Jim Corbett (1)Critiques

Interesting classic book about British man in India who helped kill some man-eating tigers. Tigers do not prey on humans as a rule but will if injured or develop a liking for it. Some parts exciting. Appropriate start to Year of the Tiger!t

First read and enjoyed when I was 12 years old (it was the first American edition, published in 1946, with the wonderful dust jacket shown here). A re-read so much later (in an unadorned tan cover, 1944) and I am less accepting of the style. Corbett was meticulous in describing the scenery and the villagers where the rogue tigers caused problems ~ descriptions invaluable in setting the story in its day. However, the author repeatedly disrupts the flow of the adventures with backstory sometimes of little relevance in the middle of tracking the animals, to the point of confusing the reader.

My Indian edition carried a few photographs, which were perhaps acceptable in 1944, but by 2022, the blurry greyscale images are useless in helping illustrate the subject. Despite these criticisms, Corbett was a thoughtful conservationist and explains the reasons for having to hunt down these tigers who've lost their fear of humans largely due to the human population's effects on the tiger's habitat.

While this book is largely based on Tiger(man-eater)hunting experience by Jim corbett ,it certainly changes our perspective of what we think about a man-hunting tiger.As violent as they may seem,it is mostly about a gun-shot or some other wound that eventually renders the Tiger weak and consequently,forces it to choose weaker target,that is Human.

What a wonderful read! The details of the jungles and everything mysterious in it ,as vivid as a picture.What a great way to be teleported back to the forests i hold dear.

If you're a Jim Corbett fan, this would be a wonderful book. As I've never read anything else by him, it came off as a bunch of semi-disconnected stories. He doesn't bother, for instance, to mention _where_, exactly, all this is happening until about the third chapter (and then only vaguely); I deduced India and the hills because I'm a Kipling fan and some of the descriptions matched. Jungle explorer from childhood, with a healthy dose of caution (/fear) keeping him reasonably safe at 8 years old, armed with a catapult (slingshot). He was hunting even then - but mostly for the pot, not for fun or the joy of killing. As he advanced in weapon skill and jungle experience, he mostly kept that attitude - there are a lot of reports of killing predators (tigers, leopards), but mostly there's a good reason (the animal is either wounded or is starting to threaten or attack humans or their animals). There's some sport hunting as well, generally with Corbett acting as guide for someone else who wants to make a kill. The timeline jumps around a lot - he's the youngest boy in the area, he's a teenager hunting, he's the youngest cadet in his school, he's a grown man (with a wife) and apparently in charge of hunting and arranging hunting for the...district?, back again to teenager...Each story is at least interesting, but overall (to someone unfamiliar with his other books), it's rather too meandering. There's a chapter late in the book where he pretends that you-the-reader is taking a class in jungle lore from him; he describes, as if you're seeing it, how to determine the age of tracks, what sort of trees are growing in the area - both what they look like and what they're useful for - describes standing still so the leopard crossing in front of "us" doesn't notice us, and so on. That chapter was very interesting and enjoyable to me. But overall, the book isn't for me; I don't hunt for sport or enjoy hearing about it, and aside from that chapter his descriptions of the jungle and its creatures are mixed with a little too much shooting for my taste. Glad I read it, I might pick up another Jim Corbett book if I came across one (he's an excellent writer), but I doubt I'll bother to reread this.

A really excellent, exciting collection of three books by Jim Corbett: Man-Eaters of Kumaon, The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, and The Temple Tiger and More Man-Eaters of Kumaon.

I am not a hunter or a sportsman but I found Corbett's tales of his adventures in India, mostly hunting man-eating tigers and leopards in the first half of the twentieth century to be utterly fascinating. Corbett's writing is engaging, and conveys a clear sense of his jungle knowledge, animal behavior, and Indian culture. A more detailed set of maps would have helped (a two-page spread is included), as would a glossary (context clues are adequate for most purposes). I would recommend this omnibus for anyone interested in real-life adventures with dangerous carnivores.

