It seems impossible to write a review without spoilers. It’s Orwell, so you know going in that it’s not going to end well, but he was ingenious in taking the novel in different directions than I thought he was setting up early on: marry in haste, repent at leisure. It’s much more complicated than that.

This is a devastating indictment of colonialism and its demoralizing (in the sense of destroying morals, as well as morale) effects on both the colonizers and the colonized. There are fools, demons, and questioners without the resources or courage to challenge what is going on among both the English and the Burmese. Orwell is especially good at showing how isolated either Flory or U Po Kyin’s wife would be, in an unforgiving location, if they acted according to their conscience.

I was left with three questions in my mind: to what extent did Flory earn what happened to him, was being shipped off to Burma a good thing or a bad thing for him, and did the choice he made at the end save him from worse pain in ways he couldn’t fully envision.

Surely being shipped off to a third rate English public school with a major birthmark on one’s face was a recipe for devastating emotional effects from the bullying and abuse. Then to be thrust into a morass of debauchery and exploitation as a youth...Yes, he made choices as an adult, but I think we are meant to feel that he was too handicapped to make all of hte right ones.

Possibly the most interesting question involves how the course of our lives both enriches and scars us. Orwell tells us that Flory came out of school without any culture or serious interest in the world, and seemingly without any attachments to friends or family. Suffering in Burma he starts to read and think about what his country is doing, and develops a devastating, and perhaps one-sided, understanding of colonialism. He also develops a genuine love of the physical and cultural environment of Burma. One can imagine that he would have become a typical middle-class citizen of the nation of shopkeepers if he had stayed in England, so is he better or worse off for ending up miserable but enlightened? On this, I think Orwell is undecided. Doctor Veraswami’s defense of colonialism seems like a gullible parroting of the English excuse for their presence, but he presents some genuine benefits. And we are given to understand that the worse of Englishmen end up in the colonies, being so either originally or after they spend years carrying out their duties; one presumes that Orwell found some redeeming qualities in some English at home. So neither fate is totally black.

Lastly, I can’t help thinking how much more despairing Flory would have been after two years living with Elizabeth. Even though he has mentally acknowledged that she is not the soulmate he had first imagined, he believes his love for her has redeeming power. He can start over. But we know that the reality of still having no one to talk to, or watching her engaged in petty club business and unending meaningless social conversation, would destroy this illusion and send him to drink and ruin. So, I conclude it is the better, nobler end for him. How sad. How masterful.

Really a beautiful novel, even if difficult to read. I listened to it, and to hear Frederick Davidson’s rendition of Ellis’s vicious bigotry was gut-wrenching. But the power of the hunting scene, and how Orwell elicited our memories of how intensely emotional moments can create connections between people, was so effective. I have a big fat volume of Orwell’s essays, and must dip into them occasionally.

An indictment of British colonial rule and institutionalized bigotry!

Most lovers of English literature will be aware of George Orwell's 1984 and ANIMAL FARM but, sadly, few book lovers will have even heard of, let alone read, his scathing indictment of colonial British government rule in east Asia, BURMESE DAYS. As Orwell's parents and family were posted to Burma and were obviously participants in, if not supporters of this colonial imperialism, it is difficult to imagine how much putting such criticism and biting satire to paper might have cost Orwell on a personal level.

Like Thomas Hardy's THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, this is an almost unremittingly dark novel with heroes that are at best deeply flawed. Orwell's haunting and magnificently economical prose, is a gun turret mounted on a 360° swivel that is brought to bear on every character in the novel in turn.

Flory, a white timber merchant with an embarassingly insipid weak personality befriends Veraswami, a local Burmese doctor who, inexplicably, seems to be an avid supporter of the British colonial government. When Veraswami's name is floated as the possible token native member of the British "club", the hostile reaction is immediate and visceral. Flory seems overwhelmed and is simply unable to muster the courage necessary to stand up to the demands of his peers who insist on maintaining an institutionalized prejudice against the local "niggers". Veraswami comes under attack on a second front from U Po Kyin, the utterly corrupt Burmese magistrate who covets the European patronage to enhance his own wealth and prestige. Beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen - now there's a character! If this novel were placed in the US, she would have been a "flapper"! Today she would simply be written off as a vapid airhead! But, in BURMESE DAYS, she represents the worst of decadent imperial decline.

