Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

The Jungle Books
The Jungle Books
The Jungle Books
Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

The Jungle Books

Written by Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by Madhav Sharma

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

Kipling’s tales of Mowgli and his exciting life in the Indian jungle have been loved by children and adults alike ever since their publication in 1895. Mowgli the "man-cub" must learn to fend for himself against terrible foes like Shere Khan the tiger, but he can always call upon his friends Baloo the Bear, Bagheera the Black Panther and Kaa the Rock Python from whom he learns the Law of the Jungle.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMar 9, 1995
ISBN9789629544096
Author

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), India, but returned with his parents to England at the age of five. Among Kipling’s best-known works are The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, and the poems “Mandalay” and “Gunga Din.” Kipling was the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature (1907) and was among the youngest to have received the award. 

More audiobooks from Rudyard Kipling

Related to The Jungle Books

Related audiobooks

Children's Classics For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Jungle Books

Rating: 3.813311722808441 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,232 ratings64 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautiful, brilliant, nostalgic...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Verzameling verhalen waarvan alleen eerste 5 over Mowgli. Verhalen telkens gevolgd door bijhorend lied; zeer mooi geschreven.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Don't rely on Disney, read the book(s) for yourself! The cartoon I've seen of Rikki Tikki Tavi is a faithful adaptation, and there are other stories I was wholly unaware of, but everything involving Mowgli is a bit different. There's more too. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the film adaptations too, but the book is likewise worth your time, if not more so.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A classic that I loved since I read it for the first time at age 5. My favourite till today is Rikki Tikki Tavi, the mongoose who makes friends with beings so totally different from itself and protects them with wit and skill.Oh, and Bagheera, of course. Every child should have a Bagheera.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This a collection of tales that include Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, and Shere Khan; the great snake Kaa and the Monkey People; the white seal Kotick; Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the human family he saves from the cobra couple Kala Nag and Nagaina; Little Toomai and the elephants; and a mule named Billy. "Mowgli's Brothers" is Chapter 1 and it's the basis for the popularized story and film called "The Jungle Book."These are stories of adventure and exploration of the world and its inhabitants. The adventures contain life's lessons along the way. I think most of these stories are fantastic in how they engage the reader through a fun plot and an easy reading style, especially "Mowgli's Brothers" and "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi."
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    What can you say about such a classic as this? Mowgli is raised in the wilds of the Indian Junble by wolves, and has a series of adventures, in which he proves himself brave, and kind and fair. I enjoyed reading the stories that make up The Jungle Book, for all they were a product of the era in which they were written.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a story about a little boy Mowgli. At the beginning of the story his parents are killed by the lame tiger Shere khan . Shere khan vows to eat Mowgli. But Mowgli learns the law of the jungle , how to hunt and how to make fire! as he is learning this, the evil savage monkeys catch him and make him teach them to weave stick and do man skills. But then Baloo and Bageera his two friends try to rescue him.He eventually kills Shere khan with a landslide of buffaloes when he is acting herd boy at a man village. At the end he hunts freely with his brother wolfs.This book was very good. I recommend this book to many young readers. It helps you expose your mind to literature. There is lots of action in this book,there is lots of humor as well. I like how mowgli is brave . He is very courageous, he fought a tiger,can't get more courageous than that! Once again I recommend this book!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Verzameling verhalen waarvan alleen eerste 5 over Mowgli. Verhalen telkens gevolgd door bijhorend lied; zeer mooi geschreven.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Enjoyed the main story of The Jungle Book, didn't enjoy the other stories in the book quite as much. Other than The Jungle Book I liked the story of Little Toomai.Wonder if J.K. Rowling was inspired by Rudyard Kipling when she created Nagini as there are two snakes in a story named Nag and Nagaina.Made me want to read The Just So stories again. I might look out for it on the Kindle.Think it tied in well with my EA300 course though I enjoyed it more for not having to study it!Would love to get a pretty illustrated version to read again in the future.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    My standard four teacher placed this collection into my hands knowing that I was a keen reader. I think he was trying to steer me towards the classics and away from Enid Blyton. I'm glad someone did. I read it, but I had no further guidance, so I was a bit perplexed. I asked my father to take a look. He's a non-reader really. He read a few paragraphs and said, 'What a load of rubbish.' (This didn't help.)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Even better now than when I was a child

