France at War

By Rudyard Kipling

Classic Kipling novel. According to Wikipedia: "Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936) was an English author and poet. Born in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai), he is best known for his works The Jungle Book (1894) and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1902), his novel, Kim (1901); his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), If— (1910); and his many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story"; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and his best works speak to a versatile and luminous narrative gift. Kipling was one of the most popular writers in English, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[2] The author Henry James said of him: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English language writer to receive the prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient. Among other honours, he was sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, all of which he declined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seltzer Books
• Release date: Mar 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781455353910

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865. After intermittently moving between India and England during his early life, he settled in the latter in 1889, published his novel The Light That Failed in 1891 and married Caroline (Carrie) Balestier the following year. They returned to her home in Brattleboro, Vermont, where Kipling wrote both The Jungle Book and its sequel, as well as Captains Courageous. He continued to write prolifically and was the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 but his later years were darkened by the death of his son John at the Battle of Loos in 1915. He died in 1936.

Book preview

FRANCE AT WAR, ON THE FRONTIER OF CIVILIZATION BY RUDYARD KIPLING

published by Samizdat Express, Orange, CT, USA

established in 1974, offering over 14,000  books

Books by Rudyard Kipling available from us:

Actions and Reactions

American Notes

Departmental Ditties and Ballads

Captains Courageous

The Day's Work

A Diversity of Creatures

France at War

Indian Tales

The Jungle Book

Just So Stories

Kim

Letters of Travel

Life's Handicap, Being Stories of Mine Own People

The Light that Failed

The Man Who Would Be King

Plain Tales from the Hills

Puck of Pook's Hill

Rewards and Fairies

Sea Warfare

The Second Jungle Book

Soldiers Three

Songs from Books

Stalky and Company

The Story of the Gadsby

Traffics and Discoveries

Under the Deodars

Verses

The Years Between

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First published in 1915

Poem: France

I.    On the Frontier of Civilization

II.   The Nation's Spirit and a New Inheritance

III.  Battle Spectacle and a Review

IV.   The Spirit of the People

V.    Life in Trenches on the Mountain Side

VI.   The Common Task of a Great People

FRANCE* BY RUDYARD KIPLING

Broke to every known mischance, lifted over

      all

By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of

      the Gaul,

Furious in luxury, merciless in toil,

Terrible with strength that draws from her

      tireless soil,

Strictest judge of her own worth, gentlest of

      men's mind,

First to follow truth and last to leave old

      truths behind--

France beloved of every soul that loves its

      fellow-kind.

Ere our birth (rememberest thou?) side

      by side we lay

Fretting in the womb of Rome to begin

      the fray.

Ere men knew our tongues apart, our one

      taste was known--

Each must mould the other's fate as he

      wrought his own.

To this end we stirred mankind till all

      earth was ours,

Till our world-end strifes began wayside

      thrones and powers,

Puppets that we made or broke to bar

      the other's path--

Necessary, outpost folk, hirelings of our

      wrath.

To this end we stormed the seas, tack for

      tack, and burst

Through the doorways of new worlds,

      doubtful which was first.

Hand on hilt (rememberest thou?), ready

      for the blow.

Sure whatever else we met we should

      meet our foe.

Spurred or baulked at ev'ry stride by the

      other's strength,

So we rode the ages down and every ocean's

      length;

Where did you refrain from us or we

      refrain from you?

Ask the wave that has not watched war

      between us two.

Others held us for a while, but with

      weaker charms,

These we quitted at the call for each

      other's arms.

Eager toward the known delight, equally

      we strove,

Each the other's mystery, terror, need,

      and love.

To each other's open court with our

      proofs we came,

Where could we find honour else or men

      to test the claim?

From each other's throat we wrenched

      valour's last reward,

That extorted word of praise gasped

      'twixt lunge and guard.

In each other's cup we poured mingled

      blood and tears,

Brutal joys, unmeasured hopes,

      intolerable fears,

All that soiled or salted life for a thousand

      years.

Proved beyond the need of proof, matched

      in every clime,

O companion, we have lived greatly

      through all time:

Yoked in knowledge and remorse now we

      come to rest,

Laughing at old villainies that time has

      turned to jest,

Pardoning old necessity no pardon can

      efface--

That undying sin we shared in Rouen

      market-place.

Now we watch the new years shape,

      wondering if they hold

Fiercer lighting in their hearts than we

      launched of old.

Now we hear new voices rise, question,

      boast or gird,

As we raged (rememberest thou?) when

      our crowds were stirred.

Now we count new keels afloat, and new

      hosts on land,

Massed liked ours (rememberest thou?)

      when our strokes were planned.

We were schooled for dear life sake, to

      know each other's blade:

What can blood and iron make more than

      we have made?

We have learned by keenest use to know

      each other's mind:

What shall blood and iron loose that we

      cannot bind?

We who swept each other's coast, sacked

      each other's home,

Since the sword of Brennus clashed on

      the scales at Rome,

Listen, court and close again, wheeling

      girth to girth,

In the strained and bloodless guard set

      for peace on earth.

Broke to every known mischance, lifted over

      all

By the light sane joy of life, the buckler of

      the Gaul,

Furious in luxury, merciless in

Reviews for France at War

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

France at War (1915) is six pieces of journalism by Rudyard Kipling at the request of The Daily Telegraph. Kipling was given access to the front line to report on what it was like. It was the first in a number of "war pamphlets" by Kiping including The Army in Training and Sea Warfare. As a recent Nobel winner Kipling was probably the most well known English writer at the time. He doesn't say so in the book but he was often mobbed by troops to get a look at the famous man. Kipling was a supporter of the war, even a notorious Hun-hater which comes across in some of the stories as he describes captured Germans as all rapists and murders. For Kipling the "Frontier of Civilization" means Germany itself. As such this pamphlet is often grouped with other war propaganda. For the most part I didn't find the book very interesting. Probably two things stand out. First is biographical, Kipling says cheerily that everyone should fight the Germans even if it means loosing your son. This was around August 1915, but at the end of September Kipling's own son John was killed and his body never found, despite Kipling spending consider time and effort to find him. It was devastating to Kipling and he never fully recovered from the loss. Also the descriptions of the trenches in one of the last pieces which I found to be vivid and gave a sense of how vast the structures were.