BURMESE DAYS is not easy or comfortable reading. I felt at times queasy, often appalled, frequently saddened and even embarrassed that bigotry, hatred and corruption at this level is clearly a part of my heritage. Sadly, we are not yet able to claim we have grown completely past this type of behaviour but perhaps it is to our credit that people like Orwell had the courage to commit this to paper solely for the purpose of making us aware of our own shortcomings and that we are to this day profoundly uncomfortable when we read it!

Highly recommended.


Paul Weiss

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 --- and it seems that there is also an element of self-loathing in the writing, as well as a certain attitude about the country and its people. At least it is an unflinchingly honest and presumably accurate account of the bleakness of life in a remote Burmese colonial station in the waning days of the British Empire.

This is Orwell's first published work of fiction, and having read all of his other fiction and longer non-fiction books, it is the final major work of his I will have the opportunity to read. As Orwell is one of my favorite authors for a number of reasons, I of course have to read all of his work. The reasons I love Orwell are many: The honesty and decency of his character which shows throughout his body of work, the plain and frank nature of his prose - still so refreshing, and the bold and brave (even heroic) nature of his life. Like Bertrand Russell, he was more than just one person - where Russell was both philosopher and social crusader, Orwell was novelist, journalist and freedom fighter.

To Orwell neophytes, I recommend (of course) '1984' and 'Animal Farm', and simultaneously his non-fiction 'Road to Wigan Pier'*, 'Homage to Catalonia' and 'Down and Out in Paris and London'. They are all essential. More difficult is choosing among his earlier fiction. I would rank 'Burmese Days', along with 'A Clergyman's Daughter', being the earliest two novels, as not as deftly constructed as 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying' and 'Coming Up For Air' (as well as his final fiction works, '1984' and 'Animal Farm'). His essays are of course absolutely essential, absolutely foundational, absolutely indispensable to all readers, and I wholeheartedly recommend a collection of his best essays to anyone.

With 'Burmese Days', Orwell puts into fiction his experiences as an officer in the British Empire in Burma. Explanations and summaries can be found elsewhere of the work itself. I found the style crisp, smart and efficient, if perhaps a bit long. As a young author, perhaps Orwell felt the need to make his novel longer than it needs to be so as to fit the mold of a adventurous, romantic novel of its genre, as opposed to the social commentary which underlies all of his work. His later works would get leaner and more intelligent. Throughout 'Burmese Days', there is an keen intelligence which glimmers behind the story, evident in every scene. For someone with such a non-literary upbringing, his first novel is a very great accomplishment.

* For those who have read Frank McCourt's ''Tis', I recommend 'Road to Wigan Pier', from which McCourt seems to have lifted entire passages detailing the squalor of mine workers' living conditions in Wigan, transplanting them to McCourt's childhood. My father alleges the lifting is almost literal.

Δυόμιση και πλέον χρονιά από την τελευταία φορά που διάβασα βιβλίο του Τζορτζ Όργουελ, επιτέλους ξαναδιαβάζω κάτι δικό του. Το πήρα μαζί μου στις διακοπές, γιατί ήθελα να διαβάσω κάτι αμιγώς βρετανικό, ενώ συν τοις άλλοις ήθελα η ιστορία του να διαδραματίζεται σε κάποιο εξωτικό μέρος. Και, βέβαια, ο Όργουελ αποτελεί εγγύηση ποιότητας. Είναι το τέταρτο βιβλίο του που διαβάζω και με άνεση τσιμπάει πέντε αστεράκια.

