Soldiers Three is a collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

. The three soldiers of the title are Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris

Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris

"Mulvaney, Ortheris, and Learoyd are Privates in B Company of a Line regiment, and personal friends of mine." - Thus Rudyard Kipling introduces, in the story The Three Musketeers three characters who were to reappear in many stories, and to give their name to his next collection Soldiers Three...

, who had also appeared previously in the collection Plain Tales from the Hills

Plain Tales from the Hills

Plain Tales from the Hills 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 Gazette in Lahore, Punjab, British India, between November 1886 and June 1887...

. The current version, dating from 1899 and more fully titled Soldiers Three and other stories, consists of three sections which each had previously received separate publication in 1888; Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris appear only in the first section, which is also titled Soldiers Three.

Publication history

The first publication of a collection of seven stories called Soldiers Three was as No 1 of A.H. Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library

Indian Railway Library

The Indian Railway Library was an enterprise conducted in Allahabad from 1888. It was a publishing venture of A.H. Wheeler & Co, who "had the monopoly on bookstall sales on Indian railway stations"...

, a slim volume of 97 pages printed at the “Pioneer” Press, Allahabad in 1888 called Soldiers Three: a collection of stories setting forth certain passages in the lives and adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris and John Learoyd, done into type and edited by Rudyard Kipling. In 1899, it became part of the book Soldiers Three and Other Stories, known to most people by the simpler title Soldiers Three. It is this collection whose contents are listed here. To the original Soldiers Three were added nos 2 and 3 of the Indian Railway Library, The Story of the Gadsbys

The Story of the Gadsbys

The Story of the Gadsbys is a story by Rudyard Kipling. It was originally published as no. 2 of the Indian Railway Library in 1888. The Story of the Gadsbys is written in dramatic form, consisting of eight short scenes...

, which is written in dramatic form, and In Black and White

In Black and White (Kipling Stories)

In Black and White is a collection of eight short stories by Rudyard Kipling which was first published in a booklet of 108 pages as no. 3 of A H Wheeler & Co.’s Indian Railway Library in 1888. It was subsequently published in a book along with nos 1 and 2, Soldiers Three and The Story of the...

, looking more at the native Indians than the British. Both of these were also published in 1888. (The phrase 'Soldiers Three' may be used in writings about Kipling to group the three heroes of this collection: see Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris

Learoyd, Mulvaney and Ortheris

"Mulvaney, Ortheris, and Learoyd are Privates in B Company of a Line regiment, and personal friends of mine." - Thus Rudyard Kipling introduces, in the story The Three Musketeers three characters who were to reappear in many stories, and to give their name to his next collection Soldiers Three...

.)

Soldiers Three (in the Indian Railway Library edition) became the second collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

 to be published, after Plain Tales from the Hills

Plain Tales from the Hills

Plain Tales from the Hills 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 Gazette in Lahore, Punjab, British India, between November 1886 and June 1887...

(in which the 'Three Soldiers' also appear). Like it, it was collected from some of the fiction he had published in journals; but while Plain Tales was mostly collected from the Civil and Military Gazette, this was "Reprinted in chief from the Week’s news", an Allahabad paper.

Soldiers Three: A Collection of Stories Setting forth certain passages in the lives and adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris, and John Learoyd

• "The God from the Machine"
• "Private Learoyd's Story"
• "The Big Drunk Draf'"
• "The Solid Muldoon"
• "With the Main Guard"
• "In the Matter of a Private"
• "Black Jack"

The Story of the Gadsbys: A Tale without a Plot

(first published as no. 2 in the Indian Railway Library

Indian Railway Library

The Indian Railway Library was an enterprise conducted in Allahabad from 1888. It was a publishing venture of A.H. Wheeler & Co, who "had the monopoly on bookstall sales on Indian railway stations"...

: eight 'stories' in dramatic form, with a final poem in four verses)

• "Poor Dear Mamma"
• "The World Without"
• "The Tents of Kedar"
• "With any Amazement"
• "The Garden of Eden"
• "Fatima"
• "The Valley of the Shadow"
• "The Swelling of Jordan"
• "L'Envoi" (a poem)

In Black and White

• "Dray Wara Yow Dee"
• "The Judgement of Dungara"
• "At Howli Thana"
• "Gemini"
• "At Twenty-Two"
• "In Flood Time"
• "The Sending of Dana Dee"
• "On the City Wall"

External links

• Front cover From University of Bristol Special Collections.