The Jungle Book - and why Project Gutenberg is better!

[Me and My Kindle]

Has anybody read the original Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling? I'm really surprised by the depth of the story. It's like the monkeys are a symbol of the vanity of man, where all the jungle animals have their own traditions of honor.

But as I was reading The Jungle Book last night, I also noticed there was something missing.  After Mowgli escapes from the monkeys, I saw a title in large print -- "Road Song of the Bandar-Log."  But right below the title, the next story started, along with its own title "Tiger! Tiger!"   It took me a while, but I finally figured out what had happened.  There's supposed to be a poem there -- but in the original e-text, it was written in a different font!  Somebody apparently snatched up that text, and just slapped it into an Amazon ebook without checking it closely!

I found a version that was optimized for the Kindle at Gutenberg.org, and now I'm back to enjoying The Jungle Book.  (Did you know Rudyard Kipling wrote a sequel -- The Second Jungle Book -- with more stories about Mowgli in the jungle?)

[daveconifer]

Rudyard Kipling rocks, there's all sorts of cool stuff in the Jungle Book book.  I didn't know there was a second JB, though, thanks...

[James Everington]

Good to know, I've downloaded The Jungle Book but not read it yet.

Are Project Gutenburg versions generally better, or does it vary?

[Annalinde Matichei]

Has anybody read the original Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling? I'm really surprised by the depth of the story. It's like the monkeys are a symbol of the vanity of man, where all the jungle animals have their own traditions of honor.

Do you think Mr. Kipling is actually comparing humanity to animals here? Or is it perhaps the vanity of modern humanity as opposed to the greater simplicity and honor of traditional humanity?

[R. M. Reed]

Do you like Kipling? I don't know, I've never Kipled.
Sorry, old joke.
I read Jungle Book when I was pretty young, and I probably missed a lot. Another classic I should revisit.

[jmiked]

Good to know, I've downloaded The Jungle Book but not read it yet.

Are Project Gutenburg versions generally better, or does it vary?

I find that the ones at Mobileread are formatted with greater care than the others I've seen.


Mike

[Me and My Kindle]

Are Project Gutenburg versions generally better, or does it vary?

I'd been reading the free versions that were available in Amazon's Kindle Store.  The Project Gutenberg version was definitely much better.  They'd created a dedicated Kindle version of the book, and they'd even used a special font to set off the text for poems at the start of each chapter!

Do you think Mr. Kipling is actually comparing humanity to animals here? Or is it perhaps the vanity of modern humanity as opposed to the greater simplicity and honor of traditional humanity?

Honestly, I thought it was all humanity. Here's the "Road Song" for the monkeys at the end of the chapter where they kidnap Mowgli - and then don't know what to do with him.

Here we sit in a branchy row,
Thinking of beautiful things we know;
Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do,
All complete, in a minute or two--
Something noble and grand and good,
Won by merely wishing we could.
Now we're going to--never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!

[strether]

I agree with Mike's assessment above, that books at Mobileread tend to be formatted with greater care. After reading this thread, though, I looked and nobody had formatted these books, so I took on the project.  Those interested in a two-book version of the Jungle Books can now download them from that site.  The side effect of the project was that I got to read these charming stories, which I'd never got around to reading.

Jim

[Julia444]

I think perhaps Project Gutenberg has been around longer and has dealt with their formatting issues?  I know we've used them for quite some time at the high school where I teach as a research tool for students who might be in quest of a particular quote and can't find it in their print version of a book.  Also if they forget the book at home they can pull up the novel and read it on PG.  Not too many of my students have e-readers yet, but I'm sure that will change.

My Kindle is brand new, so I don't know all of its tricks--can I search for selected text?

[strether]

I can see that for those that don't have an e-reader, PG would be a good resource since you can download a book and read it on your computer.  But for those that have e-readers, it's not the best place to go for a well-formatted book.  In the case of these Kipling books, for example, there are no italics in the first book and in the second book, when they're there, they're in CAPS.  Makes a big difference, because many, if not most, of the verses have italicized words, sentences and stanzas, put there for emphasis and effect.  And the PG book also doesn't have page numbers or waypoints, two other things that people might find helpful.

You can search text with your kindle.  Your owner's manual is your friend.

Jim

[QuantumIguana]

Life's gotten more complicated, but people haven't. People have always been vain, the poets have been bemoaning the state of humanity for as long as their have been poets. There's no less honor today than there was in the past. It's why the great stories can still speak to us hundreds of even thousands of years after they were written, because what they said about people then is still true of people today.

[The Hooded Claw]

I don't read a lot of poetry, but I make an exception for Mr. Kipling, great stuff!