Kipling : the glass, the shadow and the fire / Philip Mason.

Includes index

Cont.: Part one: 'A strangely clever youth ... ' -- Admiration and dislike: how others saw him, a personal rediscovery -- The first years: the house of desolation, flagrant injustice, young man in India -- The first books: Plain tales, Doors to new worlds, Soldiers three, Odd man out -- Part two: The search for a home -- An end to boyhood: romantic friendship, writing for a living, many inventions, the first fable -- The flight from Vermont: in a strange land, captains courageous, ignominious flight -- A check to growth: complete surrender, engines and screws, the South African War, growth and experiment -- Hallo my fancy: Mowgli, folk in Housen, Kim -- The other side: excommunicatory hatreds, the imperialist, the farces, flawed opals -- Part three: retribution and compassion -- Restoring the balance: the late stories, revenge and retribution, dayspring mishandled, loneliness and pain, healing -- Belief: what do you expect for the money? forgiveness, untimely, a vision of heaven, dismissed to the mercy -- Pain and love: the last period, the brutality of art, if the dead rise not ... the wish house, the gardener.