I plan to see the new Disney version of The Jungle Book so I reread The Jungle Book. I first read The Jungle Book as a kid and had some vague memories of Mowgli, the baby raised by wolves. I did remember my favorite character in these stories: Kaa the python (the star of my favorite story in this collection, “Kaa’s Hunting:). If you’re a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan tales, you’ll see where ERB might have gotten his inspiration in these stories. Have you read The Jungle Book?
Table of Contents:
•Mowgli’s brothers
• Hunting song of the Seeonee Pack
• Kaa’s hunting
• Road song of the bandard-log
• How fear came
• The law of the jungle
• “Tiger-Tiger!”
• Mowglie’s song
• Letting in the jungle
• Mowglie’s song gainst people
• The king’s ankus
• THe song of the little hunter – Red dog
• Chil’s song
• The spring running
• The outsong
• “Rikki-tikki-tavi”
• Darzee’s chant.
Read this so long ago that I remember very little about it. I remember the Disney cartoon version, though.
Bill, I remember the Disney cartoon version, too. All my students tell me this new live-action film is terrific!
I remember the Disney cartoon version too. I don’t think I’ve ever read the whole book, though. I haven’t read much Kipling at all.
Jeff, I’ve read a lot of Kipling. The early stories in THE JUNGLE BOOK are some of his best work.
I never read it nor have I seen the movies. I am out of the loop on this one. However, I did see EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT on Friday, about trips down the Amazon by two scientists. So does that count?
Patti, of course viewing EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT counts. It hasn’t opened here yet. Today’a WALL STREET JOURNAL has a long feature on the FIVE UP-COMING CITIES. Detroit is one of them! Sorry that the Pistons were eliminated by LeBron last night.
I’d like to see this. I have a vague recollection of seeing the disney animated movie, loving the song “want to be like you”. I also saw an old live action movie, probably on TCM which was enjoyable. Not too thrilled about a giant snake, though.
Maggie, Kaa the python plays a key role in THE JUNGLE BOOK. From the previews, Kaa looks very realistic!
I remember the book – but it didn’t really impress me too much. Wild animals like lions we could only see maybe once a year when a circus came to the small town I grew up in. Often we couldn’t go – no money …
Just asked my wife – yes she read it too, it was one of the books from Capitalism that was translated into Hungarian and available in Hungary cheaply. Actually in all the Communist countries books were really cheap (though also printed on really cheap “pulp”) and it’s funny in a way to see which books were considered “harmless” or whatever by the censors – many books of course didn’t make it …
Totally OT:
That was one of the points that made me consider getting to know her better after our first “date” (actually just a dinner in a nice restaurant together with the mutual friend who thought that we were made for each other):
I took her home in my car, she offered me a glass of water and while she fetched it I looked at one of her book cases. I saw of course a lot of Hungarian books whose authors and titles meant nothing to me but I also saw Thomas Mann, Isaac Asimov, Sinclair Lewis and D H Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley …
So books were one of the factors that brought us together …
Wolf, I’m impressed with your list: Thomas Mann, Isaac Asimov, Sinclair Lewis and D H Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley. When I saw my future wife’s record collection (remember records?) I was impressed by all the vinyl she had that was also in my collection! I knew from that moment we would be comparable!
George, the Communist regimes wanted “cultured people” and books from the Capitalist states were ok – if they were free of politics or maybe even criticising Capitalism …
So many “classical” works were translated into Hungarian, it was a kind of hobby for authors in Hungary.
And you should know that my wife was already (like me …) over sixty years when we met.
She also is a fan of Blues and Jazz – had many Miles Davis records and told me about the concert that she visited in Budapest in 1965:
Satchmo …
So when in 2009 we visited the Louis Armstrong House in Queens where he lived his last years (a very nice museum now!) she cried – she had never thought that she might make it to the USA in her life …
Wolf, I play Miles Davis’s KIND OF BLUE on a regular basis. I’m reading a biography of James Brown right now!
Yes, I’ve read it, several times. Loved it as a child, especially Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the parts with the wolves and the Law of the Jungle. What I can’t remember is if this book is the one with the tale of how the elephant got his nose (along the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River, where he met the crocodile). I don’t plan on seeing the film.
Rick, the elephant tale appears in THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK. Like you, I loved “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” with its clever plot.
I’ve never read THE JUNGLE BOOKS but, coincidently, I did finish Kipling’s collection THE PHANTOM RICKSHAW this week.
Jerry, I’m a fan of Kipling. I just picked up a couple Kipling short story collections in the Oxford University editions. Our local remainder bookstore is going out of business and everything is 70% off. I couldn’t resist them!