"The whole body of policemen, military and civil, about a hundred and fifty men in all, had attacked the crowd from the rear, armed only with sticks. They had been utterly engulfed. The crowd was so dense that it was like an enormous swarm of bees seething and rotating. Everywhere one could see policemen wedged helplessly among the hordes of Burmans, struggling furiously but uselessly, and too cramped even to use their sticks. Whole knots of men were tangled Laocoon-like in the folds of unrolled

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Set in the days of the Empire, with the British ruling in Burma, this book describes corruption and imperial bigotry. Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Dr Veraswami, a black enthusiast for the Empire, whose downfall can only be prevented by membership at an all-white club.

The book is essentially all about a load of dislikable, vapid people who belong to an extremely boring club where nothing happens except occasional arguments and a lot of drinking and the people who want to be members b More...

Poor Flory. If only he'd had the good sense to be born into an E.M. Forster novel instead of one by George Orwell, he might have had half a chance.

Burmese Days, Orwell’s second book, draws on his own experiences as a police officer in imperial Burma in the 1920s. The novel describes the experiences of John Flory, an English timber merchant living in a Burmese outpost. Flory feels increasingly estranged from the other Europeans. His only real friend is a Burmese doctor, despite the disapproval of More...

There's something about the way George Orwell writes that draws me into the story and keeps me reading, even though I can see everything going wrong and most of the characters are unpleasant, which could be because all of them are trapped in the colonial system and none of them are strong enough to get away from it. The story takes place in Burma, on a small station where only a handful of white people live, in the early part of the twentieth century when Britain was still an Empire and everyone More...

Orwell is a central figure in Nandy's Intimate Enemy. His "Shooting an Elephant" demonstrates Orwell's ambivalence towards colonialism. But Burmese days struck me as very pointed. I was so pleased for Orwell.

By the way, Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English Language," is the best thing I have ever read diagnosing unclear language use. In a nutshell here is the message: "Clarity has to be risked." Or conversely, when we are not being clear, this is because we hesitate to reveal our politics More...

It is extraordinary that I haven’t read Burmese Days before. I owe my thirst for colonial novels an apology. However, better later than never to bump into a classic. Orwell’s book flashes qualities of Bates in descriptions of Burman climate, wildlife and living circumstances, plus adds highly enjoyable critical view of British colonial society and politics of the 1920s. The tragic love story naturally is of secondary importance.

” A cool breath of wind blew up the hill. It was one of those moment More...

In spite of a few antisemitic remarks(written by Orwell in his 20's- he subsequently changed his mind), this is an excellent novel about the last days of the British Empire in Burma(part of India at the time). It sets out the hypocrisy of the Anglo-Indian burra-sahibs who exploit the resources of the colonies & their inhabitants who are considered subhuman, while spouting tripe about the white man's burden(educating & "raising up"the natives to the allegedly superior level of the whites) More...

In George Orwell's essay "Why I Write," he says that his first published work of fiction, Burmese Days (1934), is the kind of book that he aspired to write at the age of sixteen when a passage from Milton's Paradise Lost sent "shivers down [his] backbone." Specifically, Orwell says that he wanted to write "enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which words were used partly for the sake of their s More...

I'd like to offer, as a sort of disclaimer, that it's a little weird for me to say whether or not I "like" a book, or worse still, to be the judge of how "good" it is. As a dutifully relativist English major, I'm wary of these terms, and especially of a star scale. I fall into all sorts of relativist angst over what "good" really is, who can say a book is "good," what these stars signify, and who am I to pick a number of stars...

That said (and I suppose that disclaimer applies to every review I More...

Absolutely bleak and tragic, Orwell illustrates for us a community of disillusioned, aimless drunks. I am speaking of course about the culture surrounding the British club in the waning days of British rule in Burma. No one seems to really know why they are there, their lives have little purpose beyond meeting at the club to get blotto and remind themselves of why they are superior to those around them. "Burmese Days" is much like "A Passage to India", but written without even a trace of optimis More...

