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| Burmese Days (Penguin Modern Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy Used: £3.65
You Save: £5.34 (59%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 73700
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141185376
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780141185378
ASIN: 0141185376
Publication Date: November 29, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Interesting, if rather horrible to the modern reader September 22, 2008
An interesting and in many places rather distasteful picture of life in Burma under British rule. Most of the characters of all races and nationalities are rather unpleasant, with the exceptions of the central character Flory, who strives to be decent but is trapped in a lifestyle he cannot escape from, the Indian doctor Veraswami, with his basic humanity and unshakable faith in the British and, to some extent, the Deputy Commissioner Macgregor, who tries to preserve a certain decency and justice without challenging the system. Particularly horrible are the flagrantly racist Ellis, and the horrible Burmese manipulator U PO Kyin, though the behaviour of the cold-hearted Elizabeth Lackersteen and the military officer Verrall are also unpleasant. Not one of Orwell's better known works, but well worth reading. Finally, this could have done with a glossary to explain the large number of Burmese and Indian terms used.
on the empire May 26, 2008
Orwell's first novel. He considered it to contain too many purple passages, but this is an important description of the oppression of empire, particularly its psychological impact on those 'in charge'. Recommended.
 Pox Britannica April 29, 2008
George Orwell's picture of the British Indian Empire is a world of real and mental violence, pure racism, provocations by and manipulations of indigenous rebellions, corruption, bribing and blackmail.
He unveils `the lie that we're here to uplift our poor black brothers. ... The Indian Empire is despotism with theft as its final object. Its real backbone is the Army.'
The White Man lives like a parasite on the indigenous population, because `the real work of administration is done mainly by native subordinates.' `He becomes a creature of the despotism tied tighter than a monk or a savage by an unbreakable system of taboos.'
A colony `is a world in which every word and every thought is censored. Even friendships can hardly exist when every white man is a cog in the wheels of despotism. Free speech is unthinkable. You are free to be a drunkard, a fornicator; but you are not free to think for yourself. Your whole life is a life of lies.'
This hard-hitting book contains already the main themes of Orwell's later work: political and social freedom, freedom of speech and thought and the (im)moral, secret, arrogant and violent behavior of a all powerful oligarchy.
Not to be missed.
Very Orwellian November 15, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was Orwell's first novel, but it doesn't read like it. Perhaps his imagery is a little more polished in 1984 and Animal Farm, but it's all here at the beginning one way or another. Orwell draws on his experiences in the Burmese Police Force to write this savage novel, decrying the British Imperial system. The harshness of the regime is echoed in the unsympathetic landscape, the dissolute and decaying lives of the British inhabitants and the preponderance of mildewing books and dirt. There are no real heroes in this book, except perhaps Burma itself. The closest we get is the pathetic figure of Flory and his burgeoning realisation that the way of life he supports is wrong. His struggle to become a man, stand up to the relentless, grinding horrors of the system and his wish to redeem himself mark both the humanity and the tragedy of this novel. Impressive work.
Like being there, both in space and time... February 1, 2007
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
I picked up "Burmese Days" in a local market in Mandalay, heading towards Bagan..
Already fascinated about Myanmar and by its culture and history, well... let me tell you: this book is just like being there - both in space (physically) and in time (the old British Colony times).
There is Myanmar itself in it. Starting from the little map I had on the first pages of the book, which truly makes you feel like walking every step along with the characters in the little village of Kyauktada.
Besides all this, the book becomes every page more and more exciting: corruption spirals, arriving to an unexpected end of the story..
A preview of British Colonialism ending days?.......
Simply fab.
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