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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Glossary
Susannah and the Elder
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Glossary
Summary
Published: Pioneer, 12 November 1888; Pioneer Mail, 14 November 1888.
Attribution: Signed ‘R.K.’
Text: Pioneer.
Notes: ‘Susannah and the Elder’ was reprinted in the October 1940 Kipling Journal by Captain E. W. Martindell, but, according to Harbord (iv, 2125), the pages of the Journal containing the story ‘had to be destroyed (in most cases) by order of the Owner of the Kipling copyrights’, i.e., by Elsie Kipling Bambridge, RK's surviving child. My copy of the Kipling Journal for October 1940 contains the story, as, I imagine, do most copies.
The story is a close and skilful imitation of the narrative method in Laurence Sterne's Life and Adventures of Tristram Shandy (1759–67), from which RK has also taken the names of the characters. Incongruity, apparent inconsequence, and shows of odd learning are the rule.
‘Yoreayke’ mimics the name of the parson ‘Yorick’ in Tristram Shandy; he is also the narrator of A Sentimental Journey and a pseudonym for Sterne himself. The modified spelling identifies Lord Reay, the governor of Bombay, as the object of the satire. I have not identified what particular statement or publication by Reay is in question, but Reay's main interest in his term as Governor of Bombay was in education, especially in promoting technical and practical education. The subject has been presented at length in W. W. Hunter, Bombay 1885 to 1890: A Study in Indian Administration, London and Bombay, 1892. RK was evidently unimpressed by Reay (see, e.g., ‘An Exercise in Administration’).
Nothing else that RK wrote for the Indian papers shows such confidence in the high literacy of his readers.
‘Susannah and the Elder’ has been reprinted in the Martindell–Ballard pamphlets; in the Kipling Journal, October 1940 (suppressed); and in Harbord, iv, 2122–5.
“Men's insides is made so comical, God help ‘em.”
George Eliot.Aha, elucescebat quoth our friend
No Tully, said I, Ulpian at the best
The Bishop Orders His TombChapter xxvii
The city of B-mb-y, the siege of which was begun by your honour's self, lies in the middle of a devilish strange country. ‘Tis quite benighted, said Corporal Trim. Then I wish the Faculty would follow my advice, said Yoreayke. But it cannot, said Corporal Trim. But it must, said Yoreayke. It never will, said Corporal Trim. It shall by G— said Yoreayke.
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- Information
- The Cause of Humanity and Other StoriesThe Cause of Humanity and Other Stories Uncollected Prose Fictions, pp. 305 - 310Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018