The Portable Kipling contains selections from The Jungle Books and Soldiers Three; more than twenty stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King," "The Cat that Walked by Himself," "The Eye of Allah,"and the unsettling "Mary Postgate"; more than fifty poems; and three essays. The volume also includes a complete chronology and a critical introduction by Irving Howe that permits us to see the formal achievements of Kipling's work as well as to enjoy its abundant pleasures--not least of which is the sheer satisfaction of great storytelling.