Kim (novel)

Kim is a historical novel by British writer Rudyard Kipling. The novel, published in 1901 was named after its title character. Background of the story is the conflict between Russia and Britain in Central Asia in the 19th century. In parallel, the close relationship of the hero is told to a Tibetan lama, which illuminates the East Asian perspective on the world.

Action

Kim ( Kimball O'Hara ) is a shrewd Irish orphan boy, who at the time of British rule grows up in the slums of Lahore over India, without knowing its origin, and various adventures there. In general, the question seems the Kim arises repeatedly: "Who is Kim? " centrally to be for the story. After uncovering his origins, he enters the service of the British secret service. Here is "The Great Game" between Britain and Russia grounds for further adventures. Besides helping Kim doing a Tibetan lama, to attain enlightenment.

The novel is now mostly as a youth book and is the source of the Kim - game.

The way how Indian people are portrayed in the novel or even caricatured, has been associated with Kipling's imperialist attitude and is therefore controversial today. The literary theorist and post-colonialism expert Edward Said, who wrote the foreword to Kim, described the novel as "a masterpiece of imperialism." Thus, Said brings one hand his appreciation of the literary qualities of the work expressed, but also formulated critique of the underlying position Kipling: Like other colonial writers of his time there Kipling on the superior position of the British Empire - the corresponding inferiority of other peoples - and wanted to know secured the claim to power of the Empire.

Films

Kim is in 1950 under the title Kim - was filmed intelligence in India. Directed by Victor Saville, Dean Stockwell played Kim and Errol Flynn took over the role of Mahbub Ali.

Furthermore, the fabric was 1984 again filmed for television, among other things, with Peter O'Toole as Lama, Bryan Brown as Mahbub Ali and John Rhys -Davies as Babu.

Expenditure

Rudyard Kipling: Kim. German Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-423-12602-1.