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    Puck of Pook's Hill - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
    Puck of Pook's Hill - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
    Puck of Pook's Hill - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
    Ebook239 pages3 hours

    Puck of Pook's Hill - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

    By Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Rackham

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    About this ebook

    Puck of Pook’s Hill is one of the lesser known tales of Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1935); the famed author of ‘The Jungle Book’. It is a fantasy novel, containing a series of short stories set in different periods of English history. The stories are all narrated to two children living near Burwash (East Sussex) – by people magically plucked out of history by the elf Puck, or told by Puck himself. The genres of particular stories range from authentic historical novella (A Centurion of the Thirtieth, On the Great Wall) to children’s fantasy (Dymchurch Flit) – and are all bracketed by Kipling’s masterful poetry.

    This edition of Puck of Pook’s Hill is also accompanied by a series of dazzling colour illustrations by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939). One of the most celebrated painters of the British Golden Age of Illustration (which encompassed the years from 1850 until the start of the First World War), Rackham’s artistry is quite simply, unparalleled. Throughout his career, he developed a unique style, combining haunting humour with dream-like romance. Presented alongside the text, his illustrations further refine and elucidate Kipling’s masterful storytelling.

    Pook Press celebrates the great ‘Golden Age of Illustration‘ in children’s literature – a period of unparalleled excellence in book illustration from the 1880s to the 1930s. Our collection showcases classic fairy tales, children’s stories, and the work of some of the most celebrated artists, illustrators and authors.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9781473385818
    Puck of Pook's Hill - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for Puck of Pook's Hill - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      The best stories by are' Welland's Sword' and 'On the Great Wall' ' A. the latter has a real feel of 'A Song of Fire and Ice' and I wouldn't be at all surprised if George RR Martin had been inspired by it.I enjoyed reading these. The only really weak story is 'Dymchurch Flit' which doesn't seem to fit in with the rest.
    • 4/5
      Terribly Victorian, of course, but only offensively so at the very end. For the most part it's actually a fairly delightful history of England, Normans and Romans and all that, with lots of adventures and sprinkled with mildly educational material. And I didn't realize that a couple of my favorite poems come from here, too. (The poems are largely the best part.)
    • 3/5
      I was fortunate enough to escape reading this as a child, so I could have the pleasure of reading it as an adult, directly after a visit to Kipling's house in Sussex (on a beautiful summer day, too). As the story is so intimately connected with the grounds of Bateman's and their immediate surroundings, I think that little bit of local knowledge, fresh in my mind, did really make the book much more enjoyable.Kipling's language is wonderful, as always, but the story in this case is a slightly awkward mixture of twee fairy story, historical adventure à-la-Walter-Scott, and didactic history lessons. The stirring patriotic poem that closes the book is likely to challenge the forbearance of even the most tolerant modern reader.
    • 3/5
      There's a vague sense of Whiggish history to the tales which form the core of the work [The Sir Richard tales and the final tale, "The Treasure and the Law"], with a definite feel of progression from the pre-Norman Saxons through to Runnymede. (Which can be fun to contrast with the Toryism that runs through the tales, both these but particularly the Roman tales and their story of empire.)Pity about that final tale though, as I had until that point been describing the book as reminding me of a more engaging Scott, but without the anti-Semitism. It's still more engaging, though that certainly leaves a bit of a sour taste at the end of it all.
    • 4/5
      I adored this book till the last chapter.
    • 3/5
      There are two things to note in this interesting collection of stories and poems written for children about the British struggle for nationhood. Firstly, considering the style, difficulty, and variety of the language Kipling uses in this book, how would (and do) modern children cope? At the time when it was first published, more than a hundred years ago, it appeared in Strand magazine as well as a separate publication for younger readers, presumably who were well enough versed in history and legends to understand the stories. Can the same be said today? And how many children nowadays go frolicking in the meadows, quoting Latin verses and reading poetry?The second thing to note is the imperialist mood of the stories - and Kipling was famous for this. The stories could easily have been blood-thirsty thrillers; they concern war, struggle, treachery, revenge, and yet retain a romantic mood. The figures of authority are the greatest of men, though we know really that they weren't. Would children's critical faculties be great enough to discern this? Or would reading Kipling inculcate a sense and desire for imperialism, and the idea that the British nation spirit is strong and desirable?
    • 5/5
      Triggered to read it (this time) by Judith Tarr's Rite of Conquest - hers is the story of William the Conqueror with a large magical aspect to his life, and Puck (the first three stories, of Sir Richard) is the other major source of my knowledge of that period. An interesting difference in the way Tarr and Kipling handled magic (their facts matched just fine) - Tarr writes of an England where the Saxon variety of Christianity is suppressing and destroying magic and the Norman invasion is largely aimed at freeing the magic, while Kipling writes of an England full of magic and the Normans have to adjust to the oddity of it. Then of course I went on to read the other stories - the three Roman ones, Henry VII, and John (it's hard to mark the periods except by who was ruling at the time, even when that doesn't directly affect the story!). And of course now I need to reread Rewards and Fairies. I do love the stories - I remember the plots and events quite well, but when I reread there are all these neat little twists and clever wordings that have slipped my mind. Kipling was a wonderful wordsmith.
    • 5/5
      Wonderfully vivid scenes from English history. aside from the first, the only fantasy element is that Puck introduces modern children to characters from various periods of English history
    • 3/5
      This was one of those books which started in a somewhat disappointing fashion but which largely got better either as Kipling got into his stride or as my ear got into his sometimes quite dreadfully archaic language. Or maybe I gave up thinking how naff it was and chucked in a few mental hey nonny nonnies of my own for the hell of it.There's no doubt about it - this book is terribly dated, or at least it's a book of its time in the way that the writings of H Rider Haggard and Sax Rohmer were, and it's difficult to blame either book or author for that. You really couldn't write children's books like this any more and that's probably A Good Thing.

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    Puck of Pook's Hill - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham - Rudyard Kipling

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