<DIV>Rudyard Kipling is one of the most magical storytellers in the English language. Written over a period of five years, from 1885 to 1888, the seventeen stories in this collection offer a wry, vivid, and captivating glimpse of the development of Kipling's oeuvre over fifty years: the harsh, cruel realism that marks his most memorable works, the experimental modernism of his middle period, and the highly wrought subtleties of his later pieces. "The Man Who Would Be King" is a far- fetched adventure that serves as a parable of colonialism, while other stories feature tales of criminals, ghosts, femmes fatales, madness, and murder.<BR><BR></DIV>