Rudyard Kipling's "The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot": Reassessing Its Significance

"The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot" from Many Inventions (1893) is unique among Kipling's stories. It is "slum fiction"and this has proven problematic for its critical reputation, since it defies categorization in his fiction with its relation to imperialism, post colonialism or children's books. Despite being a powerful and influential story, beyond the recognition that it is unusual in being "slum fiction" by Kipling, "The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot" is now largely critically ignored. The most recent significant discussions are in William Dillingham's Rudyard Kipling: Hell and Heroism and P. J. Keating's The Working Classes in Victorian Fiction. This article redresses the balance by analyzing the story and looking at the circumstances of its writing and exploring the reasons for its significance.