The good Kipling

the long version

One of the great problems of Kipling criticism is to find a way to discover and reveal this coherent voice of "the good Kipling," a way to explain, that is, how Kipling the brutal realist can simultaneously be Kipling the man of compassion, how Kipling the mournful nihilist can simultaneously be Kipling the winner of the Nobel Prize for his "idealistic tendency," how Kipling the romantic imperialist and believer can simultaneously be Kipling the late-Victorian doubter, how Kipling the political man can simultaneously be Kipling the artist. The obvious way to discover "the good Kipling," who differs from "the bad Kipling" not in the superiority of his ideas but in the superiority of the art embodying those ideas, in his superior ability to synthesize apparently disparate elements into a satisfying aesthetic experience, is, or course, through study of his works. - p. 9-10.