Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book

Victorian Cover Art

While the gilded cover stamp and writing on the spine of the books suggest that this cover was created in the 1840s, Macmillan and Co. released the first edition of The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book in 1894 and 1895, respectively. Humans riding elephants are displayed on the cover of The Jungle Book, which may be seen as a symbol of man's dominance over the animal kingdom, a suggestion that the jungle animals in the book reflect human characteristics and situations, or both. The Jungle Books were published when the Victorian Era was closing out and leading into the Modern Era. Railways were improving at rapid speeds, along with manufacturing, journalism, and banking. Humans held power over the natural--and now, industrial--worlds and their supremacy is evident on the cover of this novel. In the first Jungle Book, humans are in control. However, a snake and spear adorn the cover of The Second Jungle Book. Humans are nowhere to be found, and a reptile seems to be yielding a weapon created by and for humans. The contrast between cover animals is supplementary to each novel's contents. The Jungle Book is prefaced by the image of elephants, though ruled by humans. Elephants are symbols of power, prosperity, and stability. Humans, aside from Mowgli, are nearly completely absent in the stories of The Jungle Book, while in the Second Jungle Book, humans are present in nearly every story and poem. In contrast to elephants, snakes symbolize rebirth and fertility, but it is also important to note that biblically, snakes (serpents) are symbols of evil and deceit.

Kipling, Rudyard

Churchill Book Collector

London: Macmillan and Co.

1894

Clark, R. & R. (Printer)

Churchill Book Collector

3 images depicting the cover and spine of two novels

Book Cover