Orwell, George. Burmese Days. New York. 1934. Harpers. 369 pages. hardcover.
DESCRIPTION - The product of intimate personal knowledge, Burmese Days, George Orwell's first novel, offers a scathing indictment of British Imperial rule. Against a brilliantly rendered exotic background, the author presents a bitter and satiric picture of the corruption spawned by absolute power, a corruption all - pervading and inescapable, infecting white man and native alike. His theme is given sharp focus in the struggle of. John Flory, the novel's English hero, to maintain some measure of integrity in a debilitating moral climate. As Flory is inexorably driven to final tragic defeat, the reader encounters a vividly delineated cross section of Anglo - Indian society and was an unsurpassed portrayal of an era of history whose effects still profoundly trouble the modern world. Burmese Days is a superb example of Orwell's literary skill and of the fierce and uncompromising vision that made him, in the words of V. S. Pritchett, 'the conscience of his generation.'
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - George Orwell, whom V. S. Pritchett has called ‘the conscience of his generation,’ was born in India in 1903 and was educated at Eton. From 1922 to 1927 he served in the Imperial Police in Burma. He spent the next few years in Paris and in England teaching school, writing, and working at a variety of jobs. He went to Spain when the Civil War broke out, fought on the Republican side, and was severely wounded. Back in England, he joined the Home Guard in World War II, and worked for the B.B.C. Orwell first gained wide recognition in America with the publication of his satiric fable ANIMAL FARM (1946). In addition to the well-known NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, his books include the novels COMING UP FOR AIR, BURMESE DAYS, and DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON; the documentary HOMAGE TO CATALONIA; and several collections of essays, the most recent being SUCH, SUCH WERE THE JOYS (1953). Orwell died in London in 1950.
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