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Based on Rudyard Kipling's own adolescent experiences, Stalky and Co. is a cunning story of mischievous nineteenth-century British schoolboys attempting scholastic mutiny. The faculty and headmaster of a boys' private school repeatedly pursue a trio of poetic pranksters-"Stalky," "Beetle," and "Turkey"-as they wage war on fellow students and the "establishment" with unwavering energy and creativity. Stalky and Co. is at times poignant in its realistic portrayal of boys negotiating manhood and hilarious in its illustration of their relentless attempts to beat the system, even in the face of creative punishment and a savvy housemaster. Listeners of all ages will delight in this tale of ingenious schemes and rebellious antics.

How is this book unique?Font adjustments & biography includedUnabridged (100% Original content)IllustratedAbout Stalky & Co. by Rudyard KiplingStalky & Co. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It was first published in 1899 (following serialisation in the Windsor Magazine). Reflecting its origins, the novel is episodic in nature, with self-contained chapters. It is set at an unnamed school referred to as the College or the Coll., which is based on the United Services College in Devon, which Kipling attended. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself, while the charismatic character Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford and Mr King is based on William Carr Crofts. The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence, and hints about sex, making them far from childish or idealised. For example, Beetle pokes fun at an earlier, more earnest, boys' book, Eric, or, Little by Little, thus flaunting his more worldly outlook. There is also some information about Stalky in later life. In his essay entitled “What We Can Expect of the American Boy,” Teddy Roosevelt disdained this novel, calling it “a story which ought never to have been written, for there is hardly a single form of meanness which it does not seem to extol, or of school mismanagement which it does not seem to applaud.”........ Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888).His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 42, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date.He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed according to the political and social climate of the age and the resulting contrasting views about him continued for much of the 20th century. George Orwell called him a "prophet of British imperialism". Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "[Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with."

In summer all right-minded boys built huts in the furze-hill behind the College—littlelairs whittled out of the heart of the prickly bushes, full of stumps, odd root-ends, andspikes, but, since they were strictly forbidden, palaces of delight. And for the fifth summerin succession, Stalky, McTurk, and Beetle (this was before they reached the dignity of astudy) had built like beavers a place of retreat and meditation, where they smoked.Now, there was nothing in their characters as known to Mr. Prout, their house-master, atall commanding respect; nor did Foxy, the subtle red-haired school Sergeant, trust them.His business was to wear tennis-shoes, carry binoculars, and swoop hawklike upon evilboys. Had he taken the field alone, that hut would have been raided, for Foxy knew themanners of his quarry; but Providence moved Mr. Prout, whose school-name, derived fromthe size of his feet, was Hoofer, to investigate on his own account; and it was the cautiousStalky who found the track of his pugs on the very floor of their lair one peaceful afternoonwhen Stalky would fain have forgotten Prout and his works in a volume of Surtees and anew briar-wood pipe. Crusoe, at sight of the footprint, did not act more swiftly than Stalky.He removed the pipes, swept up all loose match-ends, and departed to warn Beetle andMcTurk.But it was characteristic of the boy that he did not approach his allies till he had met andconferred with little Hartopp, President of the Natural History Society, an institution whichStalky held in contempt, Hartopp was more than surprised when the boy meekly, as heknew how, begged to propose himself, Beetle, and McTurk as candidates; confessed to along-smothered interest in first-flowerings, early butterflies, and new arrivals, andvolunteered, if Mr. Hartopp saw fit, to enter on the new life at once. Being a master,Hartopp was suspicious; but he was also an enthusiast, and his gentle little soul had beengalled by chance-heard remarks from the three, and specially Beetle. So he was gracious tothat repentant sinner, and entered the three names in his book.Then, and not till then, did Stalky seek Beetle and McTurk in their house form-room.They were stowing away books for a quiet afternoon in the furze, which they called the“wuzzy.”

Stalky & Co. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of school stories whose juvenile protagonists display a know-it-all, cynical outlook on patriotism and authority. It was first published in 1899 (following serialisation in the Windsor Magazine). It is set at a school dubbed "the College" or "the Coll."

