Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

Joshua Grasso (East Central University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow), Sean Seeger (University of Essex)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1902

Places

India (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Children's Literature
Story Collection

Resources

Once an essential part of an English-speaking childhood, Kipling’s Just So Stories have fallen out of favor, replaced by the more contemporary wonders of The Hobbit and Harry Potter. Yet these stories are cut from the same cloth as his other children’s books, such as the more enduring The Jungle Books (1894-95), and the later Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906) and its companion, Rewards and Fairies (1910). Certainly the Just So Stories are a looser confederation of tales, each one giving a whimsical explanation for how the natural world came to be, leading up to the invention of writing itself. Yet of all his juvenile works, the Just So Stories best captures the paradox of Kipling’s art in all its wonder and contradiction. While they superficially appear as charming, if dated, fairy tales drawing on...

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1989 words

Citation: Grasso, Joshua. "Just So Stories". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 February 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4263, accessed 13 December 2025.]

Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

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