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A tiger, Shere Khan, hunting a woodcutter's family, loses a small boy who toddles into a wolves' cave. The wolves adopt him and name him Mowgli, 'the frog'…
A tiger, Shere Khan, hunting a woodcutter's family, loses a small boy who toddles into a wolves' cave. The wolves adopt him and name him Mowgli, 'the frog', and at the Council Rock the old bear Baloo speaks for him and the black panther Bagheera buys his life with a bull. Mowgli grows up learning the Law of the Jungle, is carried off by the lawless monkey people and rescued with the help of Kaa the python, and finally faces Shere Khan with fire. The book also contains other tales, including 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', about a brave mongoose who fights two cobras in an Indian garden.
Context and significance
Rudyard Kipling, born in Bombay, wrote the stories in Vermont and published them in 1894; he won the Nobel Prize in 1907. Their 'Law of the Jungle' inspired the Wolf Cubs of the Scout movement. More Mowgli stories follow in The Second Jungle Book.
About the author
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was born in Bombay, sent to England at five to an unhappy foster home, and returned to India at sixteen to work as a journalist in Lahore. His stories of Anglo-Indian life made him famous in London in his twenties.
The Jungle Book, written in Vermont, Kim and Just So Stories became classics, and in 1907 he became the first English-language writer to win the Nobel Prize. His poem 'If—' is still widely quoted, though his support for empire makes him a controversial figure today. His only son was killed in the First World War.