Kidnapped (short story)
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Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
story "Kidnapped" was first published in the ''
Civil and Military Gazette ''The Civil and Military Gazette'' was a daily English-language newspaper founded in 1872 in British India. It was published from Lahore, Simla and Karachi, some times simultaneously, until its closure in 1963.Plain Tales from the Hills ''Plain Tales from the Hills'' (published 1888) is the first collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling. Out of its 40 stories, "eight-and-twenty", according to Kipling's ''Preface'', were initially published in the '' Civil and Military Ga ...
'' (1888), and in subsequent editions of that collection. outline Kipling starts by announcing, "We ritishare a high-caste and enlightened race", but suggesting that arranged marriages are preferable to Western notions of love matches. "The Hindu notion - which is the Continental notion, which is the aboriginal notion - is sound", he writes. The story that follows is designed to illustrate this. It tells of Peythroppe, an exemplary member of the Indian Civil Service. "All his superiors spoke well of him because he knew how to hold his tongue and his pen at the proper times. There are, today, dds Kipling, in one of the characteristic effects of omniscience which he often used in his early twentiesonly eleven men in India who possess this secret; and they have all, with one exception, attained great honour and enormous incomes." There is one flaw in Peythroppe's exemplary conduct: he falls in love with Miss Castries, who is "impossible" as all mothers will know. The impossibility is a matter of race, always a sensitive subject in the
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
. Miss Castries is of Portuguese origin ("d'Castries it was originally, but the family dropped the d' for administrative reasons") and has a "'Spanish' complexion", a pronounced widow's peak, and an opal-tinted mark on her nails. These are enough to stamp her as having Indian blood in her ancestry - at a time when marrying someone of a different (or 'impure') race was regarded as disgraceful among the British. Kipling reports the facts, without overt comment: he accepts the 'impossibility' of such a gifted young man marrying such a woman. with all the necessary relationships with her relations. Peythroppe is determined to commit professional suicide. Here
Mrs Hauksbee Mrs. Hauksbee is a fictional character in many short stories by Rudyard Kipling. In the first, " Three and - an Extra", she is introduced as: Mrs Hauksbee appeared on the horizon; and where she existed was fair chance of trouble. At Simla her by-na ...
enters. "Her brain struck out the plan that saved him." She talks with Three Men, who dine with Peythroppe three weeks later, as he learns he has been gazetted a month's leave. Then camels are heard in the compound, and ... Kipling employs what in the cinema would be called a fade-out. Furniture is broken, and Peythroppe disappears. "Mrs Hauksbee said that Mr. Peythroppe was shooting in Rajputana with the Three Men; so we are compelled to believe her." The leave is extended, past the wedding day: "Mrs Hauksbee went to the wedding, and was much astonished when Peythroppe did not appear" (an example of Kipling's irony). The young men return from the leave, one with a cut on his nose "caused by the kick of a gun. Twelve-bores kick rather curiously" (more irony). Miss Castries' father, Honorary Lieutenant Castries, calls and threatens Peythroppe with a lawsuit for
breach of promise Breach of promise is a common law tort, abolished in many jurisdictions. It was also called breach of contract to marry,N.Y. Civil Rights Act article 8, §§ 80-A to 84. and the remedy awarded was known as heart balm. From at least the Middle ...
, but his daughter knows how a lady should behave and keeps her broken heart to herself. "One of these days eythroppewill marry a sweet pink-and-white ot clearly identified as 'white', but clearly that is the meaningmaiden, on the Government House List .e., socially approved" Kipling ends by saying how much trouble would have been avoided by an Official Matrimonial Department, charged with arranging matches. This story is an interesting example of the attitudes of Kipling and his contemporaries' towards race, particularly interracial marriage. Kipling appears to accept the norms of his time, but displays sympathy for Miss Castries and for Peythroppe. Kipling also makes his characteristic amused observations of the oddities of social behaviour.


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* {{Rudyard Kipling 1887 short stories Short stories by Rudyard Kipling Rudyard Kipling stories about India Works originally published in the Civil and Military Gazette