Stalky & Co.

Stalky & Co. is a book by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It was first published in 1899 . It is a collection of linked short stories, with some information about the charismatic character Stalky in later life. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself, while Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford and Mr King is based on William Carr Crofts. The school, which is referred to as the College or the Coll., is based on the United Services College in Devon, which Kipling attended. The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence, and hints about sex, making them far from childish or idealised. For example, Beetle pokes fun at an earlier, more earnest, boys' book, Eric, or, Little by Little, thus flaunting his more worldly outlook.