Audiobook · read by volunteers
Just So Stories (version 2)
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936)
Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023) · 12 chapters · 3 h 12
About the book
How did the whale get his throat, the camel his hump, the leopard his spots? Rudyard Kipling answers these questions in a way that no zoologist ever could, with tall tales told in a playful, rolling voice, addressed to a beloved child. Every story is full of strange names, repeated phrases and sly jokes, and each leaves the listener with a delighted sense of having been told a great secret. The tales draw on far-off lands, jungle and desert, sea and shore, and a cast of creatures who are curious, vain, greedy or brave, with the occasional wise human among them. They were made to be read aloud at bedtime, and they work just as well that way today. Kara Shallenberg reads twelve of these delightful stories. An ideal listen for children, parents and anyone who enjoys language that bounces off the tongue.
Introduction
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay in 1865 and died in 1936. He is one of the best-known British writers of his era, famous for The Jungle Book, Kim and many short stories and poems, and in 1907 he became the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. His work for children is distinguished by its sense of sound and by a storyteller’s confident, teasing manner.
Just So Stories was first published in 1902. The tales are fantastic accounts of how various natural phenomena came about, such as how the whale got his throat or the camel his hump. Kipling wrote and illustrated them himself, and the original editions were decorated with his own woodcut-style drawings, which many readers consider inseparable from the stories. The book also includes poems and a recurring figure, the Best Beloved, to whom the stories are addressed.
Readers today should be aware that some details reflect the attitudes of the period, and that Kipling’s reputation is complicated, but the stories themselves are among the most enduring children’s books in English. Their repeated refrains and invented words invite children to join in, and adults who remember them from childhood will find the rhythms familiar.
This is the second LibriVox version of the book. It has twelve sections and lasts about three hours and fifteen minutes, read by the late Kara Shallenberg. It can be heard all at once or one tale at a time, and it is excellent for bedtime, for car journeys and for any occasion when a little magic is wanted.
Public domain
Rudyard Kipling died in 1936: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text