IN the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth-so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small 'Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale's right ear, so as to be out of harm's way. Then the Whale stood up on his tail and said, 'I'm hungry.' And the small 'Stute Fish said in a small 'stute voice, 'Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?' 'No, ' said the Whale. 'What is it like?' 'Nice, ' said the small 'Stute Fish. 'Nice but nubbly.' 'Then fetch me some, ' said the Whale, and he made the sea froth up with his tail.
Bombay, (1865-1936). Rudyard Kipling escribió novelas, poemas y relatos ambientados principalmente en la India y Birmania durante la época de gobierno británico. Kipling fue un escritor prolífico y popular, y su literatura gira siempre en torno a tres ejes: el patriotismo, el deber de los ingleses de llevar una vida de intensa actividad y el destino de Inglaterra, llamada a ser un gran imperio. Su insistencia en este último aspecto era sin duda un eco del pasado victoriano, y perjudicó gravemente su reputación como escritor, a pesar de que fue el primer autor británico galardonado con el Nobel de Literatura.