I tried reading Kim recently and was immediately put off by the seemingly archaic dialogue. The book is set at the turn of the 20th century in India, and there is dialogue such as:
Lama: “Nay, if it please thee to forget—the one thing only that thou hast not told me. Surely thou must know? …”
Curator: "I am bound,” said the Curator. “But whither goest thou?”
I read several pages and this kind of dialog seemed prevalent, including by Kim, the orphan boy protagonist. I spot checked ahead in the book and saw more instances of this. To be clear, not all the dialogue was like this, but there was enough to put me off the book, so I set it aside.
It’s not the dialogue itself, it is that it is anachronistic in this setting. I read Ivanhoe recently and this style of dialog was used throughout the book and I thought nothing of it.
Any other readers of Kim out there who care to comment on this?
It’s been a while since I read the book but isn’t it set during the great game? Which runs pretty much the entire 19nth century. I know it was published at the turn of the 20th but unless he mentioned dates I can’t remember it could have been set much earlier.
Yes it is. Per the Wikipedia article: “It is set after the Second Afghan War (which ended in 1881), but before the Third (fought in 1919), probably in the period 1893 to 1898”