The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories
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Narrated by:
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Sean Barrett
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By:
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Rudyard Kipling
About this listen
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.
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The Colonial Radio Theatre pulls out all the stops in this magnificent production of the Charles Dickens classic Christmas story! This full cast dramatization features a powerful music score - from the magnificent, booming opening of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" to the frightening tones of "The Ghost of Christmas Future". It's a holiday treat both you and your family will enjoy for years to come.
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great performance
- By Paul Pedraza on 11-23-22
By: Charles Dickens, and others
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Parade's End
- By: Ford Madox Ford
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 38 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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First published as four separate novels ( Some Do Not…, No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up, and The Last Post) between 1924 and 1928, Parade’s End explores the world of the English ruling class as it descends into the chaos of war. Christopher Tietjens is an officer from a wealthy family who finds himself torn between his unfaithful socialite wife, Sylvia, and his suffragette mistress, Valentine. A profound portrait of one man’s internal struggles during a time of brutal world conflict, Parade’s End bears out Graham Greene’s prediction that "there is no novelist of this century more likely to live than Ford Madox Ford."
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A brilliant, challenging, and valuable work
- By leora on 09-11-12
By: Ford Madox Ford
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Shadow of the Moon
- By: M. M. Kaye
- Narrated by: Tara Ochs
- Length: 34 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The author of The Far Pavilions returns us once again to the vast, intoxicating romance of India under the British Raj. Shadow of the Moon is the story of Winter de Ballesteros, a beautiful English heiress come home to her beloved India. It is also the tale of Captain Alex Randall, her protector, who aches to possess her. Forged in the fires of a war that threatens to topple an empire, their tale is the saga of a desperate and unforgettable love that consumes all in its thrall.
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Has always been a great story.
- By Sian on 06-08-14
By: M. M. Kaye
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Far from the Madding Crowd
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: David McCallion
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Far from the Madding Crowd, which first appeared in Cornhill Magazine in monthly installments back in the late 19th century, features the love life of the young Bathsheba Everdene who is as poor as she is beautiful. Fortunately, Bathsheba's uncle leaves her his farm, which she goes to manage in the small town of Weatherbury. Before she leaves, however, she has an interesting encounter with a young farmer, Gabriel Oak, for whom she does a tremendous favor ,and he becomes indebted to her....
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Loved this delightful listening experience !!!
- By Robin Wardle on 07-15-16
By: Thomas Hardy
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Marie
- By: H. Rider Haggard
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Allan Quatermain, hero of King Solomon's mines, tells a moving tale of his first wife, the Dutch-born Marie Marais, and the adventures that were linked to her beautiful, tragic history. This moving story depicts the tumultuous political era of the 1830s, involving the Boers, French colonists and the Zulu tribe in the Cape colony of South Africa. Hate and suspicion run high between the home government and the Dutch subjects.
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Confusing narration!
- By Browsing on 02-22-14
By: H. Rider Haggard
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Ramona
- The Heart and Conscience of Early California
- By: Helent Hunt Jackson
- Narrated by: Boots Martin
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Termed the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the southwestern Indians and the first protest novel of California, Ramona is the story of 3 cultures - Indian, Mexican, and Anglo - locked in combat. The upheaval and injustice are humanized through the romance of a beautiful half-Indian orphan who grow up as the ward of Señora Moreno in privileged surroundings, then falls in love with an Indian and joins him in a life of poverty and tragedy. The Ramona Pageant in Hemet, California, based on this romance, has played each year since 1923, reenacting the transition period between Mexican traditions and the new U.S. and state governments.
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Not The Full Book
- By Kimberley on 03-23-16
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Twelve Years a Slave
- By: Solomon Northup
- Narrated by: Stephen L. Vernon
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Twelve Years a Slave is an account of actual events that took place in the life of Solomon Northup, during the pre-Civil War era of the 1840s. It follows the trials and tribulations of an educated African American man that was born into freedom and later kidnapped, taken away from his family, and forced into slavery.
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What a great book!!!
