Stalky & Co

Rudyard Kipling

Not entirely inaccurate stories of an English boarding school

There is a long tradition of stories and novels about English Public Schools. (Terminology: what the English traditionally called "public schools" are what we in the USA would call "private schools".) Stalky & Co. bears roughly the same relationship to this literature as Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey does to the English gothic fiction of her time. That is, it nods at that old tradition with some degree of affection even while making fun of it. Indeed, at least two such books, Eric, or Little by Little and St. Winifred's or The World of School are mentioned by name, with a sort of backhanded respect.

Stalky & Co. is based on Rudyard Kipling's experiences at the United Services College -- a private boarding school intended to feed students to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, which is frequently mentioned by name in Stalky & Co.. That is, the United Services College was meant to prepare Britain's future military leaders. Stalky & Co. is thus unusual in English school novels in that school is intended to do something for the students -- to prepare them for a specific future.

The three main characters of Stalky & Co. are Stalky, M'Turk, and Beetle. (Their real names are probably mentioned somewhere, but they are known almost entirely by these nicknames in the book.) Stalky, as the title suggests, is the leader of this little group. Beetle is Rudyard Kipling himself -- not really even disguised -- he even refers to himself in the first person in the final chapter. Stalky, M'Turk, and Beetle are bad boys in the long literary tradition of children who misbehave but are not actually evil.

Stalky is a schemer who elaborately plans what we would now call cons, intended to get himself and the boys the things they want (only occasionally material goods) and punish those they see as their oppressors. The book is superficially anti-bullying. In one chapter, "The Moral Reformers", Stalky & Co capture and punish a group of bigger boys who are bullying a smaller boy. The moral lesson is fairly completed vacated, however, by Stalky & Co showing themselves to be bullies in their treatment of the bigger boys once the latter are in their power.

I have very mixed feelings about Stalky & Co.. On the one hand, I cannot deny Stalky & Co's moral turpitude, even according to my extraordinarily lax, indeed almost nonexistent standards. On the other hand Stalky & Co. is an immensely fun read. You might not find it so. Those aforementioned lax standards give me an advantage in this regard. If you are a Good Person, you should not expect to enjoy reading Stalky & Co.. But I did!

Brok3n Engines

★★★★☆ Stalky & Co, by Rudyard Kipling