The Long Recessional
Author | : David Gilmour |
Publisher | : Macmillan |
Total Pages | : 369 |
Release | : 2002 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780374187026 |
ISBN-13 | : 0374187029 |
Rating | : 4/5 (26 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: " Readable and reliable . . . [Gilmour' s] assessment of the political background of Kipling' s writings is exemplary." -- Earl L. Dachslager, "Houston Chronicle" David Gilmour' s superbly nuanced biography of Rudyard Kipling, now available in paperback, is the first to show how the great writer' s life and work mirrored the trajectory of the British Empire, from its zenith to its final decades. His great poem " Recessional" celebrated Queen Victoria' s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and his last poems warned of the dangers of Nazism, while Kipling himself, an icon of the empire, was transformed from an apostle of success to a prophet of national decline. As Gilmour makes clear, Kipling' s mysterious and enduring works deeply influenced the way his readers saw both themselves and the British Empire, and they continue to challenge our own generation.