- By Andrew Robbin on 09-07-14
By: Solomon Northup
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Tales of Terror
- By: Edgar Allan Poe
- Narrated by: Jack Foreman
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Edgar Allan Poe, the master of terror, wrote some of literature's most entertaining and influential short stories, works that invented or anticipated modern detective novels, science fiction, and the horror genre. Tales of Terror collects nine of Poe's best-loved stories, all performed in chilling, highly dramatic readings by Jack Foreman. This collection includes such classics as "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Fall of the House of Usher", and what many consider his masterpiece, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."
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Poe's Best Horror by an Outstanding Narrator
- By Gary on 08-29-04
By: Edgar Allan Poe
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The Jewel of Seven Stars
- By: Bram Stoker
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The warning was inscribed on the entrance of the hidden tomb, forgotten for millennia in the sands of mystic Egypt. Then the archaeologists and grave robbers came in search of the fabled Jewel of Seven Stars, which they found clutched in the hand of the mummy. Few heeded the ancient warning, until all who came in contact with the Jewel began to die in a mysterious and violent way, with the marks of a strangler around their neck.
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Mother of all Mummy-Stories
- By Dorothea on 03-15-08
By: Bram Stoker
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A Collection of Rudyard Kipling's Short Stories: The Man Who Would Be King, The Mark of the Beast, Rikki Tikki Tavi, Just So Stories
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Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the British Empire, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story. This collection includes "The Man Who Would Be King", "The Mark of the Beast", "Rikki Tikki Tavi", and "Just So Stories".
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Kipling, our narrator, tells this strange story: he was running a newspaper in a big Indian city. In the hot stillness of one night when he was putting the paper to bed, two men came into his office. They were red-bearded giant Daniel Dravot and his friend Peachy Carnehan. These two 'gentlemen at large', as they called themselves, lately of the British army, had put together an insane and dangerous plan: they wanted to be Kings of Kafiristan, a mountainous region of Afghanistan.
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This set includes five tales of extraordinary heroism, marvelous intrigue, and exceptional courage that have inspired and amazed people for generations.
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The Man Who Would Be King
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Rudyard Kipling's tale of two scruffy adventurers, Carnehan and Dravot, determined to leave India and rule the pagan tribes of another land as kings. But their quest does not end as they had plotted, and Carnehan returns to the narrator's newspaper office two years later in rags, to recount their victories and sudden fall -- Dravot's quite literally -- from their positions of glory.
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This reading is unintelligibile
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The Mark of the Beast
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When a carousing Englishman disgraces the consecrated effigy of Hanuman, a leprous "Silver Man" marks him with a hideous curse. The ensuing night brings new terrors to the house of the doomed man.
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Must listen again
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By: Rudyard Kipling
What listeners say about The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- TriGuyStri
- 12-12-22
wonderful stories
just wish the titles of each short story were announced definitively. Had to sort it out as the story progressed. otherwise fantastic
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- Kirk A Mann
- 02-14-19
Outstanding Deep Mystical Stories
Very grateful to have discovered Rudyard Kipling story telling. Such beauty profound deep lyrical writing. The Narrator is extraordinary and lovely to listen to. So happy to have discovered Rudyard Kipling ... He is one of the best authors I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Andre
- 05-02-16
Worth a Second Read
Where does The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories is among the best short story collections I have listened to so far. The stories were so condensed and crafted that I listened to the book back-to-back to pick up all of the nuances of details I had missed in my first reading.
What other book might you compare The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories to and why?
I would compare The Man who Would Be King and Other Stories to Ray Bradbury's collections, because they were both great storytellers. However, Kipling's focus on India during the height of British colonial empire lends his stories the air of the exotic and the political.
What about Sean Barrett’s performance did you like?
Sean Barrett performed the hundreds of characters with craft and creativity, especially women, children, soldiers, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs. There were many castes and classes of characters he had to voice over a broad range of Anglo-Indian society at that time. When I heard Barrett, I heard India.
If you could take any character from The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories out to dinner, who would it be and why?
