Synopsis This varied and entertaining selection offers ample opportunity to acquire a taste for Kipling's stories. Politics, the Raj, and the life of the common soldier are some of the familiar themes associated with Kipling, but these stories also reflect the more unexpected aspects of Kipling's character and the different influences of the contrasting countries-India, America and England-in which he lived. His sympathetic portrayal of women, his interest in supernatural and religious experiences, his understanding of the processes of mental and spiritual breakdown, and the curative powers of art, are all revealed in this fascinating perspective of a great writer.