Stalky for people with too few bookshelves - Rated 
When I was young I had a serious Kipling period, but not so serious that I bought all his stuff. To get all the Stalky stories you had to buy various books that I did not want to buy and keep. Or so I thought. In The Complete Stalky you get all the stories in one volume.
The present day young probably won't like the book much for it describes something that is mostly history, but I am old enough to have seen a very authoritarian school system and when I read the book the first time I recognised all the teachers.
Worth perservering - Rated 
Stalky & Co. is not an easy book to get into as just about everything in it seems alien to the modern reader: the language, the classical references and the "Coll." itself with its archaic practices and rituals as a training ground for young men to run the British Empire. But there comes a point where you suddenly get snatched in to the main theme: three incredibly bright but "outsider"-type adolescents fighting it out against the system and having bags of fun - not innocent fun, more Schadenfreude - in the process. And you're brought back to your own days, albeit in a very different school, where you were also "passed over" to be a prefect because you didn't quite fit in some undefined way, and were determined to show "them."
Of course, "Stalky & Co." is totally un-P.C, not just in the nature of the activities described (from illicit smoking to shooting cats to some serious bullying violence)but also in the underlying theme of Machievellian one-upmanship and "survival of the fittest" that runs through the stories.
What is perhaps most remarkable is the absolute self-confidence of Stalky and his chums themselves. And although many aspects of the book are morally questionable and politically dodgy, this supreme belief in their own worth from the main characters is refreshing in today's bleating victim society.
I did not like it! - Rated 
Quite horrible! I am a Kipling enthusiast and own most of his published work. I find that, in general, the Kipling audio-books are enjoyable but not this one. The tales are not suitable for the female voice - the accent and mispronunciation of English place names equally inappropriate. If you have time to spare, compare this offering with the excellent "Plain tales from the hills" by Martin Jarvis
Roderick Deeming
Darker than you'd expect... - Rated
Kipling has, justifiably on the whole, a reputation for being the Poet Laureate of the British Empire, from which his work has suffered, particularly in these postcolonial times. Stalky & Co is no exception - it was written with the view of encouraging more 'stalky' (a bending-the-rules-type cunning) boys to join up to the British Army after the humiliating defeat of the Boer War.
Don't let this put you off however. Kipling is far more ambivalent concerning the Empire than most people think, and this comes across in the book's darker passages. Aimed at teenage boys (not little kids), the three main characters of Stalky, M'Turk and Beetle (an autobiographical incarnation) get up to traditional public school 'high jinks' and larks, but also some rather morally questionable activities too. The reader gets swept up in the irresistable sense of fun, camaraderie and not a little schadenfreude, then gets stranded, asking themselves whether the pranks they've enjoyed are strictly acceptable. But the feeling you're left with is a deeply satisfying one of watching the geeky, unpopular underdogs getting one over on the arrogant big boys.
Enjoy it and savour the nastiness of public school as well as its idyllic side!
Hilarious - Rated
With Stalky, McTurk and Beetle around, you know that school will never be boring. They are a terror to the house-masters, the prefects, and just about everyone else. And, college complete, out they go, bursting upon an unsuspecting world! I must admit that I have not read much Rudyard Kipling, but this is one of my favorite books! Kipling takes an irreverent look at late-nineteenth century British school life, taking the reader along on a hilarious journey from one adventure to another. As this book was originally written with the younger reader in mind, they will no doubt enjoy seeing these students outmaneuver and overwhelm their elders. But, even if you are only young at heart, you will still enjoy this wonderfully hilarious book. I have read it three times over the years, and do not hesitate to recommend it highly to everyone!
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