Classic Literature

The Jungle Book passages and copywork.

By Rudyard Kipling

"The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling is a collection of stories published in 1894. The tales follow Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves in the Indian jungle, alongside animal characters like Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear. Through these fables, Kipling explores themes of abandonment and fostering, law and freedom, and the balance between civilization and wildness. The stories teach lessons about respect for authority while celebrating the freedom to move between different worlds, using animals as archetypes for human nature and society.

Chapters
17
Passages
530
Comments
15
Copywork
0

Slow Reading

Read for the sentences that stay with you.

The Passage is built around passages rather than finished-book lists. Open The Jungle Book, notice the line that asks for another look, and keep it close as part of your reading journal.

Sample Passages

A few places to begin.

Now Rann the Kite brings home the night That Mang the Bat sets free— The herds are shut in byre and hut For loosed till dawn are we. This is the hour of pride and power, Talon and tush and claw. Oh, hear the call! —Good hunting all That keep the Jungle Law! Night-Song in the Jungle It was seven o’clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day’s rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips.

Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived. “Augrh! ” said Father Wolf. “It is time to hunt again. ” He was going to spring down hill when a little shadow with a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: “Good luck go with you, O Chief of the Wolves. And good luck and strong white teeth go with noble children that they may never forget the hungry in this world. ” “Good luck go with you, O chief of the wolves.

” It was the jackal—Tabaqui, the Dish-licker—and the wolves of India despise Tabaqui because he runs about making mischief, and telling tales, and eating rags and pieces of leather from the village rubbish-heaps. But they are afraid of him too, because Tabaqui, more than anyone else in the jungle, is apt to go mad, and then he forgets that he was ever afraid of anyone, and runs through the forest biting everything in his way. Even the tiger runs and hides when little Tabaqui goes mad, for madness is the most disgraceful thing that can overtake a wild creature. We call it hydrophobia, but they call it dewanee—the madness—and run.

Copywork

Turn memorable sentences into practice.

Copywork gives a sentence more time. Type a passage exactly as it appears, then return to the words you chose with more attention than a quick highlight allows.

Reflect

Leave a public or private note on the sentence that mattered.

Copy

Practice one memorable line at a time through focused typing.