The Light That Failed by Rudyard Kipling (1982, Hardcover)

In January 1878 Kipling was admitted to the United Services College, an English public school for the sons of military officers, located at Westward Ho! near Bideford in North Devon. A school founded to prepare boys for the armed forces. During his time there, Kipling met and fell in love with Florence Garrard. Who become the model for Maisie in Kipling's first novel, The Light that Failed in 1890.
Most of the novel is set in london, but many events occur in India and the Sudan.

In the story, Dick Heldar, an artist, meets maisie in his child hood and grows up to become a successful war correspondent with his drawings of the fighting in Sudan for a London newspaper. After his tour he returns to London te paint and re-encounters his childhood friend Maisie, and falls in love with her. As he begins what is to be his masterpiece, he has a problem with his eyes and is told that he is going blind, as a result of a head wound received in the Sudan.

In the original published version of the story, The Light that Failed ended with Maisie and Dick marrying. Kipling later changed this, and wrote a much longer, more complex ending. This is the novel as it stands now.

It was made into a 1916 film with Jose Collins, and the well known 1939 film by Warner Brothers starring Ronald Colman as Heldar with Ida Lupino and Walter Huston.

The Light That Failed maybe Kipling's most touching work, it is a true masterpiece.

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