    This is the first time I have read this book since I was a little girl. The stories are well written, for adult and child alike. It is a great thing to get to know these classical characters.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    One of my favorites.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I hadn't realized The Jungle Book was actually a collection of stories Kipling wrote, including the one I know and love in the form of a Disney movie. I was quite surprised (and happy!) to see Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (a personal favorite of mine) and a few others that I hadn't heard of. Each story was entertaining, short, and descriptive. It made me want to go back and watch the movie versions of The Jungle Book (in which I don't recall Bagheera being quite so endearing) and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. This is a classic that many can enjoy for generations to come.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Mowgli stories are excellent - the rest, less so. Even Riki Tiki Tavi, it turns out, isn't so great. Too bad - I remember a great animated version of it that I watched as a kid.The imperialism is present, though not generally so obtrusive as might be expected (the final story an exception, obviously).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This classic story of a boy raised by a pack of wolves has lost none of its power over the years, but the Disney movie certainly doesn't do it justice. Mowgli's journey to manhood is so much more complicated than that depiction shows. He learns the jungle law from the vivid characters Baloo the bear and the panther Bagheera and he must fight the tiger Shere Khan, but the true story lies in his life as a misfit. Though he's raised in the jungle, most animals never accept him. Then when he returns to the human village he finds the same is true there. He has no real home and the pain of that breaks his heart.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have to say I like the movie better, but I think that's because of the music! It was an interesting story. Kipling either has an amazing imagination or he actually spent time in the jungle. Maybe it's both.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a story about a man who was brought up by wolves. The boy's name is Mougl.This is a famous story.So,It is easy for me to read this book, because Ihave been known this story.This is fiction,but there is a story that a boy was brought by wolves.I hope that peopl and animal can become friends like Mougli.In fact, man hurt a lot of animals. It is sad fact.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The first three stories here are more or less in our literary DNA at this point (I mean, really, who calls up more vivid associations for you, Noah, Achilles, and King Arthur, or Baloo, Bagheera, and Shere Khan?). Mowgli is the child raised by wolves, of course, but he's also the perfect man in a way, the transcendently alive (and lithe) hunter gatherer, domiciling amongst the beasts not because he's fallen off the map of human civilization but because we left him behind, adopted agriculture and superstition. He's not an animal and he's not a man, at least given what man has become--he's the treetopper and tool-user we might have been.And then there is "The White Seal," Kotick the seal on his requisite quest through underwater amazement-scapes, and the seals have their own language based on Aleut, which is amazing, and it's just a really well-fleshed-out and enchanting world. Also Kipling manages to pull off a (gory) seal massacre in a way that's not too awful to teach small children some thoughtful lessons about mortality. The equal of Mowgli in every way.And Rikki-Tikki-Tavi the mongoose, lesser, and Kipling dwells fetishistically on the "Big Englishman," but still a classic David/Goliath story.And then "Toomai of the Elephants," which to me is just mahout fanfic, and then the one about the horse and the mule and the camel, which to me is befuddled and pointless as if Kipling got too much sun.And the poems, which range from evocative in a"Jungle-Floor Ballads" kind of way to extraneous plot sommary of the stories to which they attach. This is a comprehensive rating, but Mowgli and Kotick are five-star bros for sure.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I somehow never read any of the Kipling stories as a child, I only knew the Disney animated movie, and later the Jason Scott Lee [as Mowgli] live-action version. So I was very pleased to find just how good the stories are, even to an adult. They're much heavier than the movie portrayed, and there's a lot the movie left out, even from such a short book. Definitely something young people should read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved the parts with Mowgli, but the other stories completely lost my interest, so I didn't read them. They could be good. Maybe great. I will never know.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Public domain book. It's been a long time since I saw the movie, and I've never read the novel. There's not actually a lot of "The Jungle Book" in this. Two, maybe three stories. And Shere Kahn is killed in the beginning. The rest are some stories about elephants and seals that involve a lot of "not things happening". It's not dissimilar from "Just So Stories". The stories just don't hold up well. They were meant for another time. Except "Rikki Tiki Tavi", which could take place in space with aliens if you switched some characters and settings around. I started skipping towards the end, because I just didn't feel like the stories mattered. If you want a Jungle Book fix, see the movie.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    After re-reading "Jungle Book" I still did not enjoy it. It's a book for children but as a child I did not enjoy it that much so I decided to put it off for x number of years. I guess a boy who grew up with wolves, bears and panthers just does not sit well with me but I did love the Disney movie. Maybe I'm just not a jungle girl and the Rules of the Jungle does not apply to me ;p.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I think this book is a bit gruesome for children, but... oh well, that's just me. Maybe it's all a matter of point of view, the original fairy tales are not half as glamorous as it is shown by the Disney universe.

