Jungle Jest introduces Cotswold Ommony to Talbot Mundy's stable of adventure heroes. And he is quite an impressive protagonist. With him, Mundy amplifies many of the superior traits that earlier belonged to Jimgrim. Ommony operates all but without violence (it does, however, appear at the end of this novelization of this three part story). He is a man of diplomacy, tact, and understanding for his environs in India. He has what can only be described as an emerging spiritualism in his approach to life. More than any other work so far, Jungle Jest begins to reveal Mundy's growing interest in the principles of Theosophy.

For the work itself, the first two parts consist of stories published in Adventure during December of 1922 and January of 1923. These are the most Theosophically oriented. Ommony communes with a forest folk who are almost creatures of the natural and eternal design of life rather than people beholden to any organized civilization. These two parts also allow Mundy to give his version of how the Malabar Rebellion of 1921 came about. Once more, Mundy displays a high degree of sympathy for his Muslim characters, in particular, Mohommed Babar, a Muslim revolutionary from India's north bent on independence for his people. At the same time, he reveals the petty power struggles and ineptness of British rule.

The third part of the story originally appeared almost eight months after the first two, in August 1923. And it seems Mundy may have had another set to with his editors at Adventure. For the philosophical elements of the previous parts soon gives way to an intricate story of intrigue and, at the end, killing and death. It also involves the subterfuges and dishonesty of power-hungry Hindu priests. Hindus, it seems, are at the bottom of Mundy's Indian hierarchy. At the top, he holds the Sikhs in the highest regard, with Muslims from the north (what would be today's Pakistan) just below them. Hindus, however, often receive a large degree of contempt from Mundy. So it is, here, where the Hindu priests and mobs are shown to be creatures of uncontrolled passions and irrational, self-destructive behavior.

All in all, however, this makes for one of Mundy's better works, especially as it reveals his growing philosophical interests. It is also one of his longer works in novel form. And, like all good Mundy stories, there is a surprising level of sophisticated characterization along with wit and humor. ( )

Mundy was a British writer, active in the early decades of the 20th century, most known for his adventure stories that take place in the far flung corners of the British Empire, especially India and nearby countries. Jungle Jest is comprised of three long stories, strongly interconnected, which I suspect were originally published separately in a literary/adventure periodical of some sort.

Published in 1932, these stories predict the end of the Raj, a development Mundy doesn't necessarily find a negative prospect. His attitude seems to be here that this will be a natural evolution that should be handled as peacefully as possible.

At any rate, these three stories all center around one Cotswald Omminy, a very resourceful fellow, indeed, who is employed by the British Forest Service and whose loyalties are in fact to the trees and animals within his jurisdiction much more to any nationalist or government entity, including his own. By making Omminy a forester rather than a soldier, Mundy cleverly provides his character a freedom of movement and allows him a purity of motive both endearing to the modern reader and useful to the storylines.

At heart, though, these are adventure stories, to be sure. The first two center around a Moslem uprising against British rule and the third around a factional power struggle within an Indian principality. And while each story is sown with a small number of noble figures, we are mostly treated to a series of devious, ruthless, calculating characters--Moslem, Hindu and British more or less equally. Of course, our dear Cotwald is the cleverest of the lot, by far, always sniffing out subterfuge and betrayal before it bears fruit and adept at using his adversaries greed and power-mongering against them. So we know ahead of time that he will prevail, but watching him do it is extremely entertaining.

The stories are lots of fun and very well written. I seem to have the only copy of this book on LT, and even within online Mundy bios this clearly an obscure volume, even within the context of Mundy bibliographies. ( )