Published: Pioneer, 12 November 1888; Pioneer Mail, 14 November 1888.

Attribution: Signed ‘R.K.’

Text: Pioneer.

Notes: ‘Susannah and the Elder’ was reprinted in the October 1940 Kipling Journal by Captain E. W. Martindell, but, according to Harbord (iv, 2125), the pages of the Journal containing the story ‘had to be destroyed (in most cases) by order of the Owner of the Kipling copyrights’, i.e., by Elsie Kipling Bambridge, RK's surviving child. My copy of the Kipling Journal for October 1940 contains the story, as, I imagine, do most copies.

The story is a close and skilful imitation of the narrative method in Laurence Sterne's Life and Adventures of Tristram Shandy (1759–67), from which RK has also taken the names of the characters. Incongruity, apparent inconsequence, and shows of odd learning are the rule.

‘Yoreayke’ mimics the name of the parson ‘Yorick’ in Tristram Shandy; he is also the narrator of A Sentimental Journey and a pseudonym for Sterne himself. The modified spelling identifies Lord Reay, the governor of Bombay, as the object of the satire. I have not identified what particular statement or publication by Reay is in question, but Reay's main interest in his term as Governor of Bombay was in education, especially in promoting technical and practical education. The subject has been presented at length in W. W. Hunter, Bombay 1885 to 1890: A Study in Indian Administration, London and Bombay, 1892. RK was evidently unimpressed by Reay (see, e.g., ‘An Exercise in Administration’).

Nothing else that RK wrote for the Indian papers shows such confidence in the high literacy of his readers.

‘Susannah and the Elder’ has been reprinted in the Martindell–Ballard pamphlets; in the Kipling Journal, October 1940 (suppressed); and in Harbord, iv, 2122–5.

Chapter xxvii

The city of B-mb-y, the siege of which was begun by your honour's self, lies in the middle of a devilish strange country. ‘Tis quite benighted, said Corporal Trim. Then I wish the Faculty would follow my advice, said Yoreayke. But it cannot, said Corporal Trim. But it must, said Yoreayke. It never will, said Corporal Trim. It shall by G— said Yoreayke.