Kiplings first novel - wasn't really a success, and I can see why. The writing flows - Kipling was a master wordsmith, but the plot and character development are a bit limited and limiting.
Kipling's blatant racism is front and centre - any mention of "inferior" races was sure to include adjectives suggesting members of the other race were "children" or "devils", often both!
He was a writer of his times. We should all be glad that such times are (mostly) past.
The ill-fated courtship that is central to the book raised for me the general question of relationships in Victorian England. If the relationships in literature share any resemblance to reality, one wonders what an anthropologist from today would make of it all?? And how did the Victorian middle and upper classes ever procreate with such shambolic interpersonal arrangements?? Just a side thought.

There were aspects of this novel which will no doubt linger, such a work so preoccupied with light and color. I felt the characters genuine albeit incomplete. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2027167.html

I had been looking forward to reaching this for some time, under the impression that it was an interesting step away from Kipling's usual writing. Not sure if that is really true - it was his first novel, so not sure if it can really be characterised as a step away. And it is interesting only in places; the hero's failure to get anywhere with the girl he loves is apparently painfully autobiographical, and the casual brutality is not very pleasant to read. However, I was really grabbed by Kipling's sympathetic portrayal of his hero as an artist, not a protagonist I had expected from this author (which shows how little I knew), and of course the central drama of his going blind is then very effective. (I guess that Florence Barclay's The Rosary may have been in part a response to The Light That Failed; well, Kipling's version is actually better and mercifully shorter.)

The other point of interest for me (and a few other people) is that quite a lot of the novel revolves around British attitudes to Sudan, and the final chapter is set there (indeed the references are specifically to "Southern Sudan", though a glance at the map indicates that they did not actually get very far south). It's interesting to read about a place which I know for quite different reasons through the rather shortsighted and blurred imperialist lens. ( )

Far from my favorite Kipling, but I got a chance at a free copy ( )

Le héros du roman va passer dans ce livre de la misère à la gloire, de l'exaltation à la désespérance, puis à la redécouverte d'un sens de la vie, même si le roman se termine par sa mort.

Le ressort du roman est placé sous le signe de la peinture, de l'impact visuel. Surtout, l'auteur va se demander ce que peut ressentir un peintre quand sa vue disparaît brusquement et quelles sont les modifications apportées dans sa vie.

Ce roman n'est pas si aisé car les points d'entrée sont multiple : extraction de la misère, découverte du talent, dépendance liée au handicap, découverte de l'amour et refus de l'autre, bassesse des comportements, vengeance.

Il faut s'accrocher un peu pour entrer dans ce roman qui ne se donne pas d'emblée. Les dialogues sont fournis et les cent premières pages hachées à mon sens. A partir de ce stade, tout s'emballe dans une mécanique bien huilée où l'on sent réellement le vécu de l'auteur (scènes de soldats, arrivée au Soudan).

Un livre intéressant.
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