If I could talk any character from The Man Who Would Be King and Other Stories out to dinner, I would take Kipling himself. He had served as a reporter and correspondent in India. Any reporter and correspondent that served in his stories represented him, eager to hear stories in this exotic land in a time of conflict. Stories literally walked into the door of this reporter's office. A dinner with him would be fascinating because he would regale me for hours. As a storywriter myself, I would ask him questions about his craft.
Any additional comments?
Read and listen to Kipling's books. He is an exemplary short story writer and a pioneer of its form.
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6 people found this helpful
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- lynette
- 02-16-21
Sad
Not as enjoyable as Jungle book - hard stories that teach life lessons. Most of these Kipling stories were just sad or macabre.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Joshua S. Dunn
- 03-25-22
Fantastic
Thee narrator was great and the prose was wonderful! I definitely recommend this. my only complaint is that this version of the audiobook doesn't appropriately label the sections by the name of the short story. The included PDF file is helpful but it doesn't fully solve the issue.
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- 6855
- 03-28-23
Thank you!
Wow! Outstanding stories & outstanding story teller. I appreciate the opportunity to listen to Kipling. Great opportunity!
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- Vincent P Nolan, Jr
- 10-07-22
Hard To Dislike A Classic Storyteller
I had previously read some Kipling. His style and alliteration is always beautiful. The Man Who Would Be King is a great short story!
The remaining compilation is an up and down experience, with several fantastic stories and a few that are so period and place specific that they were hard to follow.
I listened to the entire compilation and was more than glad I did. The final trilogy is worth any wading through earlier stories.
The narrator was quite good, but at times was so melodic that I lost track of the stories. This may not be entirely his fault as some of the lesser stories were at times difficult to follow in their own right.
Kipling remains a great storyteller in the best English tradition.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-02-22
Incredible stories
Whatever else may be said of Kipling, he's no bore. The stories he has to tell are riveting, and feel so real. He builds a window, however tinted, into a world about which I have known very little. And what's more the works are very well read by Sean Barrett.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-16-23
Author & Reader Immerse You in Exotic Stories
My imagination was swept away into each story. An incredible writer brought to life by an incredible reader performance. The voices, the characters—I felt immersed in a movie that was playing out in my mind as these unique and exotic stories took shape. This is one of the audiobooks that I measure others by.
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- Jefferson
- 08-21-18
Varied Stories about Love, Life & Death in the Raj
The Naxos The Man Who Would Be King collects 12 Kipling short stories originally published between 1885 and 1890. The tales are varied in quality, mood, and genre. A few are classic, a few forgettable, the rest strong. There are two adventure stories (one brutal, one surreal), two ghost stories (one straight, one comedic), three supernatural stories (one straight, two comedic), three romance stories (one comedic, one tragic, one political), and two boy stories (one comedic, one excruciating). They are unified by Kipling's authentic depiction of life in the Raj (British Empire in India); by his criticism of and sympathy for the Anglo rulers and their indigenous subjects; by his ability to write compelling stories, characters, and settings that reveal the human condition; by his first-person narrators and nested narratives; and by his concise, dynamic, and flexible style.
Here follows an annotated list of the stories.
1. The Man Who Would Be King (1888)
Two British con man "loafers" plan to become kings in Kafiristan, a mysterious, mountainous corner of Afghanistan, by smuggling in guns and training the locals in soldiery, agriculture, and infrastructure. How they succeed and fail makes an absorbing and appalling adventure story that satirizes the ignorant attempts of "superior" civs to force enlightenment on "inferior" ones, not unlike the Raj project.
2. The Phantom Rickshaw (1885/1890)
In this morbidly funny and moving psychological study of guilt Jack Pansay comes to see the phantoms of a rickshaw, its coolies, and the woman he wronged as more real than the living people around him. The doctor diagnoses overwork and indigestion, but the narrator figures that "there was a crack in Pansay's head and a little bit of the Dark World came through. . ."
