Rudyard Kipling

Stalky & Co. Rudyard Kipling

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Stalky and Co. is a collection of linked school stories whose juvenile protagonists display a know-it-all, cynical outlook on patriotism and authority. According to his family, Kipling enjoyed reading aloud stories from Stalky and Co. to them and often went into spasms of laughter over his own jokes, probably because this novel is based on his own experiences at the United Services College. Indeed, Kipling himself appears as the central character called Beetle and through him shows how school is a pattern-maker for the experiences of life.

The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence, and hints about sex, making them far from childish or idealised.