Reader Reviews for The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling (Wordsworth Poetry) (Wordsworth Poetry Library):
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Take a careful look at the Publisher before your buy "The Works of Rudyard Kipling"
Comment: There's a reason for many of the negative reviews of the quality of this book. This is because the version of "The Works of Rudyard Kipling" published by General Books LLC is an el cheapo version, created using OCR scanning and an automated scanning device which can miss complete pages. Typos are frequent and there's no table of contents, also, there was absolutely no editing of the book. This is all stated on the publishers web site (google them and read - you'll be as interested as I was when you see all the disclaimers).
The owner of General Books LLC (a company called VDM Publishing), is getting more and more notorious for these ripoffs - almost every review of their books (500,000 or so now listed on Amazon) by an actual buyer is negative, many are extremely so. Also watch out for any books published by Alphascript, Betascript, Fastbooks, Books LLC and LLC Books - all imprints of VDM Publishing. Unfortunately, Amazon is currently doing nothing to protect their customers from this Publishers misleading product descriptions.
If you have bought a paper version from General Books LLC by mistake, you can return to Amazon within 30 days(but make sure you check Amazon's Return Policy for the details)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Even at this price, not worth the cost
Comment: This is just an unformatted text file. Save the money and go to Project Gutenberg
Customer Rating:
Summary: CAVEAT EMPTOR!!
Comment: The title of this Kindle item is a lie. As the first sentence of the summary reveals, it does not include any of Kipling's poetry -- so it's anything but "complete".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Work=5 Stars, Edition=2
Comment: Unlike other reviews, mine refers to the correct book - The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling, Wordsworth Edition. Before going into its merits, it is necessary to say a few things about Kipling's poems. They are some of the most famous in English; published when poetry was actually popular, they were immediate bestsellers. Indeed, the public has never stopped loving them; there are seemingly fewer poetry fans each year, but Kipling still topped a recent BBC poll of the Greatest English Poems. He remains a favorite not only with poetry buffs but even with many who usually dislike poetry. Kipling has also had a major impact on other writers, as widespread use of his titles, lines, characters, etc. clearly indicates. He has also managed to infiltrate popular culture to a degree rarely seen. Conversely, critics still hotly debate his merits. Some think him a major poet; at least as many think him overrated or downright bad. He had near-universal popularity at the turn of the twentieth century but was critically despised by the time of his 1936 death; the pendulum has swung back and forth somewhat since, but he has never come close to regaining his apex.
Kipling undeniably does several things well. He is a rhythm master with almost unmatched technical deftness and an excellent rhymer. He can truly turn a phrase and is eminently quotable; his lines are indeed so memorable that several, as George Orwell points out, are often used unconsciously by many who have barely heard his name. He is notably diverse and adept at nearly every form he tries. Even his harshest critics cannot deny these virtues. The fact that many of his poems are set in India, Africa, or other distant parts of the British empire also lends notable historical value; we get a good sense of what life was like in this important time and place, all the more interesting in that it is often through the eyes of representative types such as soldiers. Other characteristics are more subjective. For example, Kipling is very straight-forward; his poems are extremely lucid and very accessible, in large part because he relies little on tropes. Those who value simplicity and clearness will appreciate this; others may find it somewhat lightweight.
The real crux, though, is not with form but content. Kipling has long been stereotyped as a jingoist glorifying war and imperialism and is almost ubiquitously accused of xenophobia, narrow-mindedness, mindless patriotism, and racism. His work undeniably has an element of this, but anything more than a superficial reading reveals a wealth of nuances and complexities. For instance, "Recessional," written for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, is a thoughtful warning against hubris that is far from the simple-minded flag-waving critics lead one to expect. Works like "The White Man's Burden" seem unambiguously imperialist, though not in a celebratory way, but a few have found subtleties even there. The issue comes to a proverbial head over Kipling's many soldier poems, where he has soldiers speak as they really did - not only with profanity that now seems mild but with casual racism that is now very striking. This at times reaches such a peak that it has made some liberals stop reading and even condemn Kipling - an understandable impulse, but we must look closely. Some defend him by saying he is merely a reporter, but this is a copout. The question of how much he agrees with his soldiers is complex and still hotly debated, but it seems safe to say that - like nearly all men of his time, place, race, and status -, he likely had a milder prejudice. Even so, we must not dismiss the poems automatically, because the prejudice has a valid artistic and even moral purpose. Anything more than a superficial reading shows that Kipling in many ways sympathizes with the victims of this racism, and this comes out in several ways. Most fundamentally, the insight and sympathy the speakers gain for the natives is believable and affecting because of prior prejudice, making the contrast all the more stunning. One must keep this in mind, though some will of course still think the poems unreadable. Kipling is certainly not politically correct by our standards, but this does not mean we should dismiss him automatically; doing so is at least as illiberal as he is said to be, and the literary, entertainment, and educational losses are potentially great.
This makes actually reading Kipling all the more pertinent; only those who have are qualified to judge. There are many collections, but this is notable as an inexpensive, widely available single volume one with all the authorized poems first published in 1940's Definitive Edition - hundreds of works over 850 pages. It is all the Kipling anyone but absolute hard-cores will need, missing only unpublished poems and a small amount never collected. The real question is if it is too much. Even Kipling's greatest fans admit he is uneven; he has a large number of great poems but a significant amount of mediocre ones, and more than a few are simply bad. Casuals may be better off with a selection, but the fact that this has all the poems for little or no more - and in some cases even less - than selected editions arguably makes it a better buy.
Whether or not they want this edition is a very open question. Anyone seeking only the poems will be well-served, but those requiring more should probably look elsewhere. There is substantial supplemental material, especially considering the price, but it is mostly low quality. Unlike some Wordsworth Editions, there is a sizeable Introduction with background on Kipling, the poems, and the historical context plus some initial analysis. We even get Orwell's famous essay on Kipling's poems, perhaps the most important piece of Kipling criticism. However, both Orwell and editor R. T. Jones start by assuming Kipling is a bad poet and defend him to various degrees; this is valuable, perhaps even inevitable, but not an ideal introduction. Those not already familiar with the poems should read them first, as it is hard not to have one's perceptions colored. Unlike nearly every other book in the Wordsworth Poetry Library, this also has quite a few notes - and they are thankfully footnotes, in contrast to the endnotes in Wordsworth fiction editions. This is essential, because Kipling uses a plethora of foreign, technical, and geographical words that are alien to nearly all readers as well as many contemporary and historical references. Numerous poems would be to various degrees incomprehensible without notes, and we should be grateful for them. That said, they have many problems. Words, including foreign ones, that few will know are inexplicably not footnoted - all the more frustrating in that some notes belabor the obvious. A great number of other things that should be footnoted are not; for example, a series of automobile poems parodies a variety of literary works, but only those aware of them will appreciate it, as the notes are silent. Less significantly, words defined once are never defined again, even though there may be hundreds of pages between uses; anyone not reading the book straight through in a short amount of time - i.e., almost everyone - will thus be frequently lost. On a more positive note, the edition differs from many Wordsworth ones by helpfully including a Table of Contents plus title and first line indices.
These complaints are small considering the price, but dedicated readers will be unsatisfied. All others will likely be well-served.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Works of Rudyard Kipling
Comment: The title of this book is misleading. It is not "The Works of Kipling". It is only one story; in large print. I was not satisfied with it this purchase.
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