Το "Μέρες της Μπούρμα" μπορεί να είναι το πρώτο μυθιστόρημα που έγραψε ο Τζορτζ Όργουελ (μονάχα το καταπληκτικό "Οι αλήτες του Παρισιού και του Λονδίνου" προηγείται χρονικά, που όμως δεν είναι μυθιστόρημα), όμως είναι γραμμένο με τέτοια μαεστρία και οξυδέρκεια, που δεν ταιριάζει και τόσο σε (σχεδόν) πρωτόλειο έργο. Σε τούτο το βιβλίο ο Όργουελ είναι αιχμηρός και εξαιρετικά κυνικός, αναδεικνύει με τον πλέον ρεαλιστικό και ωμό τρόπο τόσο την αισχρότητα και την υποκρισία των αποικιοκρατών Βρετανών στην Μπούρμα, όσο και τη διαφθορά των ντόπιων. Αν υπάρχει κάποιος βασικός πρωταγωνιστής στην όλη μαύρη ιστορία, είναι ο Φλόρι, η απόπειρα του οποίου να ξεφύγει από τη μίζερη ζωή σε μια επαρχιακή πόλη της άνω Μπούρμα είναι καταδικασμένη από την αρχή...

Οι ευαίσθητοι οπαδοί της αναθεματισμένης πολιτικής ορθότητας, όντας και σχετικά κοντόφθαλμοι, μπορεί να δυσανασχετήσουν με κάποιες εκφράσεις και περιγραφές ανθρώπων και καταστάσεων, όμως ο Όργουελ κατακρίνει όλες τις πρακτικές των Βρετανών, χωρίς όμως να χαρίζει κάστανα και στους ιθαγενείς, που με τη σειρά τους έχουν τις δικές τους ευθύνες. Ο συγγραφέας έζησε πολλές παρόμοιες καταστάσεις με το βιβλίο, όντας αξιωματικός της Αποικιακής Αστυνομίας στην Μπούρμα, οπότε ξέρει πολύ καλά τι λέει. Το βιβλίο είναι εξαιρετικά καλογραμμένο, έντονο και σε σημεία υποβλητικό, ιδιαίτερα αληθοφανές και υπό μια έννοια κλειστοφοβικό και θλιβερό. Το προτείνω με κλειστά μάτια!

Me ha gustado mucho más que alguna de sus obras más famosas. Es una historia muy entretenida sobre la vida de un grupo de británicos en Birmania y sus influencias sobre la población local.

Orwell vivió allí algunos años así que no me cabe duda de lo realista que será.