"In summer all right-minded boys built huts in the furze-hill behind the College—little lairs whit-tled out of the heart of the prickly bushes, full of stumps, odd root-ends, and spikes, but, since they were strictly forbidden, palaces of delight. And for the fifth summer in succession, Stalky, McTurk, and Beetle (this was before they reached the dignity of a study) had built like beavers a place of retreat and meditation, where they smoked."

Stalky & Co. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of 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 & Co. to them and often went into spasms of laughter over his own jokes. It was first published in 1899 (following serialisation in the Windsor Magazine). Reflecting its origins, the novel is episodic in nature, with self-contained chapters. It is set at an unnamed school referred to as the College or the Coll., which is based on the United Services College in Devon, which Kipling attended. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself, while the charismatic character Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford, Mr King is based on William Carr Crofts, and the school Head, Mr. Bates, is based on Cormell Price.The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence, and hints about sex, making them far from childish or idealised. For example, Beetle pokes fun at an earlier, more earnest, boys' book, Eric, or, Little by Little, thus flaunting his more worldly outlook. The final chapter recounts events in the lives of the boys when, as adults, they are in the armed forces in India. It is implied that the mischievous pranks of the boys in school was splendid training for their role as instruments of the British Empire.Teddy Roosevelt disdained the novel, calling it "a story which ought never to have been written, for there is hardly a single form of meanness which it does not seem to extol, or of school mismanagement which it does not seem to applaud.The novel is a compilation of nine previously published stories, with a prefatory untitled poem beginning "Let us now praise famous men".Several of the stories appeared in more than one magazine before being collected in book form. The stories are listed below in the order in which they appeared in the book, along with the date and location of their magazine appearances:"In Ambush" (August 1898, McClure's Magazine; December, 1898, Pearson's Magazine)"Slaves of the Lamp, Part I." (April 1897, Cosmopolis: A Literary Review;[5][6])"An Unsavoury Interlude" (January, 1899, McClure's Magazine and Windsor Magazine)"The Impressionists" (February, 1899, McClure's Magazine and Windsor Magazine)"The Moral Reformers" (March, 1899, McClure's Magazine and Windsor Magazine)A Little Prep." (April, 1899, McClure's Magazine and Windsor Magazine)"The Flag of Their Country" (May 1899, McClure's Magazine; July, 1899, Pearson's Magazine)"The Last Term" (May, 1899, Windsor Magazine)"Slaves of the Lamp, Part II." (May 1897, Cosmopolis: A Literary Review)

How is this book unique? Font adjustments & biography included Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated About Stalky & Co. by Rudyard Kipling Stalky & Co. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It was first published in 1899 (following serialisation in the Windsor Magazine). Reflecting its origins, the novel is episodic in nature, with self-contained chapters. It is set at an unnamed school referred to as the College or the Coll., which is based on the United Services College in Devon, which Kipling attended. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself, while the charismatic character Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford and Mr King is based on William Carr Crofts. The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence, and hints about sex, making them far from childish or idealised. For example, Beetle pokes fun at an earlier, more earnest, boys' book, Eric, or, Little by Little, thus flaunting his more worldly outlook. There is also some information about Stalky in later life. In his essay entitled “What We Can Expect of the American Boy,” Teddy Roosevelt disdained this novel, calling it “a story which ought never to have been written, for there is hardly a single form of meanness which it does not seem to extol, or of school mismanagement which it does not seem to applaud.”........ Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888).His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 42, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date.He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed according to the political and social climate of the age and the resulting contrasting views about him continued for much of the 20th century. George Orwell called him a "prophet of British imperialism". Literary critic Douglas Kerr wrote: "[Kipling] is still an author who can inspire passionate disagreement and his place in literary and cultural history is far from settled. But as the age of the European empires recedes, he is recognised as an incomparable, if controversial, interpreter of how empire was experienced. That, and an increasing recognition of his extraordinary narrative gifts, make him a force to be reckoned with."

Stalky & Co. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of 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 & Co. to them and often went into spasms of laughter over his own jokes. It was first published in 1899 (following serialisation in the Windsor Magazine). Reflecting its origins, the novel is episodic in nature, with self-contained chapters.