3. My Own True Ghost Story (1888)
The narrator has never experienced any of the many ghosts in India, until he stays the night in a dak-bungalow. Convinced he's heard a spectral billiard game in the next room he's planning to write a ghost story with which to paralyze the British Empire-- until he takes a peek into the room.
4. The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes (1885)
After riding out into the desert to kill a wild dog, feverish engineer Morrowbie Jukes comes to his senses in a sandy crater. He finds himself among dozens of skeletal and smelly Indians dumped there after failing to die from fatal diseases. Rather than give Jukes his due respect as a white Sahib, the living dead laugh at or ignore him, and one ex-Brahmin even tries to master him. There is no escape from the pit. The vivid details and surreal horror--existence pared down to eating roast crow--prefigure Kafka or Kobo Abe.
5. The Mark of the Beast (1890)
"The gods of the heathen are stone and brass, and any attempt to deal with them otherwise is justly condemned." Everything in this story contradicts that sentiment, after a drunken Brit stubs his cigar out on the forehead of a statue of the Hindu god Hanuman and starts behaving bestially. A doctor diagnoses hydrophobia, but the narrator and the policeman Strickland suspect the curse of a leper priest.
6. Without Benefit of Clergy (1890)
John Holden is a British bachelor civil servant in India by day, an unsanctioned husband of a 16-year-old Muslim Indian girl by night. When Ameera bears a son, the couple experiences "absolute happiness," but "The delight of that life was too perfect to endure." There is great beauty, love, and pain in the story: "It was not like this when we counted the stars."
7. The Sending of Dana Da (1888)
Kipling mocks Anglo theosophy and spiritualist religious types via a mysterious (con) man's supernatural "sending" of kittens to an ailurophobic foe of the narrator.
8. Wee Willie Winkie (1888)
The 6-year-old son of the regimental colonel follows the foolish fiancé of Lt. Coppy across a verboten dried riverbed into Afghanistan, the land of the "Bad Men" ("goblins"). His little boy-talk is almost too cute (e.g., "Vis is a bad place, and I've bwoken my awwest"), his awareness that he is the "child of the dominant race" repugnant. And the bandits know that if they harm the captives, the British regiment ("devils") "will fire and rape and plunder for a month till nothing remains."
9. On the City Wall (1889)
A prostitute, her admirer, a political prisoner, a Muslim festival in a Hindu part of Lahore, and the narrator's perceptions of all those. Love, faith, India, changing times, and the difficulty (and hypocrisy) of British Raj rule. This is a great story: funny, ironic, sensual, romantic, political, and moving.
10. The Education of Otis Yeere (1888)
In this comedy of manners, Mrs. Hauksbee feels empty and wants power, so she applies all her formidable strategy and style to make a man. She molds boring Otis Yeere, whose career in the Raj is going nowhere, into a smart Man on the Rise. With its many Wildean lines (e.g., "A man is never so happy as when he is talking about himself"), the story is funny, but Otis' broken heart and Mrs. Hauksbee's ego sting.
11. The Judgment of Dungara (1888)
When a well-meaning but ignorant German missionary husband and wife succeed too well in converting the Buria Kol, a nude and lazy folk who worship a God called Dungara, the sly priest of Dungara takes action.
12. Baa Baa Black Sheep (1888)
This fictional account of the experience of Kipling and his sister uproots 5-year-old Punch and 3-year-old Judy from their idyllic lives with their parents in Bombay and inserts them for five years into the Dickensian hell of Downe Lodge in England.
The reader of the audiobook, Sean Barrett, greatly enhances the stories, handling the many characters--young or old, male or female, British or Indian, sane or mad--all just right.
If you've read Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills, you know what to expect here, though the stories in this collection are longer and fewer. Both sets of stories provide a vision of British rule in India (and of "civilized" rule of "uncivilized" peoples anywhere) more complex than merely, "Kipling was an imperial apologist." His humane interest in all kinds of people--from prostitutes to priests, from 6-year-old British Colonel's sons to aged Sikh revolutionaries--shines through.
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