(A review of Burmese days by George Orwell
On 8 June 2016

A review of Burmese days by George Orwell
The most unflattering account of India and its people is there in 'Burmese days'. The authenticity of the book is stunning. George Orwell saw things far more clearly than even Forster, who totally ignored Hindus for they appeared mysterious to him, besides noting passingly Dr. Godse.
On the reverse side, the Gorge Orwell's book presents the colonials in even poorer light. The true nature of colonialism and its soul-sapping decadence and corrupting influence on both the parties is pity-provoking.
You simply can not detest the British underclass, representing the face of colonials in India. They are capable of inflicting the severest violence on the natives to prove their loyalty to the Raj and win promotions, while they are distressed by their financial worries, children's education or their future, once they complete their tenure in India.
For the ones not married yet, finding a suitable English match is almost out of question. At best they will find a woman who is considered too low in Britain and fit to be a servant only, or fit to marry a British man serving in India.
Then you have orphaned and destitute English young women coming to India looking for a husband.
(Such was the tyranny at home--Towards which he was drawn "Like a moth to a flame" in the words of BBC--and Orwell went out looking for it all over the places to begin his revolution.)
The prospects of joining the retirees' ghetto of British-Indian servicemen in England is the another loathsome inevitability at the end of a such a career.
That is, if an uprising of natives does not annihilate them before that.
They drink and indulge excessively to keep their minds off the dirty work they are doing here in most cases. Then there is the fear of tropical diseases.
From the first sentence it holds you by your neck and hits you with brilliance almost relentlessly.
Orwell was disillusioned of his job and despaired as a writer to almost kill himself by smoking while writing 1984. He had weak lungs and TB and lived a life of exile mostly. For his writing rendered him an alien in Britain.
To this day few writers have the courage to follow his legacy and Britain reads and produces occult-fiction or mommy porn mostly, if it not regales in foreign cultures.
The concept of home guard he suggested and the government adopted during the WWII gave him a hope that a revolt will take place in Britain itself, with millions of armed civilians. But he failed to see that British people were incapable of it, being very tribal by nature.
Before that he joined the Spanish civil war to fight the tyranny and got nearly killed. His personal life says that he was a born revolutionary with no true comrade. So writing was the last resort to him though it earned him very little to ever get settled in life. Today his works earn millions of pound in royalties.
What is most appealing about Burmese days is the intimate scenes between Flory and his Burmese mistress in the earlier part of the book. The hostility and mutual distrust among them is total. Flory needs her to relieve his carnal desires and she needs Flory to extort money. They hate each other as much as possible otherwise. Once this relationship fails the woman turns vindictive, prompted by the villain and finally destroys Flory. The villain is a Burmese in British civil service who is against Flory because Flory supports a South Indian doctor for the membership of the club, where only one Indian will be entered to make it look more egalitarian, as per orders from higher commands.
It divides the members of the hitherto all white club, who sulk at the prospects of having an Indian now in a all white club. Now they want the one closer to them to join. It makes Flory an enemy of the rest of the whites and the other wannabe for the membership: the Burmese villain, for he clearly supports his friend the South Indian doctor for the membership.
It is the most forthcoming narrative of the writer where he doesn't hide behind many symbols or allusions, save the birthmark of Flory, who a reader will never forget in his life; which is the case with his later work which was more celebrated than his first.
Though it is about Burma rather than India, it is almost about every country ever colonised.
The ending disappointed a bit. For neither Flory is that sensitive a soul to commit suicide after killing his pet dog when he was rejected by Elizabeth for the second time after his disposed Burmese mistress creates a scene in a church gathering. He was never that proud of his Englishness that the rejection of an English woman, who is an orphan and a destitute and is desperate to find a husband in India after finding none at home.
On the part of Elizabeth too, the second rejection of Flory is too much over done with. More so since she already rejected Flory for the same reason earlier and then accepted back after she herself was rejected by the military officer Varrell, who she and her aunt were prospecting for her husband. Flory was rejected first time as soon Varell arrives in the town and is accepted back as soon Varrell leaves without saying a goodbye to anyone after his month long stay in the town, during which he took out Elizabeth almost every evening but never proposed the marriage Elizabeth wanted from him so badly.
In the meanwhile the uncle who gives her shelter in Burma has repeatedly tried to rape her.
All British characters are too practical in the book for they are from the underclass at home and are out there to make a career in British Raj in India. When they appeared inordinately principled in the end of the book, it looked disingenuous to say the least.
If it was created to make the end dramatic it has failed completely. If it was done to uphold the uprightness and pride of British colonials it again fails miserably. For the book gave away a great deal earlier on that count.
Feb 4, 2017.
(A doubt is, they were added to attenuate the venom of the book when it was finally published in England, after its first edition published in the USA was taken off the shelf briskly, though the book has already sold a few thousand copies in a little time after publication.)

It's fascinating. But it's a bit stress when you kinda encountering some of that till today. I like the fiction books and movies that happen in the places i know. I'm gonna surely explore around Kyautadar (now Kathar) and may be read the book again.

Burma Günleri ile beraber George Orwell'ın altı kitabını okumuş oldum. Bu altı kitabın hepsi bence birbirinden bir hayli farklı; ama hepsi de bir o kadar benzer nitelikler taşıyor.
Burma Günleri'ne gelirsem bana -niye tam bilemiyorum ama- Boğulmamak İçin'i anımsattı.

