The Man Who Would Be King (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Rudyard Kipling
- First Published: 1888
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: The late nineteenth century
- Setting: India and Afghanistan
- Principal Characters: An unnamed newspaperman, Peachey Carnehan, Daniel Dravot
- Genres: Short fiction, Allegory, Adventure
- Subjects: Philosophy or philosophers, Nineteenth century, Reality, Fantasy, India or East Indian people, Adventure, Imperialism
- Locales: India, Afghanistan
The Story
“The Man Who Would Be King” is told by a first-person narrator who one can assume is Rudyard Kipling as a young newspaperman in India. Meeting Peachey Carnehan, an adventure-seeking vagabond, on a train, the narrator learns that Peachey and his fellow vagabond, Daniel Dravot, are posing as correspondents for the newspaper for which the narrator is a real correspondent. After the narrator returns to his office and becomes “respectable,” Peachey and Dravot interrupt this respectability (characterized by the narrator's concern for the everyday reality that...
[The entire page is 1485 words long]
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