    I usually dislike books with talking animals, and this one was no exception. I found that this book was rather bland and it failed to draw my attention to any of its tales. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi's was, by far, the most interesting one. As for the other ones, well, they're not really impressive. Indeed, perhaps I'm not the target audience of this book, thus my lack of interest for most of its aspects.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Picked up as premium on Folio Society order instead of 'Autumn' offering. Later saw a preview for new CGI Jungle Book Disney movie, so a refresher read seemed timely. I enjoyed all the stories, most especially 'Toomai of the Elephants' that I had never before encountered.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Previously, I only knew about The Jungle Book if it was the Disney movie, which I didn't even watch. The show looked a little infantile and frankly, I didn't really get it. Later on, I read and loved The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which I heard was based on The Jungle Book. Interesting, but still not enough to get me to read it. Finally, I read The God of Small Things by Arundathi Roy. In it, they quoted The Jungle Book's "We be of one blood, thou and I". After meeting all these instances of intertextuality, I had to read the book. The book follows a fairly predictable format: story, then a poem about the story. While I was a little disappointed that not all the stories was about Mowgli, the other stories were interesting. I'm not sure about all this imperialism stuff, since I've not studied that aspect of literature in detail, but all I saw was the noble savage idea, such as that of Huckleberry Finn.Although the stories lagged towards the end, I still enjoyed the book, if not for the content, then for all the wonderful instances of intertexualities within it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A favorite classic from my childhood.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed this as an adult far more than I did as a child. When young, I expected the whole book to be about Mowgli. As an adult, I remembered that it was a collection of many things and thus wasn't disappointed. In fact, some of my favourites were not Mowgli stories. I particularly liked the story of the white seal.Kipling has a real gift with words (reminds me a little of Ursula le Guin) and some of his tales read like myth.I also appreciate the poems a lot more now. Kipling has a wonderful sense of rhythm, which I totally failed to appreciate when younger, but now really love.A small bonus for me was realising that the poem with 'Her Majesty's Servants' was set to the rhythm of several songs that I knew. When he talks of the cavalry cantering to 'Bonnie Dundee', the metre is that of 'Bonnie Dundee'. He also works 'British Grenadiers' and 'Lincolnshire Poacher' into the same poem.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    best book ever... couldn't recommend enough
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Summary: During the times of the British Raj in India, Mowgli is the 5-year-old son of the widowed Nathoo. Nathoo works as a tour guide. On one of his tours, he is leading Colonel Geoffrey Brydon and his men as well as Brydon's 5-year-old daughter Katherine, with whom Mowgli nicknames "Kitty" and is close friends. That night, Shere Khan attacks the encampment, killing some soldiers who had been hunting for fun in the jungle earlier, which had enraged Khan. When he tries to kill the third hunter, Buldeo, Nathoo defends Buldeo and is mauled to death by Shere Khan. In the confusion, Mowgli is lost in the jungle (so is left unaware of his father's death) - Brydon and his men now believe Mowgli has too been killed. Mowgli is soon spotted by Bagheera the gentle panther, who brings the boy to the wolf pack. Mowgli also befriends a bear cub named Baloo. Years later, Mowgli, now a young man, discovers Monkey City, a legendary ancient city filled with treasure, owned by King Louie who has his treasure guarded by Kaa the python.Elsewhere, Katherine and her father are still stationed in India. She and Mowgli meet again, but neither recognise the other. Katherine is also in a relationship with one of Brydon's soldiers, William Boone. Mowgli enters the village in search of Katherine. Boone and his men manage to capture him and see that he is in possession of a valuable dagger that he took from Monkey City. Katherine discovers an old