Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories

Audio Sample

Rudyard Kipling

The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories

Read by Sean Barrett

unabridged

In a remote part of 19th-century Afghanistan, two British adventurers pursue their ambition to rule an empire. Using betrayal, threats and guns they win the respect of a primitive tribe and become worshipped as gods, until one day they draw blood and the game is up. The Man Who Would Be King is an action-packed tale about the pitfalls of colonialism and the temptations and evils of power. This volume also includes the stories The Phantom Rickshaw, The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes, The Mark of the Beast and many more.

  • 8 CDs

    Running Time: 9 h 36 m

    Download PDF booklet

    More product details
    ISBN:978-1-84379-911-5
    Digital ISBN:978-1-84379-912-2
    Cat. no.:NA0209
    Download size:149 MB
    BISAC:FIC004000
    Released:August 2015
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Included in this title
  • The Man Who Would Be King
  • The Phantom Rickshaw
  • My Own True Ghost Story
  • The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes
  • The Mark of The Beast
  • Without Bene t of Clergy
  • The Sending of Dana Da
  • Wee Willie Winkie
  • On The City Wall
  • The Education of Otis Yeere
  • The Judgement of Dungara
  • Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
  • The Second Bag
  • The Third Bag

Reviews

Sean Barrett’s reading goes beyond narration into performance in The Man Who Would Be King, a novella in Conradian vein. He begins gently enough as the Indian civil servant who recounts his first meeting with Peachey Carnehan and Daniel Dravot, “gentlemen at large”, who are planning to carve out a kingdom for themselves in a remote corner of Afghanistan. Barrett then creates the colourful personalities of the conniving Peachey and the bombastic, red-bearded Daniel before they disappear up country. Four years later Peachey reappears, a “rag-wrapped, whining cripple”, and tells the story of their meteoric rise and even faster fall. Kipling’s storytelling and Barrett’s reading is so immediate that you feel he’s actually in the fanatically idolatrous mountain kingdom, living the perils of the protagonists. Other macabre stories in the collection include The Phantom Rickshaw,The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes and The Mark of the Beast.

Christina Hardyment, The Times


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