Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) did not receive the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907 - as the first English-language writer - for The Jungle Book, but more than 150 years after the author's birth, it can be safely stated that - the poem If... besides - this collection of short stories is Kipling's best-known work. Children who read for the first time the stories about Mowgli, the Sioni wolf pack and other inhabitants of the Indian jungle, are fascinated by the exciting, adventurous stories; then later, those who pick up The Jungle Book again as adults, realize what depths lie in these seemingly simple short stories. Kipling's work has been adapted in countless ways, several films and cartoons, and even a musical, have been made of it - this also shows that it is a timeless masterpiece. In this two-volume edition, the short stories can be read in their original order in a new, more accurate translation than before. (The paperback version was based on the Helikon volume published in 2016.)