The Finest Story in the World (Unabridged)

Written by Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by Robin Nixon

"The Finest Story in the World" is an short story by Rudyard Kipling: This story was first published in the Contemporary Review of July 1891. It includes the poem "Song of the Galley-slaves".
The narrator meets a young bank clerk, Charlie Mears, who longs to be a writer and seeks his advice. Charlie seems a commonplace and not particularly imaginative young man, but - partly written and partly in conversation - he produces strangely powerful accounts of sea voyages in the ancient world, by a Viking adventurer on a voyage to America, and by a Greek galley slave. He gives vivid details, including fragments of script which turn out to be corrupt Greek. The narrator becomes convinced that - rather than creating these stories - Charlie is remembering past lives, and that it is such recollections that feed the mysterious processes of creative 'imagination'. Another friend, a sophisticated Bengali, Grish Chunder, confirms that this must be the case, but warns that when Charlie falls in love the threads from the past will be broken. - This is exactly what happens. Charlie meets a young woman, expresses his love in banal conventional verses, and loses interest in his 'tales' of the past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookstream Audiobooks
• Release date: Nov 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9783991176954

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author and poet who began writing in India and shortly found his work celebrated in England. An extravagantly popular, but critically polarizing, figure even in his own lifetime, the author wrote several books for adults and children that have become classics, Kim, The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Captains Courageous and others. Although taken to task by some critics for his frequently imperialistic stance, the author’s best work rises above his era’s politics. Kipling refused offers of both knighthood and the position of Poet Laureate, but was the first English author to receive the Nobel prize.