British literature summaries - 2020
Short summary - The Jungle Book
Sir Joseph Rudyard Kipling
The book consists of two parts. Some of the stories tell of Mowgli, of his life in the jungle among wild animals. At the age of two, the little son of a lumberjack is lost in the jungle. Behind him, the lame tiger Sher Khan prowls on his heels and wants to make him his prey. The child crawls to the lair of the wolves. Father and Mother wolves take him to their family and protect him from Sher Khan. They call him Mowgli, which means "frog." On the advice of the wolf pack, the Balu bear, teaching wolf cubs about the law of the jungle, and the black panther Bagheera, who pays the pack to keep the baby from being torn to pieces by Sher Khan, advocate that Mowgli be allowed to live among the wolves.
Mowgli's intelligence and courage allow him to survive and grow stronger in the difficult conditions of life in the jungle. His friends and patrons are the balu bear, Bagheera, the Kaa boa, the leader of the Akelo wolf pack. There are many adventures in his life, he learns to speak the language of all the inhabitants of the jungle, and this more than once saves his life.
Once the monkeys Bandar-logs take the boy to the Cold Lairs, the ruined Hindu city, built in the jungle several centuries ago. While the monkeys carry him, moving along the branches of trees, Mowgli asks the kite to track where he is being taken and to warn his friends. Bagheera, Balu and Kaa come to the aid of the boy and save him from the monkeys who play with him like with a toy.
Ten years after the arrival of Mowgli in the jungle, the leader of the Akelo flock becomes old and can no longer patronize his pet. Many wolves hate Mowgli because they cannot stand his gaze and feel his inexplicable superiority. Sher Khan is waiting for the right moment to deal with Mowgli. Then, on the advice of Bagheera, Mowgli brings fire from the village. On the Council Rock of the wolf pack, he demonstrates his strength to the beasts, sets fire to the skin of Sher Khan, and defends Akelo.
After that, he leaves the jungle and goes to the village, to the people. There, a woman named Messua takes him for her son, who was once dragged away by Sher Khan, and gives him shelter in his house. Mowgli teaches the human language, mastered with the way of life of people, and then for several months becomes a shepherd of a rural herd of buffalo. One day he learns from loyal wolves that Sher Khan, who was leaving for another part of the jungle to heal his wounds, returned. Then Mowgli lures the tiger into a trap and directs a buffalo herd on both sides of it. Sher Khan is dying. Having learned about the death of a tiger, the village hunter wants to get 100 rupees for the capture of Sher Khan and wants to take his skin to the village. Mowgli does not allow him to do this. Then the hunter calls him a werewolf, and Messua and her husband are sorcerers. Mowgli with tiger skin hiding in the jungle. His named parents are about to burn. Mowgli returns, helps them hide and get to the settlement of the British, from whom they can ask for protection. Wild elephants, buffaloes, deer are sent to the village of Mowgli, and they trample all the fields, destroy houses, disperse herds, so that the inhabitants are forced to leave their former habitat and seek shelter in some other place.
After the death of Sher Khan and the destruction of the village, Mowgli returns to the jungle, and now he lives especially well. Everyone recognizes the rights of the master and master of the jungle. He grows up as a handsome, strong and intelligent young man.
When he reaches seventeen years old, the habitat of the wolves is attacked by wild red dog dolas. Each of them is weaker than a wolf, but they are attacked by hordes, they are hungry and kill all living things in their path. Mowgli, along with Kaa, lures them into a trap consisting of a billionth swarm of wild bees and a swift river. The trick helps him deal with most of the uninvited guests. Then the wolf pack kills the survivors and the most stubborn of them. Thus, Mowgli saves the wolves from certain death (if they decided to fight with the dales without preliminary measures) or from forced relocation.
Spring is coming, and Mowgli is drawn to people. He says goodbye to his friends and finally leaves for the place where Messua and her newly born child now live. Mowgli meets a girl, marries her and leads a normal life for a human being, but forever retains in her memory her first years spent in the jungle and the images of her true friends.
Other most famous stories are the story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, as well as the White Cat. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a small mongoose, a brave fighter with snakes. Once, a family of English, who had recently settled in a bungalow with a garden, finds a barely living mongoose, nurses it and leaves it in their home. Rikki-Tikki after some time realizes that he will have to fight with two cobras: Nag and his girlfriend Nagena, who are extremely dissatisfied with his appearance in the garden. They intend to kill all people: husband and wife and their son Teddy, hoping that then the mongoose will have nothing to do in their garden. On the first night, Ricky-Tikki in the bathroom of Teddy’s parents kills Naga. The next morning, it destroys all the eggs of the cobra, from which small snakes are about to hatch, and after Nagena herself she rushes into her hole and there she finishes it.
The story of the White Cat, who set himself the goal of finding an island for his relatives, where people could not get to them and steal to the slaughter, is also fascinating. For five years he swims in the seas and oceans, asks everyone he meets on his way where to find such a place. He has to fight storms, escape from sharks, and find food in difficult conditions. During his wanderings, he develops an extraordinary power in himself, hones his mind and observation. Finally, sea cows point him to such an island surrounded by coastal reefs, and the next year he brings almost all the tribe of his brothers to him, where they can live in safety and nothing darkens the future of their babies.