Rudyard Kipling Short Story Collections

‘Debits and Credits’ is a collection of anguished and bleak stories written by an author struggling with his own inner sufferings. Marital discord and adultery, war and death, cancer and disease are recurring themes throughout the stories, with the relentless ticking of the clock acting as a harbinger of greater sorrows. Concealed within the prose are reflections of Kipling’s own life, and faint echoes of his dying reputation as a once-famed writer. Amongst such anguish, however, there are faint glimmers of hope and an expectation of what is to come.

Limits and Renewals, Kipling’s last collection of short stories, was written shortly after the death of his only son. Unsurprisingly therefore, many of the stories take on the themes of pain, inner suffering and mental anguish, with an on-going exploration into the level of physical and psychological torment that can be endured before a complete breakdown. Dark and penetrating in tone, these are brilliant portraits of a soul in torment with some welcome relief coming in the tales of ‘Aunt Ellen’ and ‘The Miracle of Saint Jubanus’.