Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

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Once an essential part of an English-speaking childhood, Kipling’s

Just So Stories

have fallen out of favor, replaced by the more contemporary wonders of

The Hobbit

and

Harry Potter

. Yet these stories are cut from the same cloth as his other children’s books, such as the more enduring

The Jungle Books

(1894-95), and the later

Puck of Pook’s Hill

(1906) and its companion,

Rewards and Fairies

(1910). Certainly the

Just So Stories

are a looser confederation of tales, each one giving a whimsical explanation for how the natural world came to be, leading up to the invention of writing itself. Yet of all his juvenile works, the

Just So Stories

best captures the paradox of Kipling’s art in all its wonder and contradiction. While they superficially appear as charming, if dated, fairy tales…

1989 words

Citation: Grasso, Joshua. "Just So Stories". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 February 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4263, accessed 29 March 2024.]

4263 Just So Stories 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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