Mention Appertaining To Books Burmese Days
| Title | : | Burmese Days |
| Author | : | George Orwell |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 276 pages |
| Published | : | July 1st 2005 by 1st World Library (first published October 1st 1934) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Historical. Historical Fiction. Literature. Cultural. Asia |
George Orwell
Hardcover | Pages: 276 pages Rating: 3.85 | 20259 Users | 1278 Reviews
Narration In Favor Of Books Burmese Days
Totally rewritten 19th May 2013. Set in the days of the Empire, with the British ruling in Burma, this book describes corruption and imperial bigotry. Although this was Orwell's first book and no doubt based in part on his experiences in his first job as a policeman in Burma, his talent is already fully developed, the writing is superb, the characterisations rounded and lively. Another of his stories from this time and location is also a favourite of mine, Shooting an Elephant Burmese Days is essentially all about a load of unlikeable, vapid people who belong to an extremely boring club where nothing happens except occasional arguments and a lot of drinking. Now why would anyone want to be a member of a club like that? Because it is a colonial society where the whites run everything and the native people, no matter what their status in the local community, have no overt power and can't even get into a club full of stupid men whose only attribute is that they are white, the ruling class. But if they could get in, then they would have power by association. The club is told they have to elect one local member. Two men try to get in. One, the honest and straightforward Dr. Veraswami, tries to get his good friend, John Flory, an English timber merchant and the main character, to use his influence on the club members. But Flory, a rather unattractive character who isn't prejudiced but is weak and so won't support the good doctor against the club members he so thoroughly dislikes but, because of race and class, identifies with. The other man, the slimy, sociopathic U Po Kyin,is prepared to wreck Veraswami's character and livelihood and see many lives be ruined and people die just in order to put himself in such a position that he becomes the only possible candidate. Then there is the love interest, another shallow, dislikeable character who can't attract anyone back home so she's been sent husband-shopping into a place where any single white woman is a rare orchid. Even her. I read the book very tongue in cheek because I also live in a colonial society (but I am either beyond the pale or have the right credentials depending on what side you are on, as I married into a local, black family. A top political family at that). The thing for locals to get into is the yacht club and the local rescue association, neither of which admit locals unless they are top politicians or lawyers and therefore useful or at least, best not offended. But as political power on the island is all in black hands, the snobbery of the yacht club is ignored but the racism noted. A while back, one of the islands, a private island resort, the sort you can helicopter into, wouldn't let blacks in as guests. The only ones there were the workers, none in managerial or even supervisory positions. A government minister sailed his very impressive 60' yacht there, anchored and dinghied to the beach. The beach staff (black, of course, but from poorer islands, so they didn't recognise him) wouldn't let him stay, told him it was against management policy, didn't believe he owned the yacht and threw him off. The following week, the island was quite suddenly sold to a company with quite different policies. Result! Now we can all sail up for free on their guest ferry for Sunday lunch (reasonable price, but the price of the drinks...) or a very pleasant, if expensive dinner, hanging out with the millionaires and pretending to be one for the day. Everyone is welcome. But what happened to the club in India, to the service organisations in the Caribbean? They are all run by posh locals now who apply their own rules for membership. Sometimes they are generous and everyone is welcome, but sometimes they continue the inherited snobbery and racism of the club founders, just from the other side not being any more liberal than their predecessors. We have the girls who come husband-shopping too. Admin staff and secretaries they are looking for white guys far from home who might go out with but would never marry a local girl and so they are the rare orchids with a two year
List Books As Burmese Days
| Original Title: | Burmese Days |
| ISBN: | 1421808307 (ISBN13: 9781421808307) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | John Flory, Elizabeth Lackersteen, Dr. Veraswami, U Po Kyin, Ma Hla May, Lieutenant Verrall, Ellis (Burmese Days), Mr. MacGregor, Mrs. Lackersteen, Mr. Lackersteen |
| Setting: | Burma,1926 Myanmar |
Rating Appertaining To Books Burmese Days
Ratings: 3.85 From 20259 Users | 1278 ReviewsArticle Appertaining To Books Burmese Days
It's Orwell. It's fantastic. What more is there to say?This always happens to me: I seem to forget how beautiful and almost effortless Orwells prose is, only to be stunned by his talent the next time I pick up one of his books. Even when he writes about mundane things, his turn of phrase has an elegance that few others have mastered and that dry, razor-sharp British sense of humor adds a colorful layer to his narratives. Just a couple of pages into Burmese Days, I was both laughing bitterly and sighing in admiration at the wonderful language he
In the 1920's an obscure young Englishman named John Flory, obviously modeled after George Orwell himself, goes to colonial Burma to make his fortune, "The Road to Mandalay" this is not. The writer had been a policeman there also for five years. Flory becomes a timber merchant, in the north of the country and living in Kyauktada (Katha). A small town of 4,000 at the edge of the formidable jungle, but it is the capital of the district with a railroad, hospital, courts and a jail of course and the
Im on a bit of a George Orwell kick at the moment. Until a few months ago, my experience of Orwells writing was limited to the truly brilliant 1984. Im not sure why Id not read anything else he wrote, particularly given that Ive read 1984 multiple times. In any event, a walking tour in Paris which took in the street where Orwell (then just plain Eric Blair) lived and which is evoked in the first scene in Down and Out in Paris and London led me to read that particular work and now I cant get
This was my first Orwell 's novel and coincidently it was also Orwell's first novel. It shows. Burmese Days is essentially about the pettiness and cruelty of colonial society. The novel follows a set of characters but decides, eventually, to focus on John Flory, a timber merchant who is stuck in Burma (Myanmar nowadays) due to his lack of prospects elsewhere. Flory has a love-hate relationship with the land that grants him a living. He hates the white colonial society, with its racism and
Orwell's scathing denunciation of British colonialism won't win awards for subtlety, but still a powerful, unsparing account of colonial characters and their tragic foibles. The humor is of a dark variety, and as the story progresses, it feels like an agonizingly slow train wreck making its way through the fetid jungles of Burma. Virtually all the characters are unlikable --- perhaps some depth is sacrificed in the interest of illustrating the excesses of the system and the people who run it ---
Imagine sitting in a small, dark room with George Orwell sitting ten inches away from you shouting the words, "RACISM" and "IMPERIALISM" at you for two hours. That's what it's like reading this novel. Orwell wants to get his message across so strongly that he completely forgets that coherent plots and characters are essential in fiction. However I must say that Burmese Days is written very well (as with all of Orwell's works) and it has a disgustingly pessimistic ending (which is always a major
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