Kipling: The Glass, The Shadow And The Fire
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Few literary figures have inspired as much admiration and controversy as Rudyard Kipling, and Philip Mason's Kipling: The Glass, the Shadow and the Fire stands as one of the most penetrating biographical and critical studies ever written about this towering, contradictory genius. Mason chronicles the arc of Kipling's life — from a childhood marked by abandonment and cruelty in England to his formative years in colonial India — illuminating how these defining experiences forged the imagination behind The Jungle Book, Kim, and some of the most enduring short stories in the English language. With the authority of a man who himself served in the Indian Civil Service, Mason brings an insider's eye to the imperial world Kipling inhabited, rendering the psychological and cultural tensions of the age with exceptional clarity. The result is a portrait that neither flinches from Kipling's moral blind spots nor diminishes the staggering originality of his art. Mason argues that Kipling's genius was inseparable from his wounds — that the glass through which he saw the world was darkened by shadow and yet illuminated by an almost visionary fire. Written with elegant, measured prose and a scholar's command of the biographical record, this work forces a re-evaluation of one of literature's most misunderstood figures, leaving the reader to ask: can a man of compromised vision still achieve timeless art?
Author: Philip Mason
Format: Hardback
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Few literary figures have inspired as much admiration and controversy as Rudyard Kipling, and Philip Mason's Kipling: The Glass, the Shadow and the Fire stands as one of the most penetrating biographical and critical studies ever written about this towering, contradictory genius. Mason chronicles the arc of Kipling's life — from a childhood marked by abandonment and cruelty in England to his formative years in colonial India — illuminating how these defining experiences forged the imagination behind The Jungle Book, Kim, and some of the most enduring short stories in the English language. With the authority of a man who himself served in the Indian Civil Service, Mason brings an insider's eye to the imperial world Kipling inhabited, rendering the psychological and cultural tensions of the age with exceptional clarity. The result is a portrait that neither flinches from Kipling's moral blind spots nor diminishes the staggering originality of his art. Mason argues that Kipling's genius was inseparable from his wounds — that the glass through which he saw the world was darkened by shadow and yet illuminated by an almost visionary fire. Written with elegant, measured prose and a scholar's command of the biographical record, this work forces a re-evaluation of one of literature's most misunderstood figures, leaving the reader to ask: can a man of compromised vision still achieve timeless art?