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Mrs. Bathurst | Introduction

‘‘Mrs. Bathurst’’ is perhaps Rudyard Kipling’s most popular short story. Although his career began as a journalist, it is Kipling’s prose sketches and verse that earned him widespread respect as an author at an early age. Henry James considered Kipling the most complete man of genius he had ever known. Authors such as T. S. Eliot and C. S. Lewis acknowledged his influence on their own work.

Kipling’s reputation as an author, however, has been under almost constant revision in the twentieth century. Lionel Trilling perceived him as a mere curiosity of the past, a man whose conservative politics eclipsed his literary status. George Orwell was equally dismissive of Kipling. After receiving the Nobel Prize in literature in 1907, critics agree that Kipling’s subsequent career suffered in comparison with the achievement of such early novels as Kim and the two volumes of The Jungle Book.

‘‘Mrs. Bathurst’’ incorporates central aspects of Kipling’s fiction, including his use of dialect, his complex structure of composition, and his fascination with the sea. The critical reception of the story was enthusiastically positive, though critics have been confused by certain elements. Nonetheless, the story has fascinated readers and critics alike for more than ninety years, and has been at the center of the debate concerning Kipling’s reputation as an author.

Mrs. Bathurst Summary

‘‘Mrs. Bathurst’’ takes place in Glengariff, South Africa, in the years following the Boer War (1899– 1902). The main story is told through a conversation between three men and the narrator; the four men discuss the tragic tale of Mrs. Bathurst, a hotel owner in New Zealand, and her lover, Mr. Vickery (also known as ‘‘Click’’). The preface to the story is an excerpt from a mock-Jacobean tragedy written by Kipling entitled Lyden’s ‘‘Irenius’’ that narrates a dialogue between a prince and one of his subjects.

The themes of the epigraph—disinterested fate and accidental providence—carry over into the story. The story begins with the narrator running into his friend Mr. Hooper, who is an inspector for the Cape Government Railways. The two men hitch a ride down the tracks on a chalk-car that is being repaired. Mr. Hooper starts to take something out of his pocket to show the narrator, but is interrupted by the shouts of Mr. Pyecroft, an old friend of the narrator’s. With Pyecroft is his bulky companion, Sergeant Pritchard. These two visitors climb into the car and introduce themselves to Mr. Hooper.

The conversation turns to the legendary story of ‘‘Boy Niven,’’ who lured seven or eight sailors into the woods of British Columbia from port in Vancouver in 1887, promising to give them land. The group of sailors, which included Pritchard and Pyecroft, was court-marshaled for desertion. Sergeant Pritchard then mentions Spit-Kid Jones, a sailor who was also a member of the group and who later married a so-called ‘‘coconut-woman’’ and eventually deserted the ship Astrild.

The topic leads Pritchard to make reference to Mr. Vickery, nicknamed ‘‘Click’’ because of his noisy false teeth. Mr. Hooper asks about Click’s infamous tattoos. Wary, Pritchard suspects that Mr. Hooper is an agent for the law and begins to leave, remaining only on account of entreaties from all three of the men. The narrator vouches for Mr. Hooper’s honesty, and Pritchard apologizes for his suspicion.

Settled once again, the narrator asks why Vickery deserted the navy. Pyecroft replies, ‘‘She kep’ a little hotel at Hauraki—near Auckland [New Zealand],’’ implying that the source of Click’s departure was a woman. Pyecroft describes the woman, Mrs. Bathurst, as a widow who kept a hotel and wore black silk. Pritchard interrupts to give a personal account of Mrs. Bathurst’s generosity of spirit, telling how she often let the sailors rent rooms on credit and how she once reserved four bottles of... » Complete Mrs. Bathurst Summary