Lest one think that Corbett was an unduly bloodthirsty killer of animals, he was a conservationist in the truest sense and valued using his jungle skills to obtain photos of animals rather than trophies. But when an aged or injured tiger starts killing humans, someone must intervene, and the foremost expert for decades was Jim Corbett. He's a modest fellow, and makes clear just how afraid he was at times, as well as the limitations of the tools he had at his disposal. Though it's a profoundly different kind of book from most of what I read, I have to say that this was one of the most interesting books I've read in years. Highly recommended.

Once again Jim Corbett takes us on a thrilling adventure as he tracks and eventually kills an Indian Leopard which, up to its own death caused 125 recorded deaths, and possibly more. The book is dedicated to the victims of the man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag. The leopard roamed over a region of some 500 square miles in the north of India, encompassing the area where the two rivers - Mandakini and Alaknanda join to create the mighty Ganges. The leopard roamed and killed people between 1918 and 1926. Corbett takes us into the mind and motivation of a man-eating leopard. This skill he has allows us to see the respect he holds for the animals he must kill. Corbett himself admits he prefers photographing wilds animals and that the methods for stalking, observing and taking great photographs are almost identical to those needed for a successful hunter with a gun. Corbett obviously has a deep affection for the people of India and their lifestyle and safety. The victims in this situation include pilgrims who make the journey on foot - of course to various Hindu temples. Deaths of pilgrims can contribute to a fall of pilgrims and the tiny but essential "tourist income" various lepers, temples and sleeping huts earn. This book is an exciting insight into how a dangerous animal is killed to prevent more deaths of residents and pilgrims.

Jim Corbett's classic describing the Bengal Tigers of India

For me, this is clearly a 'Don't judge a book by it's cover' case, but in the other way around.
A was randomly searching for a book one day and stumbled upon this one. I found the cover quite amazing and the synopsis written in the back felt like a cliff hanger of some sort of adventure book. But boy was I wrong when I read it! Turns out that it is one of those books which are filled with referrence-like informations and fails the reader to grasp or visualize the incidents that were happening, or at least that was how I felt.
Considering when it was originally written, I cannot blame the conservationist. Reading the Hindi terms in English is also a jaw breaking experience. All I can say is that it could have been better.
If this book wasn't the last poly packed piece in the store, then I would have read it a bit and would have thought twice before buying it.

I'd been on the lookout for another Corbett book, because his one about the man-eating tigers in India was so interesting. This volume, about a notorious leopard he strove to track down, was rather dry in style but I kept going back to it regardless. Corbett relates how he was summoned to hunt down a man-eating leopard that terrorized villages near Rudraprayag, India. He surmises what makes a leopard habitually prey on man (old age, serious injury, or learning humans can be a food source when bodies are dumped over a cliff instead of properly buried during a disease epidemic). His account is one long list of failures- following every little rumor of a kill, sitting up for the leopard over a body, staking out goats in hopes the leopard would come to it (it still fed on cattle and goats when couldn't get a person), setting out poisoned bait and careful traps many times over.... He did kill two leopards that were in the vicinity but knew by the details of tracks and behavior patterns it wasn't the right leopard. It took eight years of tracking, stakeouts and numerous attempts before he had success. With several breaks to rest and avoid getting killed himself, when fatigue set in and he feared would let his guard down. Through the story are some details about life in rural India, the superstitions of the local people (many believed the leopard was an evil spirit, impossible to kill), their abject terror of the beast, their profuse gratitude when the leopard was finally done in. Also, very similar to the other book, some interesting notes on other wildlife in the area, and how Corbett's observation of their behavior helped him track the leopard.

from the Dogear Diary

কী দুর্দান্ত!! শিকার নিয়ে লেখা আমার পড়া প্রথম বই। পুরো অমনিবাস শেষ করে একটা রিভিউ লেখার ইচ্ছা আছে, তাই আপাতত পাঁচটি তারা দিয়ে রাখলাম শুধু।

His team tracked them, he shot them, and then he wrote it up. Leopards are more dangerous than Tigers, who are meaner than Lions. This is a curious by-way of British Indian history. I first encountered this book as a Reader's Digest Condensed Book, and it wears well on the re-read.½

better than i thought.

Jim Corbett fue muchas cosas, pero lo que le hizo famoso fue su ocupación de cazador de tigres devoradores de hombres, una “profesión” hoy por hoy extinguida o casi extinguida que sin duda le haría merecedor de un papel entre los personajes de La Caverna del genial Saramago.

