The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book - First Edition Set in Original Gilt Cloth
KIPLING, Rudyard. The Jungle Book; The Second Jungle Book. Macmillan and Co., London, 1894 and 1895. First editions, first impressions, together in the publisher’s original dark blue cloth, elaborately decorated and lettered in gilt, with all edges gilt and dark green coated endpapers. The Jungle Book carries the celebrated elephant design to the upper board, while The Second Jungle Book is decorated with a large coiled cobra. Illustrated throughout by John Lockwood Kipling, W. H. Drake and Paul Frenzeny. These are exceptionally attractive copies, retaining unusually deep blue cloth and remarkably bright gilt across the covers, spines and page edges. The elaborate pictorial bindings remain vivid and striking, giving the set a strong visual presence rarely encountered in copies of this age. Published in 1894 and 1895, the Jungle Books were firmly established as literary classics long before their later film adaptations. Kipling’s stories entered popular culture almost immediately, admired for their imaginative power, memorable language and exploration of loyalty, courage, belonging and the laws governing both human and animal societies. Together, the two volumes form one of the defining achievements of Victorian children’s literature and a cornerstone of the wider literary canon.