My god. Orwell is a comedian! Who knew? Aspects that are funny in a dark dark dark way. Loved it! Flory is hilarious - Imagine meeting the love of your life while trying to save her from a raging buffalo and then giving her a tiger skin that ends up reeking her house to high heavens. I mean talk about creating a fool. It's brilliant. And don't forget the birthmark on his face that seems to have a life of its own, choosing to embarrass him each time he gets close to kissing her. Of course there's More...

George’s fictionalised account of his time in Burma with our brave old lads in the Indian Imperial Police. Flory is our antihero, desperately striving for decency and brotherhood and love in a moral backwater populated by the drunk whore-mongering Old Guard English and corrupt local blackmailers, rapists and tyrants (rolled into one here as U Po Kyin). Caught in the middle are the unfortunate Burmese and Indians trapped in an easily manipulated honour system, ruled over with contempt by the inst More...

George Orwell spent five years in the military police in Burma in the 1920s and returned to England to write scathingly of the empire and its treatment of the people of Asia.

Mr. Flory is a timber merchant in an outpost in Burma, where he spends most of the time in the bush and then returns to the small settlement of Europeans, Indians, and Burmans every couple of months or so. This is not an easy life for a man who wants to share his enthusiasms for his local discoveries--the way people think i More...

A very good read. Early Orwell shows himself off well as his anti-imperialist attitudes take over from his child-of-empire upbringing.

From my review: http://www.allinoneboat.org/2012/12/1...

Not only is the book thick with information about Burma in the 1920s and Orwell’s lefting political thought in the ’30s but it’s a damn good read, simply as a story told. The leading man, Flory, a timber merchant in Upper Burma, who has resigned himself to gin before breakfast and a Burmese mistress, is smit More...

RECIPE:
1. Take "1984". If you (like most of us) were too young when you read it, and so grasped its sarcasm and wit but couldn't take in the depth of its dark, bleak outlook, watch the brilliant 1984 film with John Hurt for a refresher.
2. Add the beautiful, sad, operatic [Romeo&Juliet/MmeButterfly] Scott tale from The Raj Quartet, "Jewel in the Crown", preferably after marinating it in the lush BBC production.
3. Combine thoroughly.
4. Whisk in a spoonful of any Forster work, whose waning More...

I mean no disrespect to Orwell when I say I was let down by this book. I'd be the first to say that Orwell is an exceptional essayist in his own right, perhaps even the best that I've ever encountered. And it's just that--his talent and clean rhetoric is best expressed in his written essays and dissertations than in fiction writing. (That said, most say that "1984" is probably the best of his works, and I wouldn't dare argue with that statement.)

"Burmese Days" is a sad book. More than likely, hi More...

Favorite quotes:


"Beauty is meaningless until it is shared."

"[Y]ou cannot stop your brain developing, and it is one of the tragedies of the half-educated that they develop late, when they are already committed to some wrong way of life . . . ."

"Everyone is free in England; we sell our souls in public and buy them back in private, among our friends."

"[I]t is a corrupting thing to live one's real life in secret. One should live with the stream of life, not against it. It would be better to be the t More...

George Orwell was a military police officer in Burma, and the main character in this book is based upon his experiences. After having read many books about the fall of British colonialism, his descriptions are deep, well-detailed, and have a certain poetic cadence reminiscent of Paul Scott's 'The Raj Quartet.' Orwell was very discontent and disillusioned with how the system of British Colonialism corrupted human experience. The rigid stratifications of society are illustrated by relationships wi More...

Flowery Orwell. I was hoping for more spit-fire venomous anti-colonialism, but I suppose his constant harping on the leathery yellow of the Europeans was seditious enough.


NICE PARTS:

"In the end the secrecy of your revolt poisons you like a secret disease. Your whole life is a life of lies. Year after year you sit in Kipling-haunted little clubs, whiskey to the right of you, Pink'un to the left of you, listening and eagerly agreeing while Colonel Bodger develops his theory that these bloody Nati More...

Copying straight from what I wrote for the Fifty Two Fifty Two blog ...



