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Kim

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Kim

By: Rudyard Kipling
Narrated by: Sam Dastor
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About this listen

Exclusively from Audible

Kipling's masterpiece Kim is his final and most famous work and one of the first and greatest espionage stories ever written. It explores the life of Kimball O'Hara, an Irish orphan who spends his childhood as a vagrant in Lahore. When he befriends an aged Tibetan lama his life is transformed as he is requested to accompany him on a mysterious quest to find the legendary River of the Arrow and achieve Enlightenment. The pilgrimage will take them across the vast continent, across rivers, and up the Himalayas.

While Kim wishes to take part in the imperialistic Great Game, learning espionage from the British secret service, he feels spiritually bound to the lama. Kim has a difficult choice to make: his companion or his country?

A rich and colourful depiction of India's exotic landscape and culture in the imperialistic world of the late 19th century, this audiobook celebrates their friendship and explores a young man's quest for identity.

Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist who was the first English language author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Some of his most memorable works include The Jungle Book and Just So Stories.

In 1998 Kim was ranked at Number 78 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003 it was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's 'best-loved novel'.

Narrator Biography

A Cambridge graduate who trained at RADA under the direction of Sir Laurence Olivier, Sam Dastor has long featured on screen and stage. He is best known for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) and for twice portraying Gandhi in both Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy (1986), and Jinnah (1998).Sam Dastor has starred in many West End productions with roles such as Ariel in The Tempest, and Orlando in As You Like It. His most recent work has included starring on stage at the Wolsey Theatre in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2016). He has narrated a large catalogue of audiobooks including V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr Biswas.

Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Classics Espionage

What listeners say about Kim

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A gem.

This is a delight, well read and not, as you might expect, the rousing tale of the ruling Raj but a much more sympathetic appreciation of the tapestry of peoples that made up the India of the late nineteenth century. How much has changed I don't know but the descriptions of places and people seem to be remarkably true even now. The reader brings out the characters and their different ethnic and religious backgrounds wonderfully well - better than when you read it yourself - and particularly expresses the humour of many of the exchanges between the strong personalities involved. The Great Game was never so entertaining, I'm sure, but how exciting Kipling makes it sound! By the end Kim does seem to be a Friend to all the World.

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Loved this book!!

I couldn't stop listening to the story. It is so vibrant and moving. The descriptions and voices of the various characters were so vividly painted. I felt as though I was part of the journey. There was no gratuitous violence or smuttiness - a rare find. Sam Dastor performed this fascinating tale brilliantly.

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1 person found this helpful

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A classic appreciated all the more with age

Beautifully written, infused with humour and humanity, this wonderful story was brought to life by a first-class narrator. A must listen/read for so many reasons.

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Beautiful dream of India

Superbly narrated and of course superbly written. A must far all dreamers of the East.

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Classic

Always great to go back and listen again, will be looking for more from Kipling

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A Good Narrator Brings a Classic Alive

Kipling has his detractors as an imperialist, jingoistic, adherent of eugenics. But he has written a sprawling story of the most perceptive sympathy with the Subcontinent, that ranks - in my mind - with the best classics of English language novel writing. It is in my personal top 5. Kipling didn’t win the Nobel for literature for nothing; he creates character with remarkable insight and a few, and then just a few more, penstrokes - and not a little cultural determinism. He celebrates the North Indian landscape and geography with remarkable poetry; the reader is truly transported. The cities of Lahore and Benares are brought to life with veracity and colour. A half-burned corpse bobbing along the Ganges as it flows past the ghats of the timeless holy city was as true an occurrence then as now. India is a land of rail; Kipling’s recounting of travel by train is spot on and, for my money was just the same 80 years on and I daresay is not dissimilar now. The amazing and accomplished Sam Dastor brings this brilliant story absolutely to life with a panoply of voices; his narration makes an already transcendentally accomplished piece of literature something even further beyond. I first read Kim 38 years ago and then 22 years ago - this Audible exclusive guarantees that I will read it again.

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A must listen to reading

A timeless story read by the very best of all narrators. Highly recommended for all age groups

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surprising, funny and joyous

This was a surprisingly funny and touching story that exposes Kiplings genius and love of India.

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