Kitabın ana karakteri John Flory, İngiliz sömürgesi olan Burma'da görevli çok az sayıda "beyaz"dan biri. Flory'i diğer "beyaz"lardan ayıran bir yön var, o da Burmalılara diğer İngilizler kadar kötü davranmaması. Hatta bu diğer İngilizler olmasa Flory'nin onlarla gerçek birer dost olabilmesi bile mümkün. Yine de yetiştiği, içinde yaşamaya devam ettiği ortam buna tam anlamıyla izin vermiyor tabii. Birkaç Burmalı dostu olsa da hiçbir zaman onları tam anlamıyla destekleyemiyor, hiçbir zaman aslında haksız ve hatalı olduğunu hissettiği İngilizlere ciddi şekilde karşı çıkamıyor. Ne Burmalılarla tam anlamıyla dostluk kurup anlaşabiliyor ne de İngilizlerle. Oldukça yalnız bir adam Flory. Kasabaya gelen bir İngiliz'in yeğenini -Elizabeth- bu yalnızlığına, bu çaresizliğine bir çare olarak görüyor. Ona bir can simidi gibi sarılmaya çalışıyor. Öyle ki bu çaresizliği pek çok şeyi görmesine ve anlamasına mani oluyor. Örneğin Elizabeth tam anlamıyla sanattan, edebiyattan nefret eden biri, hatta oldukça sığ; oysa Flory'i ise yaşama bağlayanlar, edebiyat ve sanat. Flory Elizabeth'in bu nefretini bile görmüyor; çünkü çaresiz, çünkü Elizabeth yardımı olmadan yalnızlığından kurtulması mümkün değil. Yalnızlığından kurtulmak için Elizabeth'i hep hayal ettiği kadın olarak görmek zorunda. Yine de ne yapsa da olmuyor. O içindeki boşluğu maalesef dolduramıyor.

Orwell, İngiliz sömürgesinde yaşanan korkunç haksızlıkları, çıkarları uğruna kendinden olanlara yapmadığını bırakmayan Burmalıları ve ülkelerinde hiçbir artı değerleri yokken sömürgede sırf tenlerinin rengi ve ırkları sebebiyle birer Tanrı haline gelenleri iyi bir kurguyla başar��lı bir şekilde anlatmış. Okunmalı.

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 plan contract in which to snag their man and a modified version of Jane Austen's first line in Pride and Prejudice as their mantra, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a banker or accountant in possession of an obscenely large salary must be in want of a white wife."
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose*.

Read 2012. Review rewritten 2013 and 2015. Maybe next year too.

*The more things change, the more they stay the same

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pseudonym George Orwell, was a novelist, essayist, journalist and book critic. He was born in British-ruled India in 1903 and served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. This experience inspired his first novel, Burmese Days, which was first published in the USA in 1934.

Orwell later commented:

"...the landscapes of Burma, which, when I was among them, so appalled me as to assume the quality of nightmare, afterward stayed so hauntingly in my mind that I was obliged to write a novel about them to get rid of them."

My Penguin Modern Classics edition of this book has A Note on the Text by Peter Davison, a former president of The Bibliographical Society and editor of its journal; and an Introduction by Emma Larkin, the American author of Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop, who describes Burmese Days as “a heady blend of fact and fiction.”

Larkin believes it was during Orwell's time in Burma (now known as Myanmar) that he was, “transformed from a snobbish public-school boy to a writer of social conscience who sought out the underdogs of society.” Indeed, he was an apparatchik during the dying days of the Raj, and it is well documented that he hated his job with the police - the experience leaving him with an immutable loathing of imperialism and authority in general.

Almost everyone in Orwell's far-flung town of Kyauktada is corruptible given expedient circumstances (or at the very least, too drunk or self-obsessed to care what is happening around them), though some, such as local magistrate U Po Kyin, are especially skilled in the art of deception. Even Orwell's protagonist, John Flory, a white timber-merchant who defies convention by befriending a native, is something of an anti-hero. He lacks the courage of his convictions and is loathe to stir up trouble at his all-white Club. He is, however, a shade more enlightened than his compatriots.