bracelet of her mother's: one she gave Mowgli when they were children, and instantly realizes who Mowgli is. She and Dr. Julius Plumford (a good friend of Brydon's) decide that they must re-introduce Mowgli to civlization. In doing so, Mowgli and Katherine fall in love, much to Boone's displeasure. Boone later proposes to Katherine and she accepts. Around this time, Mowgli returns to the jungle as he does not feel at home in the village, among Boone's friends. After Boone's cruel treatment of Mowgli, Katherine realizes she cannot marry Boone, so her father decides to send her back to England.Meanwhile, Boone and his friends (Buldeo, Tabaqui, Lieutenant Wilkins, and Sergeant Harley) gather some bandits to capture Mowgli in order to find out where the treasure is. The men shoot and badly wound Baloo when he comes to Mowgli's defense. They then kidnap Katherine and her father (who is shot and wounded in the process) and use them as blackmail: if Mowgli leads them to the treasure, Katherine and her father shall live. That night, the group learns that Shere Khan has returned to the area and is following them.The next morning, Harley catches Mowgli escaping (from the aid of Bagheera) and gives chase, only to fall in quicksand and drowns, despite Wilkins' help. Mowgli then has an elephant take the injured Brydon back to the village and promises to rescue Katherine. Later, Tabaqui falls to his death when attempting to kill Mowgli. As the remaining group get nearer to the lost city, they hear Shere Khan nearby and separate. Wilkins accidentally shoots Buldeo in the leg and is then chased down and killed by Shere Khan. In Monkey City, Buldeo accidentally sets off a trap while trying to kill Mowgli and is buried alive, while Mowgli narrowly escapes. Only Mowgli, Katherine and Boone reach the treasure. In the treasure room, with King Louie and his fellow monkeys watching in amusement, Mowgli and Boone engage in a fight until Mowgli injures the soldier. Mowgli then escapes with Katherine, not before Boone tries to make up with Katherine by offering the wealthy life they would live together, to which she rejects. After they leave, Boone begins pocketing as much gold as he can, only to notice the primates have become silent; he is then attacked by Kaa. Boone falls into a moat at the center of the room and sinks to the bottom due to his backpack filled with treasure. The last thing Boone sees before Kaa kills him is the skeletal remains of people whom Kaa had killed in the past.As Mowgli and Katherine leave, they are ambushed by Shere Khan: when Mowgli shows no fear towards the tiger, Shere Khan sees him as a creature of the jungle and accepts him. Mowgli and Katherine return from the jungle and meet Katherine's father and Baloo, both of whom have recovered from their injuries under Plumford's care. Mowgli now becomes lord of the jungle and begins a relationship with Katherine.Personal Reaction: I love the story of this book. Classroom Extension: After reading the book I would have the kids watch the movie and compare and contrast them.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    These are among the first books that I remember reading as a young boy. Of them my favorites were the Mowgli tales (developed by Disney for the cinema). Mowgli is an Indian infant who is lost in the jungle after Shere Khan (the tiger) kills his family. Bagheera (the black panther) places him with a wolf family that has a newborn litter. Mowgli's new "parents" and Bagheera and Baloo (the brown bear) sponsor him for membership in the Wolf Pack and, much to Shere Khan's chagrin, he is admitted. Thus Mowgli is raised according to Jungle Law, but has engendered the enmity of Shere Khan who is plotting his revenge and ingratiating himself with the younger wolves. This leads to an exciting denouement and with the several other Mowgli stories--there are some prequels--impressed this young reader. Kipling strikes a nice balance between anthropomorphizing the animals and understanding Mowgli's natural superiority. Also appearing in this collection is the story of Rikki Tikki Tavi--all about an intrepid young mongoose and his life or death battle to protect an Indian villa from a couple of particularly unpleasant cobras. Truly Rikki Tikki Tavi is one of the great heroes in all of literature. These stories are a great introduction for children (girls and boys) to the work of a true master storyteller. I enjoyed the adventures of Mowgli and his friends and eventually discovered more Kipling as I grew older.