The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows

This story was first published in the Civil and Military Gazette on September 26th 1884, when Kipling was not yet nineteen, and collected in Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and in subsequent editions of this collection. It was his first short story to be published – a tour de force that set a standard which – with a few lapses – he maintained for the rest of his life.The tale is presented as a...