The Jungle Book is a compilation of tales and verses by Rudyard Kipling, a British author. It was initially published in 1894. Kipling made history in 1907 by being the first British writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. His children’s books are considered timeless classics.
Containing seven stories, each with an accompanying poem, The Jungle Book presents moral lessons through the interactions of children and animals, who possess human-like abilities to think and communicate. The setting for these tales is the Indian Jungle.
Plot
Chapter 1. Mowgli’s Brothers (Proceeded by the poem Hunting Song of the Seeonee Pack)
In an Indian jungle, a small child is separated from his parents when Tiger Shere Khan attacks them, and they try to run away from him. A wolf family found the boy and adopt him under the direction of the she-wolf called Raksha. Then, the wolves call him “Mowgli” and he learns all the skills needed to survive in the jungle. After some time, like all wolf children, he is presented to the entire pack to be accepted. Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther helps Mowgli to become taken in the pack of wolves. But as he grows up becomes very clear that he is a human. So, Mowgli leaves the jungle.
Chapter 2. Kaa’s Hunting (Proceeded by the poem Road Song of the Bandar Log)
The second narrative is about some events of the first story. Mowgli’s friends Baloo and Bagheera have taught him the law of the jungle and how to face some risks. When the lawless Bandar Log monkeys abducted Mowgli, he can test his acquired skills. Baloo and Bagheera come to his rescue, but they need Kaa’s help to defeat the monkeys. Kaa is the Python.
Chapter 3. Tiger! Tiger! (Proceed by the poem Mowgli’s Song)
The third story tells how Mowgli returns to the village and must hardly learn to communicate and act according to people. His wolf brothers warn Mowgli that Shere Khan, the tiger, is following him again. Mowgli uses the buffaloes to trample the tiger. But after his victory over the archenemy, witchery is attributed to him by humans, and he is expelled from the village. Mowgli returns to the jungle to live with his wolf brothers, with whom he grew up.
Chapter 4. The White Seal (Proceeded by the poem Lukannon)
The story of Kotick, a small white seal in the northern Pacific, is unrelated to the other stories in the book. Kotick saws how islanders kill seals. So, Kotick tries for years to find a new place where they can be safe. Finally, Kotick arrives at a place where humans have never been and offer a paradise for seals. Then, he returned home and induced the other seals to follow him to the new land where they can live safe.
Chapter 5. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (Proceeded by the poem Darzee’s Chant)
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a small mongoose, who will end up in the garden of an English family in India. Hence, he settled there and saved the family several times from dangerous snake attacks.
Chapter 6. Toomai of the Elephants (Proceeded by the poem Shiv and the Grasshopper)
In the Garo Hills, Toomai a ten-year-old boy goes with his father to catch and train elephants. The greatest desire of Toomai is to become an elephant trapper. But people told him that to become a catcher he must see the elephant dance. Even though nobody has ever seen this dance. However, one night he rides on his father’s elephant into the jungle and witnesses this extraordinary event.
Chapter 7. Her Majesty’s Service (Proceeded by the poem Parade Song of the Camp Animals)
The night before a military parade, a soldier hears the talking animals.
Adaptations
The book had different film adaptations since 1940.
Licensing
Rudyard Kipling. The Jungle Book. Publisher: The Century Co. (London), 1894. Originally published in 1894. This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. Text from Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Jungle_Book_(Century_edition).
This digital edition is provided by Ebooks-net in 2024 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. The full text of the license is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
To cite this work
Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book. Ebooks-net, 2024. CC BY-SA 4.0. https://test.ebooks-net.com/en/ebook/the-jungle-book/
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