Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book, Kim, and many short stories. He was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. Kipling's subsequent reputation has changed according to the political and social climate of the age and the resulting contrasting views about him continued for much of the 20th-century. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." How The Whale Got His Throat is one of the wonderful Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling. It explains why a huge mammal - the whale named Henry - can only eat the smallest things. The story is full of Kipling's love of words and sounds. Once upon a time, the Whale ate fishes of all kinds and sizes. At last, the Whale swallowed the mariner and the raft he was sitting on. But once inside, the mariner jumped about so much that the Whale got hiccups and asked him to come out. He answered that he would not, unless he was taken to the shore of his British home, and danced harder than ever. So the Whale took him to the beach and the mariner came out. But in the meantime, the clever mariner had made his raft into a grating which he fastened in the Whale’s throat with his suspenders. Forever after, the Whale could only eat the smallest of fishes. Enjoy free online English audiobook “How The Whale Got His Throat” by Rudyard Kipling.
