Part I describes the abandonment of Rudyard Kipling and his younger sister
by their parents. Part II continues the story and ends with his
release from what seemed to him like a prison sentence with torture
thrown in.
There
are still a few questions outstanding and points to be made.
Did
Kipling lie about or exaggerate his suffering?
I remember reading somewhere that when Kipling's parents first read the
account of his time in Southsea, they tried to get his sister Trix to
say that it hadn't been as bad as he said it was. This is what
happens in many such cases; people said the same thing to Charlotte
Brontë, when actually she had toned down her account of life at the
dreadful school.
There
is a lot that could be and has been said on this subject. Writers
certainly use their imagination to create good stories. For many,
what happens in their imagination seems real to them, more real even
than what really happened. Some use what happened in real life as
just the starting point for building a whole edifice of fiction. Some
present occasional incidents as happening frequently and such things
as minor criticisms as vicious attacks. This may seem like lying and
exaggeration to some people.
However,
it is not only a case of what actually happened, but the kind of
person it happened to and what the effects were. Some
collective-minded, grounded people might be resilient and recover
quickly; they might let it all go, put it behind them, forgive and
forget and get on with their lives. Others, perhaps more imaginative
and sensitive and wide open to subtle energies, may have little
insulation or resistance and be permanently affected in the core of
their beings. Some people feel everything on an archetypal level;
some get bad feelings in overwhelming and concentrated doses, enough
for one hundred normal people.
I
believe that Rudyard Kipling told the truth about what happened and
did not exaggerate the effect it had on him. I also believe that a
very different type of boy might have been much less affected and
even been treated better. Jane Eyre said much the same thing about
herself.
Similar
cases
There
seems to be some unwritten rule that selected children must be put
through an extremely painful process, tortured even. Some are removed
from their parents and isolated; in other cases – those of Diana
Wynne Jones and August Strindberg for example - it is the parents who
are the prison guards. Strindberg too felt that his childhood was a
prison sentence; he even called it hell.
Rudyard
Kipling wrote of his life in Southsea, “I had never heard of hell,
so I was introduced to it in all its terrors...I was regularly
beaten.”
Charlotte
Brontë was handed over to the care of an Evangelical clergyman and
Kipling to committed Evangelical Mrs Holloway. Both were stern
disciplinarians; they put children through hell in the name of saving
their souls from hell.
The
ordeal had long-term effects
Rudyard
Kipling often overworked, and he and his sister would become
depressed and disintegrate from time to time. Neither was very happy
in life, Rudyard despite his success, fame, and fortune.
Trix
married but had no children; two of Rudyard's children died and his
surviving daughter had no children, so the direct line died out. The
same thing happened with the Brontë family.
Did
Rudyard benefit in any way from his ordeal?
Kipling
said that his life in Southsea was not an unsuitable preparation for
the future; it demanded constant wariness for example, and the noting
of discrepancies between speech and action. This reminds me of what
Lady Colin Campbell said in Daughter of Narcissus about how life with her malignant narcissist
of a mother prepared her for recognising and dealing with lawyers'
dirty tricks.
Rudyard
Kipling was illiterate when he arrived in Southsea; strangely, his
parents had never taught him to read and write. Mrs Holloway was
charged with the task of ensuring that he learned so that he would
be able to read the books and magazines his parents sent him. Just
like Jane Eyre, he read partly to escape from his miserable life and
partly out of fascination with the subject matter. He found solace,
education and food for his imagination in various books and poems.
Some of what he read inspired him when he became a writer.
Was
it the Southsea episode that made a writer of Rudyard Kipling? We
will never know for sure. Perhaps his suffering attracted the daemon
that he said helped him with his writing. Perhaps his daemon arranged
it all to soften him up and put him on the path that was arranged for
him.
It
would have been a great loss to us if Rudyard Kipling had never
become a writer, and this applies to more than just Kipling's works.
Rosemary Sutcliff, author of the wonderful story about Roman Britain
The Eagle of the Ninth, said that people who didn't read Kipling
would miss something they would not get from any other writer. I
agree with this. She loved his work and acknowledged a great debt to
him; his stories about the Romans inspired her stories about the
Romans. Robert A. Heinlein is just one of the many other authors he
inspired.
Our gain may have been Kipling's loss. His sad words show
how he felt about his life:
"Beware
of overconcern for money, or position, or glory. Someday you will
meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how
poor you are.“
"Too
much work and too much energy kill a man just as effectively as too
much assorted vice or too much drink.“
Lorne
Lodge, Southsea and me
Lorne
Lodge still exists. It is a typical early Victorian building. I
don't know whether it is true that, in the dank basement where
Kipling used to play, etched into a whitewashed wall you can still
make out the word, 'Help'.
I
was astounded when I realised that I had lived just around the corner
from The House of Desolation. Not only that, but I have since
discovered that I was living close to a house where another great man
had stayed. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrived in Southsea in 1882, to
set up a doctor's practice. He wrote the first two Sherlock Holmes
stories while living there. I will never know now why my family
moved to Southsea, but what a coincidence that the house where I
lived is right between the two other houses and roughly the same
distance from both!
You can see 'Lorne Lodge' on the gateposts:
Some
final words from Rudyard Kipling
His
little poem The Appeal asks that people pay attention only to his
books during the short time that he will be remembered after his
death. He wants to be left to rest in peace; he does not want to be
investigated and discussed.
Kipling
has been borne in mind for much longer than the short time he
predicted. His appeal for personal privacy has not been heeded;
biographical works about various aspects of his life are still being
produced. In
modern times, nothing is sacred.
The
Appeal
If
I have given you delight
By
aught that I have done,
Let
me lie quiet in that night
Which
shall be yours anon:
And
for the little, little, span
The
dead are borne in mind,
Seek
not to question other than
The
books I leave behind.
