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The Man Who Would Be King
Heathen Short #2
Author
Rudyard Kipling
Translator
First Edition
1888
Heathen Edition
2025
Refreshed
Pages
56
Heathen Genera
Victorian Grit
ISBN
979-8-90075-002-6
“One morning I heard the devil’s own noise of drums and horns, and Dan Dravot marches down the hill with his Army and a tail of hundreds of men, and, which was the most amazing—a great gold crown on his head. ‘My Gord, Carnehan,’ says Daniel, ‘this is a tremenjus business, and we’ve got the whole country as far as it’s worth having. I am the son of Alexander by Queen Semiramis, and you’re my younger brother and a god too! It’s the biggest thing we’ve ever seen. I’ve been marching and fighting for six weeks with the Army, and every footy little village for fifty miles has come in rejoiceful; and more than that, I’ve got the key of the whole show, as you’ll see, and I’ve got a crown for you! I told ’em to make two of ’em at a place called Shu, where the gold lies in the rock like suet in mutton. Gold I’ve seen, and turquoise I’ve kicked out of the cliffs, and there’s garnets in the sands of the river, and here’s a chunk of amber that a man brought me. Call up all the priests and, here, take your crown.’
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English journalist, poet, and author. In 1888, he published “The Man Who Would Be King,” a sharp parable of imperial ambition and spiritual delusion. The story follows two British adventurers in colonial India who crown themselves kings of Kafiristan, a remote region of Afghanistan. Kipling — himself a child of Empire — renders their ascent from beggars to sovereigns with journalistic precision and mythic undertones as they wield Freemasonic symbols and military cunning to captivate a native people. Their reign collapses, however, when one breaks an oath and takes a native bride, shattering their illusion of divinity. What begins as a swaggering colonial fantasy curdles into tragedy, exposing the moral rot beneath self-made godhood, the fatal cost of hubris, and the bitter echo of blasphemy.
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"Among the very best ever written by Mr. Kipling."
The Independent
Heathenry
Contents
Praise
Details
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Arriving Soon-ish! Available NOW for pre-order (backorder) — expected to ship mid to late December.
Contents
Heathenry: Thoughts on the Text
“The Man Who Would Be King“
“The Man Who Would Be King“
Praise
“The most audacious thing in fiction.” —J.M. Barrie
“One of Rudyard Kipling’s best stories is ‘The Man Who Would Be King.’” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Full of wild and brilliant writing.” —The Press
“The way sets forth in ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ has the taste of the real thing . . . it is all more real than imagination could contrive.” —Boston Evening Transcript
“One of his most powerful stories.” —The Evening Chronicle
“There is no story quite equal to ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ for grasp and sweep of imagination.” —Pall Mall Gazette
“Among the very best ever written by Mr. Kipling . . . marked with all his graphic force and dramatic vigor.” —The Independent
“The imaginative power of his incomparable story ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ is a triumph of artistic deception.” —The Saturday Review
“Kipling is the greatest genius we have had for 50 years in imagination, genius, and grip. I think his story, ‘The Man Who Would Be King,’ the finest story in the English language.” —Walter Besant
“Brilliant if exceedingly gruesome . . . one of the strongest bits of work Kipling has ever done.” —The New Zealand Times
“Nothing wilder or more weird was ever written than ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ . . . in which Kipling’s imagination reaches its highest mark.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Details
The Man Who Would Be King
Heathen Short #2Published: 2025
Format: Paperback
Interior: Black & White on Cream Paper
Pages: 56 (+2 POD)
Language: English
Annotations: 112 Footnotes
Illustrations: 4
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