First Lines: The Jungle Book(s)

If you think that you know all about The Jungle Book because you saw the Disney film when you were young, you might as well forget about it. Sure, Rudyard Kipling’s novel and it’s sequel The Second Jungle Book feature the adventures of the feral boy Mowgli, but the movie took large liberties with the source material.

For starters, I can’t recall the python Kaa not wanting to devour Mowgli, of the boy skinning that damned tiger, for that matter. Nor does he order a horde of elephants to destroy a village, or lead his wolfpack into battle with the red dogs. And those tales about that white seal looking for a place where humans won’t bash in his skull in order to skin him, or of the heroic mongoose killing cobras or the military animals having a chat? Not in the movie either.

Even though the Mowgli stories were clearly my favourites, none of the other stories were a total bust. And while the Disney connection was the main reason for putting it on my list of 40 books, the book being nothing like the movie didn’t come as a surprise. (A thick volume of the Grimm fairy tales are now on my night stand. I’m fairly sure old uncle Walt took some liberties with those as well.)

Book read
Rudyard Kipling — The Jungle Book
First line
It was seven o’clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day’s rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips.
Book read
Rudyard Kipling — The Second Jungle Book
First line
The Law of the Jungle — which is by far the oldest law in the world — has arranged for almost every kind of accident that may befall the Jungle People, till now its code is as perfect as time and custom can make it.