'Mind you, it was a pukka, respectable opium-house, and not one of those stifling, sweltering chandoo-khanas that you can find all over the City.'Kipling first became famous for his pungent, harsh and shocking stories of northwest India, where he grew up.This is just a small selection from his inexhaustibly contentious and various early work.Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday.Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries.They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe.Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).Kipling's works available in Penguin Classics are Captains Courageous, Just So Stories, Kim, Plain Tales from the Hills, Selected Poems, The Jungle Books and The Man Who Would Be King: Selected Stories.