The Man Who Would Be King

The Man Who Would Be King tells the story of two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan.

It was inspired by the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the “white Raja” of Sarawak in Borneo, and by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan, who claimed the title Prince of Ghor.

The story's protagonist reflects Kipling's own time spent in India and focuses on an encounter he held with two men who were determined to conquer an unclaimed region in Afghanistan as their very own empire. The reader will have to discover how the account unfolds.

The story was first published in The Phantom Rickshaw and other Tales. It also appeared in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories in 1895, and in numerous later editions of that collection.

It is the basis for John Huston’s 1975 film of the same name, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine as the “kings”, and Christopher Plummer as Kipling.

It is a story of greed, guts and struggles for glory.

Rudyard Kipling, the Nobel Prize-winning author of the Jungle Book, brought you another masterpiece.