Wireless

by Rudyard Kipling

A famous short story

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

Unknown Binding

About the author

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.

Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".

Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."

Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."

Reviews

[Lauren]

what on earth

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember Kipling's works popping up every now and then in my childhood reading list, and I remember thinking every time, boy, this is some weird writing. Thinking maybe my childhood recollections are at fault, I've tried this more adult-oriented story, and nope, still too weird for me. I loved the setting, but the rest is... ugh. The story, however, does illustrate how every new technology tends to be perceived as magical--replace "Hertzian waves" (=radio) in this story with some "quantum oscillations" technobabble, and re-write an early 20th century druggist into a modern pharmacist, and the thing becomes slightly more readable all of the sudden.

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounded up 2.75 stars.

Here again his face grew peaked and anxious with that sense of loss I had first seen when the Power snatched him. But this time the agony was tenfold keener. As I watched it mounted like mercury in the tube. It lighted his face from within till I thought the visibly scourged soul must leap forth naked between his jaws, unable to endure.

[Grace Gardner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for a seminar. Interesting ideas around spiritualism.

[Suzanne Abou Reslan · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is a short story about a pharmacist who is in love, I wouldn't say I liked it.

[Vaishali · Rating 1 out of 5]

Messy, disjointed, and lacking credulity.

[Megan Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

rudyard kipling spooky supernatural stories you will always be so famous to me!!