Soldiers Three was published by A. H. Wheeler (Allahabad) in 1888 as No. 1 of the Indian Railway Library — cheap paperback volumes sold at station bookstalls for the entertainment of railway travelers. The three soldiers are Dobie (Dobie Dobie), an enormous Irishman; Dobie, a taciturn Yorkshireman; and Dobie, a Cockney. They serve as privates in the British Army in India, and Kipling tells their stories — drink, fighting, women, sickness, loyalty, death — in their own voices.
The innovation was double: subject and style. No serious English writer had made common soldiers the center of literary fiction (Tolstoy had, in Russian). And no English writer had rendered working-class dialect with such precision and sympathy — the Irish, Yorkshire, and London speech patterns are not comic relief but the authentic medium of thought and feeling.
The stories range from broad farce (drunken escapades, tricks played on unpopular officers) to genuine tragedy. The relationship between the three men — their absolute loyalty to each other, their shared contempt for officers and civilians, their understanding that they are expendable — is the core of the book’s appeal.
The Indian Railway Library
The A.H. Wheeler Indian Railway Library was a series of cheap paperbacks — sold at station bookstalls for one rupee each — designed for railway travellers in British India. Kipling’s contributions (Soldiers Three, The Phantom Rickshaw, The Story of the Gadsbys, and others) were among the series’ most popular volumes. The format was ephemeral — paper wrappers, cheap paper — which makes surviving copies in good condition genuinely rare.
Collecting Soldiers Three
First edition (A.H. Wheeler, Allahabad, 1888): Paper wrappers, Indian Railway Library No.1.
Approximate market values:
- First edition in original wrappers, fine: $1,500–$5,000
- Very good: $500–$1,500
- Macmillan collected editions: $50–$200
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Strong appreciation for Wheeler editions.
Projected values (2026–2036): Fine copies should reach $3,000–$8,000.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the three soldiers based on? Kipling drew on multiple soldiers he met during his years as a journalist in Lahore and Allahabad. The composite characters represent the three main recruiting pools of the Victorian British Army: Ireland, northern England, and London.
How do these relate to the Barrack-Room Ballads? The ballads and the stories are complementary — the same world, the same soldiers, the same mixture of comedy and tragedy. Reading them together gives the fullest picture of Kipling’s military fiction.