Los tigres devoradores de hombres −man-eaters tigers, como se les llamaba ya en la India allá por el siglo XIX− eran tigres que se habituaban a atacar a los humanos y que tenían aterrorizadas a las poblaciones locales. Extremadamente astutos y hábiles cazadores aprendían pronto que los hombres eran presa fácil y que poco tenían que hacer en el cuerpo a cuerpo, de modo que causaban centenares y centenares de muertes cada año. En este libro nos habla de la india que el conoció y amó.

A classic tale from the northern edge of India set in 1925 and told with poetic simplicity by a very brave, humane and observant man.
I first read this book as a teenager and have reread it many times aloud to Céili since; it never seems to pall and has a rare quality of balance and perfection in it's structure and form.The people and their beliefs,the environment and the wild and domesticated creatures,
the personal hardships and at times terrifying situations that Corbett encountered are related with a charmingly deft touch.
Do try and get the Raymond Sheppard illustrated version from the early '50s.
If you are not a hunter or ordinarily interested in hunting tales this is a book that transcends that category; it is a thriller, a suspenseful search, a naturalists dairy, a book about Hindu belief, a piece of history...
(by Bowery- Céili's piece)

A classic chest-thumping adventure story.

We are so fortunate to live where we are the top of the food chain. When man is not at the top of the food chain it is harder to get their than you think even with our superior mind and weapons.

An intriguing account of the hunting of Man-eating Tigers in India.

What makes Jim Corbett's "Man-Eaters of Kuamon" so wonderful is his eye for detail. Corbett traveled on foot across India hunting man-eating tigers from in the 1920's and 1930's. His book, not only reports his adventures stalking tigers, but gives a great sense of the jungle and a small taste of the people living in the region. His tales are so descriptive, you can really imagine yourself next to him hearing a tiger's roar disconcertingly close by as you're crouched in the bush or up a tree. Very entertaining reading.

Jim Corbett's second book, following his classic Man Eaters of Kummaon. In the first book, each chapter is a self-contained unit, concerning 1 tiger and Corbett's story how he hunted and killed it. Here it is an entire book about 1 man-eating leopard which took 10 weeks to track and kill in the foothills of the Himalayas. It has its moments, but I was not as enthralled with adrenaline as in the first book - perhaps the initial aura of Corbett has worn off. The final kill lacked the drama such a long hunt deserved. But heh, this is real life, not a novel, in that sense it's still the stuff of legend. Corbett's humanitarianism, respect for life and humble simplicity make him a pleasure to read.½

Jim Corbett, an Englishman born and raised in India, recounts some of his experiences hunting man-eating tigers in India during the first 30 years or so of the 20th century. Each story is thrilling edge of the seat, simple and easy to read, but vividly photographic. It is from a different era, not unlike Out of Africa with its mix of old-world grace and charm in an exotic but deadly part of the world. There is nothing a warm cup of tea, biscuit and 2 rounds of ammo can't accomplish. A legendary book by a legendary hunter it's ranked #48 in National Geographic's list of 100 all-time best Adventure books. During the 1950's it was hugely popular, including as a Book-of-the-Month selection (more important back then), and recently a number of TV movies. Freely available online at Internet Archive in its first edition (with pictures, no map). See also the free biography of Corbett loaded with additional pictures, maps and of course a biography.½

When I was a boy at school the Chaplain devoted the last divinity lesson of each term to reading us a chapter from Man Eaters of Kumaon. What I didn't appreciate was that the Chaplain, like Corbett, lived in Naini Tal, and came from a domiciled family in India and left the country when it became independent. I never did manage to digest the Chaplain's muscular christianity (or come to terms with his prickly character), but as a result of the stories I fell in love with the idea of India and tigers. When many years later I sat in a jeep listening for alarm calls from deer or monkies in the forests of central India, hoping for them to betray the presence of a tiger, Corbett's books came instantly to mind. I was even curious enough to go to Naini Tal, where it was so cold that the diesel froze in the car. The books are a marvellous read, and I still go on re-reading them (even though I know how each of the stories ends).