When we read 1984 in high school, I hated it. Not only did the book create a world that I was eager to leave, but that world seemed to have extended beyond the words to the printer where our class copies were bound, seeping out from the pages with a creepy chemical smell. It’s the only book I remember from that freshman English class, or as so repulsive a read.

So it was with surprise and a bit of self-satisfaction at my liter More...

In Burmese Days, George Orwell comments on society and imperialism. The story is based around U Po Kyin, a magistrate, and Dr Veraswami. Each wants an affiliation to the European club. Their dispute ends up drafting a British timber merchant, John Florey and something happens. But I’m not going to tell you what: I am attempting to make this, and all, of my book reviews as spoiler free as possible.

When I read this book I found that the first 15 chapters were good. From 15-23 they got really good More...

I never would have picked this book up had it not been for a friend's recommendation. I tried reading it a couple of times and never got very far until a concentrated burst of determination got me past the first hundred pages. I would say that I'm glad I finally did.

One of the best (and maybe worst...) qualities of the book is Orwell's ability to describe in detail the setting of India at the end of the British colonialism. This ability is most tangibly noticed in Orwell's constant description o More...

This is George Orwell's first novel, based on his experiences as a police officer in Burma after WWI. It is a dark story that is most notable as a harsh criticism of the British Raj in the final years of the empire prior to WWII and the rapid liquidation of the empire afterwards. While this work was originally published in the early 1930s, it is strongly consistent with recent research that has been strongly critical of the British Empire and its legacy. The economy of the Raj (of which Burma wa More...

Excellent novel -- what an indictment of British colonialism! I have read 1984 and Animal Farm and I would have to say that Burmese Days is just as brilliant. Orwell's portrayal of Burma during colonial rule shows a world of racism, violence, loneliness, alcoholism, political corruption, and debauchery. The characters in the book are not very likeable but you have to sympathize with Flory who admires and socializes with the Burmese and tries to make the best of his situation in Burma. The rest o More...

It is a long time since I read any George Orwell I read four of his novels once, probably 20 - 25 years ago – and was really looking forward to reading this – his first novel. Some years ago I read a non-fiction book Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese teashop by Emma Larkin – who wrote the introduction for this edition. In that book (from what I can remember) Emma Larkin explored the way in which the five years George Orwell spent in Burma – where he is viewed as “the prophet” More...

Notable quotations:

According to Buddhist belief, those who have done evil in their lives will spend the next incarnation in the shape of a rat, a frog or some other low animal. U Po Kyin was a good Buddhist and intended to provide against this danger. He would devote his closing years to good works, which would pile up enough merit to outweigh the rest of his life. Probably his good works would take the form of building pagodas. Four pagodas, five, six, seven - the priests would tell him how man More...

Orwell es un excelente observador. Es como el cocodrilo que encuentra en el sistema, en la ocupación, en la sociedad o en el corazón del hombre el punto más débil que puede destruirlo. "Los Días de Birmania" (o "La Marca" en algunas traducciones) son resultado de ese juicio crítico: La colonización inglesa y como eventualmente estas colonias son el depósito para gente olvidada, solitaria, que no puede hallarse ya en su país de origen. Los exiliados o los condenados que nacieron ahí, y como impon More...

Orwell was only thirty-one when he published "Burmese Days" in 1934- so it's hard to believe that it had already been twelve years since he began his stint in Burma in the Indian Imperial Police, and more than seven years since he had returned to Europe to begin his writing career. So like his main character, John Flory, Orwell had already packed a lot of living into a short time- and so, even though this a novel of his youth, it has the jaundiced cynicism and nostalgia of a much older man. And More...

I really enjoyed this book. On a personal level, I'm sad I didn't discover Orwell until 24. But I guess all the authors we found and loved as teenagers were like presents opened on Christmas Eve.

What are our sentiments if we don't have the courage to act on them? What is the past to the present? What does beauty look like and feel like if no one else sees or shares it? Etc. These are the nice questions of the book. Worth saying that I could have enjoyed Burmese Days for the social commentary it More...