I found it almost impossible to develop even the slightest feelings of compassion for any of the characters in this novel: they were, with the sole exception of the honourable Dr. Veraswami, a thoroughly contemptible bunch of bullies, sots and unprincipled degenerates. But that, I believe, is exactly what Orwell intended. This isn't n  The Trouser Peoplen or n  The Glass Palacen (although there are some evocative descriptions of the jungle and its wildlife), rather, it is a crushing indictment of colonial rule.

Burmese Days is a provocative tale of identity, loneliness, ignorance, racism and greed. In Orwell's own words:

"I dare say it's unfair in some ways and inaccurate in some details, but much of it is simply reporting what I have seen."

Early in his life, George Orwell served as an Indian Imperial Police officer in Burma, which is now called Myanmar, an Asian country bordered on the west by India and on the east by China and Thailand. Burma became a part of the British Empire during the 19th century.

Orwell was 19 years old when he was sent to Burma as a soldier in the Queen’s military in 1922. He served as a military police officer for five years there. In 1934, he published a novel about his experience in that country.

“Burmese Days” is Orwell’s scathing account of the patronizing, racist, and cruel British imperialist colonialism that he witnessed during his tour of duty. It did not win him any friends in the British government. Although it was a novel, Orwell was forced to publish it in the United States first, years before it was even allowed to be published in the UK, due to the fact that certain members of the British government felt it was “libelous”.

The story follows a British civilian, John Flory, who has business in Burma and lives there. Unlike most of the British military officers and other businessmen living there, Flory actually has some respect for the Burmese people and their way of life. He finds the country beautiful and the people charming. This is the complete opposite view that many of the other Brits feel about the Burmese, often described as disgusting savages.

Unbeknownst to Flory and the other British living in Kyauktada (a fictional city based on the real city of Kathar), an extremely vile and corrupt power-hungry Burmese magistrate, U Po Kyin, has started a secret campaign to defame and character-assassinate a local doctor, Veraswami, who is running for public office.

Veraswami is a kind and gentle soul, who happens to be friends with Flory, and U Po Kyin wants to destroy him because he sees Veraswami as a potential political threat. The two Burmese men are described as being two ends of the moral spectrum, and the ensuing battle becomes, for Orwell, an age-old war between good and evil.

The plot of “Burmese Days” centers around an exclusive British-only European Club. U Po Kyin longs to someday become a member, but the club has historically refused to allow non-Europeans, until a governmental edict by the British states that clubs of this ilk must now allow at least one non-European into the club, strictly for show.

Veraswami is the most likely candidate. Well-known and liked within the community, Veraswami also has the advantage of having a member as a friend. It is this tragic fact that pits Flory in the crosshairs of U Po Kyin.

Elizabeth Lackersteen, the young 19-year-old niece of the Lackersteens, an older British couple living in Burma, comes to live with them, and she and Flory are immediately expected to be matched. It is a relationship doomed from the start.

Perhaps owing to Orwell’s own youth and inexperience in the ways of love when he wrote this novel, the failed romance between Flory and Elizabeth is cringe-worthy. Not because Orwell did not know what he was writing about but precisely because it was almost obviously based on his own embarrassing experience, although this is purely speculation on my part.

Orwell accurately captures the complete idiocy of 20-something lustful longings being mistaken for love. Flory falls head over heels for Elizabeth, but everyone can see that she is a vapid, boring, unintelligent little girl. Everyone, of course, except for Flory.

One can almost guess how the book is going to end, and it is a testament to Orwell’s writing that he keeps the reader intrigued enough to see the obvious tragic clusterfuck through to the end.

Although it was written in the early years of Orwell’s career, “Burmese Days” is an excellent novel that can appeal to diverse audiences. Jane Austen fans will enjoy the biting, and humorous, mockery of British society and the Victorian-era romance. Joseph Conrad fans will enjoy the vicious and violent political machinations of the British imperialist rule. There is even a bit of Dickens in the lot, with a cast of well-developed minor characters with fun names such as Ko S’la and Ma Hla May.

Clearly, one can see what Orwell was reading during those hot four years in the military barracks of Burma.