Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Published 1902 · 128 pages · 33,306 words · about 2 hours at an average pace · Coming-of-Age
How hard is Just So Stories to read?
Just So Stories scores 36 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 78 out of 100
- Kipling's prose is rich with invented words like 'satiable curtiosity' and 'infinite-resource-and-sagacity,' alongside specific cultural terms such as 'palaver,' 'indaba,' 'Djinn,' and 'Sloka.' This distinctive and often archaic vocabulary, coupled with numerous unique proper nouns, consistently challenges the reader, placing it above the specialized terms of Moby-Dick.
- Sentence structure: 68 out of 100
- Sentences are frequently long and winding, often incorporating extensive coordinated clauses and parenthetical asides like '(you must not forget the suspenders, Best Beloved).' While not reaching the deep hypotaxis of authors like Henry James, the rhythmic repetitions and elaborate constructions demand sustained attention, making it more complex than typical accessible fiction.
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- The stories are concrete fables explaining the origins of animal features and human inventions, yet they consistently carry implicit moral lessons and explore foundational concepts like communication and adaptation. The narrative voice occasionally steps back to comment on the nature of storytelling itself, elevating the content beyond pure adventure without delving into overt philosophical discourse.
- Information density: 62 out of 100
- Kipling's unique narrative voice, characterized by invented words, detailed descriptions within the main text, and extensive explanations of the accompanying illustrations, creates a high cognitive load. The constant asides to the 'Best Beloved' and the layering of whimsical details and specific names demand sustained attention, making the text denser than its surface simplicity suggests.
- Narrative indirection: 22 out of 100
- The narrator directly addresses the 'Best Beloved' and explicitly states the purpose and outcome of events, such as 'that is the reason why whales nowadays never eat men.' Meaning is almost always explicitly stated or immediately apparent, requiring minimal inference from the reader, similar to the directness of 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.'
- Symbolic density: 20 out of 100
- The stories primarily offer literal, fantastical explanations for animal characteristics, with any underlying moral lessons being overtly stated rather than subtly symbolized. While animals represent certain traits (e.g., the Camel's idleness), these are presented as direct character attributes, not complex allegories or dense motifs like in 'Moby-Dick.'
- Ironic distance: 30 out of 100
- Kipling employs a playful, often mock-serious tone and humorous exaggeration, particularly in descriptions like the 'man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.' However, this is a direct, engaging narrative voice rather than a critical or subversive irony that creates a significant gap between stated and intended meaning, unlike 'Lolita' or 'Ulysses.'
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- Each 'Just So Story' provides a clear, definitive origin explanation for an animal's feature, concluding with a complete resolution. There is no ambiguity or open-endedness regarding the plot or the fate of the characters, as exemplified by phrases like 'and that is the end of that tale,' placing it closer to 'Beach Read' than 'Waiting for Godot.'
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- The narrative structure is consistently linear within each individual story, following a chronological sequence of events. While the narrator frequently interjects with asides to the 'Best Beloved' and references accompanying illustrations, these are stylistic flourishes that do not introduce complex shifts in timeline or perspective, maintaining a straightforward structure akin to 'Beach Read.'
How Just So Stories is regarded
Just So Stories holds a literary regard score of 63 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.