The Jungle Books II

By: Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by: Patrick Tull

"The great panther leaped as a kitten leaps at a dead leaf...landed noiselessly and leaped again and again, while the half purr, half growl gathered head as steam rumbles in a boiler." Kipling's magnetic, vivid descriptions of both the fierce and gentle aspects of the jungle are gathered here in a second collection of tales, along with the further adventures of Mowgli, the wolf-child. The stories included are: "How Fear Came," "The Law of the Jungle," "The Miracle of Purun Bhagat," "A Song of Kabir," "Letting in the Jungle," "Mowgli's Song Against People," "The Undertakers," "A Ripple Song," "The King's Ankus," "The Song of the Little Hunter," "Quiquern," "Angutivun Tina," "Red Dog," "Chil's Song," "The Spring Running," and "The Outsong."

Public Domain (P)1991 Recorded Books, Inc.

A bad performance of wonderful stories

This is a decent performance of the wonderful Kipling stories I grew up -- when you can understand the narrator. Sometimes it sounds like this was recorded off of the radio in the 50's -- sometimes it sounds like the narrator had the microphone in his mouth because the words are so garbled. The voice of this narrator is much more pleasant than the Jungle Books I, but you can't understand him half of the time. The stories that you can make out are well read and told, but it is so disappointing when you get to the middle of the story and can't understand what is being said. I used to know these by heart and remember the plots of the stories, but Kipling's language and character development is so beautiful it's a shame to miss the nuances. And if you don't know the stories already, it's not worth it. I've tried and tried to listen an make them out -- and tried various cd players and listened on computer. It's just that bad and nothing to do about it. I'm not 100 percent sure this is really unabridged, either. It seems that the stories are, but I'm relatively certain that not all of them are included.