This book had the potential to be so much more than it ended up being. The author, a devoted naturalist and sportsman, certainly experienced a life deserving of biography and saved countless hundreds of native Indians through his eradication of man-eating tigers and leopards in the early half of the 20th century.

However, while the author is amazingly meticulous in describing the settings of his adventures, the paragraphs become hopelessly confusing and impossible to follow. Never have I seen writing so in need of diagrams, drawings or other visual aids to enhance the writer’s stories. With the exception of one laughably unhelpful map in the back of the book, there are no such aids included in the book. A good editor or artist could easily take the author’s prose and develop diagrams, and doing so would improve the reading experience immeasurably.

It is also hard to believe that there is not a single photograph in the entire book, though I see reference in the comments to previous editions that did in fact contain photos. I cannot imagine the thought process that went into publishing an edition that contains neither diagrams nor photographs.

Finally, the book contains numerous spelling and usage errors as well as transposed pages in some places. All in all, a very unprofessional job of editing and publishing what could otherwise be a first class reading experience.

Foi difícil no início para mim, criatura urbanóide, compreender o terror que um tigre pode causar e perigo real que eles representavam na Índia. Mas depois de ler Man-Eaters of Kumaon, do caçador e naturalista Jim Corbett, eu confesso que até comecei a enxergar com outros olhos as inocentes brincadeiras das minhas gatas, a Tranqueirilda e a Petronilha, ao espreitar os meus pés.

Tigres chegam a pesar 300 kg e tem força para carregar uma vaca (isso mesmo, uma vaca) por quilômetros. São caçadores astutos, versáteis em diversos tipos de terreno e praticamente invisíveis na floresta para quem não possui alguns anos de treinamento. Quando atacam um ser humano, eles comem tudo, até os ossos e as roupas, e estima-se que eles mataram e devoraram cerca de 300 mil pessoas na Índia no século 19. Alguns tigres devoradores de homens mataram sozinhos centenas de camponeses e aterrorizavam províncias inteiras. A tigresa de Champawat devorou nada menos do que 436 pessoas até ser morta por Jim Corbett. Aos mais interessados, vale a pena ler o verbete da wikipédia sobre devoradores de homens.

Porém, para sorte dos seres humanos, em condições normais tigres não atacam as pessoas. Um grande felino pode passar a caçar humanos por velhice ou ferimentos que os impeçam de obter as suas presas normais. A grande maioria dos casos de ferimentos, envolvem machucados de balas, principalmente nos caninos, que os tigres usam para imobilizar grandes animais.

Jim Corbett nasceu na Índia, mas é um “sportsman” britânico legítimo. Ele possui respeito pelo animal que caça e se concentrava mais em caçar tigres ou leopardos devoradores de homens. Quando perseguia tigres normais era para “atirar” com sua máquina fotográfica e hoje um dos principais parques nacionais da Índia tem o seu nome. Ele escreve de forma elegante ao narrar o verdadeiro jogo que é a caçada, onde ambos se alternam no papel de caça e caçador buscando uma vantagem sobre o outro. Às vezes por semanas inteiras.

Reitero que Corbett descreve um medo nos camponeses que nós do conforto de nossas cadeiras não podemos conceber, com felinos carregando pelo pescoço uma adolescente em plena luz do dia nos arredores de um povoado, sem que ninguém tivesse coragem de intervir. Por outro lado, é difícil não se sensibilizar com a morte desses bichos, uma vez que os ataques aumentam em direta proporção à invasão humana do seu território e no século 20 diminuiu drasticamente devido à caça predatória e perda do habitat. Hoje, cerca de 30 pessoas morrem devoradas por tigres na Índia a cada ano, três dos noves tipos de tigre estão extintos e, da população inicial estimada de 100 mil animais, restam apenas 2 mil em liberdade, 1,4 mil desses na Índia. Resta vermos quem vai devorar o outro primeiro.

Here's another book I've read over and over again. First acquired in paperback when I was 12, I read it until it started to disintegrate (and I'm careful with books). About 30 years ago I was able to procure, used, the above edition, and I have no idea how many more times I've read it. Like Velocity, but in a totally different genre, Corbett draws you in, painting word-pictures of the art of hunting man-eating tigers, the Indian hill country, and the wonderful people who live there. Still today, over a half century later, the book still captivates me.