Kipling continues to be read and enjoyed by new generations of readers are also visible. The novel appears at first to be simply a boy's adventure story and as such the tale of Kim, a brazen, clever street child of Irish ancestry who becomes involved with spies and soldiers and ends up doing his state a great service, is fabulously told. Kipling is one of the great writers in the English language, one who will always be read as long as the language survives.