Audiobook · read by volunteers
Rewards and Fairies
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936)
Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023), Sage Tyrtle, Catharine Eastman, Mark F. Smith, Peter Eastman, Meredith Hughes, Kiki Baessell, Sibella Denton, Shurtagal, Ted Delorme · 12 chapters · 7 h 50
About the book
Two children, Dan and Una, are playing in an English meadow, and Puck, the oldest inhabitant of the land, is never far away. At his bidding, men and women from the past stroll out of the mist to tell the children their stories.
In this second book of tales, Kipling continues the stories begun in Puck of Pook’s Hill. Each chapter gives a glimpse of a different time in English history, from the Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century, with adventure, humour and a strong feeling for the countryside. Between the stories there are poems, which are read as well.
Twelve chapters, about eight hours. A rich, imaginative way to travel through English history, and a book that rewards listening by young and old.
Introduction
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author and poet, born in India, best known for The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Kim and many poems. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, the first English-language writer to do so. Rewards and Fairies, published in 1910, is the sequel to Puck of Pook’s Hill from 1906, and the two books form a pair.
Both volumes use the same framing device: two children, Dan and Una, meet figures from England’s past through the help of Puck, a spirit taken from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Each historical figure tells a story of his own age, with the children as listeners, and the Sussex landscape where Kipling lived provides the common setting. This approach allowed him to bring history to young readers in a way that was both entertaining and imaginative. The stories are linked by short poems, some of which, such as “If—”, became widely known.
In Rewards and Fairies Kipling includes tales of eighteenth-century society, of the Napoleonic period and of the Elizabethan era, among others. He was interested in craftsmanship, work and the continuity of the English landscape, and these interests run through the collection. Some of his views reflect the assumptions of his time, but the books remain admired for their style and invention.
This recording has twelve chapters and lasts almost eight hours, read by LibriVox volunteers. It is a rewarding listen for older children and adults who enjoy fine prose and historical fantasy.
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