ABSTRACT
Rudyard Kipling wrote only one slum story, 'The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot', which first appeared in Harper's Weekry (November 1890) and later in Many Inventions (1893). The historical importance of this story has not been neglected by critics. William C. Frierson argued that it was 'responsible for establishing the tone of a new kind of fiction'; and much earlier Jane Findlater claimed that with its publication the 'school of pity was fairly ushered in'.1 While these observations are sound it is extremely misleading to discuss 'Badalia Herodsfoot' as though it is isolated, in subject matter, treatment and attitude, from Kipling's other work at this time. To do so is seriously to underestimate Kipling's own achievement and his influence on the presentation of the working classes in fiction.
