The Man Who Would Be King: and Other Stories (Rudyard Kipling)
5
"Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy."
So begins Rudyard Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King, with an echo of the last verse of the Masonic verse "Banquet Night," and there are a lot of references to Freemasonry in this tale, which is considered by many to be Kipling's finest short story. The story was first published in 1888, and this volume includes five of the author's best early stories: "The Phantom Rickshaw," "The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes," "Wee Willie Winkie," "Without Benefit of Clergy," and the aforementioned title selection.
The author was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), in what was then British India, and he drew upon his experiences in Anglo-Indian society for much of his fiction. The winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature, he was the first English language writer to receive the coveted prize, and to date he remains its youngest recipient. He is regarded as a master of the short story, and his books for children are considered as enduring classics of children's literature.
"The Man Who Would be King" is a unforgettable tale of adventure, and is told by a first-person narrator, a newspaperman in India who one can assume is Rudyard Kipling. While on a train, he meets a fascinating opportunist: "He was a wanderer and a vagabond like myself, but with an educated taste for whiskey. He told tales of things he had seen and done, of out-of-the-way corners of the Empire into which he had penetrated, and of adventures in which he risked his life for a few days' food."
The narrator soon learns that Daniel Dravot and his fellow vagabond, Peachey Carnehan, are both passing themselves off as journalists for the newspaper for which the narrator is a real correspondent. He is fascinated by them, but does stop them from blackmailing a minor Indian rajah.
Some months later, they appear at his office in Lahore, and tell him their plan. In the words of Daniel Dravot, they have been "Soldier, sailor, compositor, photographer, proof-reader, street-preacher, and correspondents of the 'Backwoodsman' when we thought the paper wanted one. Carnehan is sober, and so am I. Look at us first and see that's sure. It will save you cutting into my talk. We'll take one of your cigars apiece, and you shall see us light."
The paid have have decided India isn't enough for them, and the next day they will go off to Kafiristan, to set themselves up as kings. They were going through the Khaiber with a regular caravan and with Dravot disguised as a native priest, stating, "Who'd touch a poor mad priest?" They have twenty Martini rifles, and with their camels, they plan to find a tribal leader, help him defeat his enemies, then take over for themselves.
The pair sign a "Contrack" (contract) as "Gentlemen at Large," with the narrator as witness, in which they will together "be Kings of Kafiristan," not "look at any Liquor, nor any Woman," and that if one gets into trouble "the other will stay by him." They ask the narrator for the use of maps and books of the area, as a favor because they are fellow Freemasons, and because he spoiled their earlier blackmail scheme.
Two years pass, and on a hot summer night, an almost unrecognizable Peachey Carnehan creeps into the narrator's office, a broken man, a crippled beggar clad in rags. He tells an astonishing tale of how Daniel Dravot and he had succeeded in becoming Kafiri kings, taking over villages, and building a unified nation in Kafiristan (in modern-day Afghanistan). Carnehan explains how the Kafiris (who were pagans, not Moslems) came to regard Dravot as a god, and the immortal son of Alexander the Great. The Kafiris practiced a form of Masonic ritual, and the pair secrets of Freemasons that only the oldest priest remembered.
But Carnehan explains that their grand schemes were shattered when Dravot made a decision that brought their kingdom down around them. And to explain any further would spoil the final outcome of this amazing tale.
This complete story takes all of thirty pages, all in the center of this book, and many of the scholarly papers about it over the years are larger. The Masonic connections to the growth and demise of the British Empire have been covered by many. It's a true literary masterpiece, and it's quite apparent that Kipling was quite conscious of the fact that the British Empire of that time was not eternal.
It's no wonder that the late John Huston chose Kipling's tale to create his epic 1975 film The Man Who Would Be King, which starred Sean Connery (Daniel Dravot), Michael Caine (Peachey Carnehan) and Christopher Plummer (Rudyard Kipling). It had a great supporting performance from Saeed Jaffrey and a rare but pivotal appearance by Michael Caine's wife, Shakira. It's a film that director John Huston had planned for years, and was nominated for four Academy Awards. The film is very true to Kipling's story, but goes into less Masonic detail.
One of the more interesting aspects of this tale is that it was loosely based on historical fact, of which Kipling was aware. Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker, journeyed to Afghanistan in the 1820s, and through a series of wheeling and dealing, was crowned the Prince of Ghor (a province in central Afghanistan). Ben Macintyre's book The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan details his story, including Freemason Harlan trading secrets with an old Rosicrucian sorcerer in an Afghan cave, and how the the British overthrow of the sitting Afghan ruler soon forced his departure.
But going back to Kipling's tale, the inevitable question arises: which is better, the book or the movie? That would be a difficult answer for this reviewer, as both have been real favorites for many years, and John Huston had gone out of his way to keep his film as true to Kipling's story as possible. Would have to say that I rate them equally, and can easily recommend them as 5-star choices.
