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The enduring mystery of Mrs Bathurst

Allan Massie

Wednesday, 5th December 2007

A Kipling novel that still defies comprehension

‘Listen, Bill,’ wrote P. G. Wodehouse (in a letter published in Performing Flea), ‘something really must be done about Kip’s “Mrs Bathurst”. I read it years ago and didn’t understand a word of it. I thought to myself, “Ah, youthful ignorance!”

A week ago I re-read it. Result: precisely the same.’

Wodehouse is not alone in finding the story baffling. At once rambling and compressed, told entirely in reminiscent and speculative conversation, it is powerful but murky. You may feel it is a masterpiece yet be unable to determine just what happens. Summarising it is difficult, but, for the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know the story, here goes.

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John H McGivering

December 8th, 2007 1:26pm

Allan Massie's article on Kipling's short story "Mrs. Bathurst" poses all the usual questions - the story suffers from too much of what Kipling calls "Higher Editing" (Something of Myself, p.207 which entails obliterating unwanted materian with a brush-full of Indian ink - Kipling overdid it but it is still a rattling good yarn!Evelyn Waugh had no trouble with the story as he never read it (Essays, etc. 1983.

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