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Burmese Days (7 Cassettes)

5 star:		(39)
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3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With his very first novel, Orwell earned an honorable position on the crowded shelves of Raj Lit. It was a kind of self-liberation, so he could drop the subject henceforth.
He had spent 5 years in Burma as a police officer. Why had he done that? His family was of the shabby genteel class, and his father's pension from the imperial service in India was barely enough to carry him through school. So he skipped university and did what the people in his novel do: sign up for the colonies in the hope of reasonable wealth and career.
When he quit after 5 years, he had some explaining to do. He did it with this novel.
Most first novels are autobiographic to some extent, but Orwell did something different: he figured out what he himself would have become had he stayed. His 'hero' Flory is an alter ego under the hypothical assumption of having stayed for 15 years instead of quitting after 5.
Flory has a different job, but that doesn't matter much. He is a deeply lonely and frustrated man without prospects. He is disgusted with himself and with his social crowd, the sahiblog, who enforce conformism in the most primitive way. They are generally a disgusting group of people.
Flory meets a young woman who seems the answer to his loneliness problem. For her, he might be the solution to her problem, which is the expectation of spinsterhood in poverty. They misunderstand each other thouroughly and make a huge mess of it.
The personal tragedy of Flory is framed by stories of imperial intrigues, by local officials playing Machiavelli and by the sahibs sinking into delirium tremens.
I read it first when I was working and living in other parts of the by then former Raj. I think everything would have been different if the poorpeople, the sahiblog, had had airconditioning. They might have been able to use their brains more.

It is a pity that all the attention on Orwell is always on Animal Farm and 1984, becuase he has in his short life written quite a few other brilliant books of which Burmese Days is one.

Burmese days is the strongest criticism of the colonial past I have read. It is a biting and cynical satire on the life of a bunch of worthless good-for-nothin's in the early part of this century in Birma.

None of the characters is in the least likeable. The main protagonist Flory has his moments but fails miserably at the only instances ( the membership for the Club for his Indian friend)in which he could have made a difference. In a way he resembles Saint Peter but withouth the remorse.

His collegues at the Club are at best an empty headed lazy bunch and at worst outright lower class racists. Ellis would have lived in the slums of London but here in Birma he feels superior to every "nigger"" ( That Orwell uses this word frequently adds to the dark and biting spirit of this novel).

The girl, Elizabeth Lackersteen, is more stupid than Daphne Manners ( Jewel in the Crown) or Adela Quested ( Passage to India) and in her "innocence" ( by Orwell, more than Scott and Forster, poignant depicted as ignorance and stupidity) and causes the same problems for the people around them in particular the Birmese and the Indians.

Is it clear that the Europeans are all sinners, the "surpressed" are certainly not saints. The birmese characters are extremely corrupt and the girls do not display very high moral values. The Indian doctor is wonderful; his whole life he has had only one ambition and that is to be part of the English class. In order to avoid embarrassment he assures the English, however, that when the membership is offered he will be deeply honoured but never use it!

All this is written in a wonderful prose and a very tight storyline; the hand of a master. It helps you to understand how incompetent Colonial Rule has been in some places and in what a mess that has resulted. One has only to visit Birma these days ( as I do from time to time) to see what Orwell meant

Reading the novel fifty years after the colonization ended gives you a severe feeling of embarassment and an everlasting impression of the Colonial past of the European countries. It will change the way you see things and that is what Orwell had in mind with all his social-realist work.

'Burmese Days', George Orwell's first novel, was based on his five years' experience as a member of the British Indian Imperial military police in Burma, which was part of British India at the time (1922-27) and remained so until 1937. Orwell was born in Bengal British India where his father worked for the Opium Department of the Civil Service.

Orwell sets his rather sordid tale in a remote station of Kyauktada in Upper Burma.

Through Orwell's considerable literary skills the reader feels the heat and rains: "...from February through May the sun glared in the sky like an angry god, then suddenly the monsoon blew westward, first in sharp squalls, then in a heavy ceaseless downpour that drenched everything until neither one's clothes, one's bed, nor even one's food ever seemed to be dry. It was still hot, with a stuffy vaporous heat. The jungle paths turned to morasses, and the paddy fields were great wastes of stagnant water with a stale mousy smell...Through July and August there was hardly a pause in the rain."

Fictional Kyauktada station consists of eight whites in the midst of thousands of Burmese. Eight whites holding on to their cribbed vision of civilization with a social life centered around a cheap whites-only club and the once-every-six-weeks visit of the Anglican priest. Although he changed the names, Orwell's characters were based on real people he encountered. The corrosive affect of colonial rule takes a toll on everyone involved, British and Burmese alike. The Anglo Indians generally display racist attitudes that ranged from an accepted sense of one's own 'natural' superiority to raging hate. The Burmese are nearly as repugnant as they scrape and bow to curry favor with grater and lesser degrees of sincerity. The protagonist Flory is the only partial exception, but his maddening equivocation ultimately leads to dire results. Several of the British sink into booze to put away the malaise.

Orwell had difficulty getting 'Burmese Days' published partially out of fear that it would anger supporters of the British Empire (especially Anglo Indians) and also fear of libel suits. After reading Burmese Days you will agree that these reactions would not have been surprising. No one comes off looking very good, British or Burmese, but least of all the British Empire. Was it really as bad as Orwell portrays? Perhaps it was, after all Kyauktada was far from a plum assignment. In any event Orwell's `Burmese Days' portrayal is closer to the mark than any romanticized renderings.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the Asian subcontinent.

I have to admit to being a huge Orwell fan and having lived in Burma for several years (and having visited the location of the story in "Burmese Days" (Katha), I believe this book presents one of the most accurate representations of the Burmese character and of the relationship (that was) between the Burmese (as opposed to the Karen, the Chin and other minorities). Anyone who desires to understand Burma, its people and its government (Aung San, Ne Win to the present SPDC) should read this book. It is a masterful work that remains important for several reasons.

I came to this through Emma Larkin's "Finding George Orwell in Burma". She cites it as part of a perpetually banned in Burma Orwell trilogy (along with "Animal Farm" and "1984") that Burmese with the courage to squirel away copies, think, and discuss, cherish. They see these three books as the history of their country.

It's a remarkable first novel. It still holds up and probably will for more generations because it has so much meaning.

Last year I read Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant" about the pressure on a young British police officer to be what both the Empire and its subjects demand. In "Burmese Days" he casts a wider net on how colonialism harms and can ultimately destroy, not only those colonized, but also those enlisted to carry out the goals of the empire.

This novel is set the remotest of outposts, so undesireable that it attracts the most undesireable cast of expats. There is no fully redeeming named character here, neither British nor Burmese.

The story centers on Flory who has humane qualities (such as respect for the Burmese as a people which is highly ununual among the expats), but his lack of confidence and his alcohol problem prevent his action most times. In his loneliness he falls in love with someone with whom he will never be able to converse... and he is desperate for a friend. The story is not about his romance, which provides heavy emotional drama, but about the situation in which a culture with superior furniture, (the Burmese are awed by imported chairs), clothes, medicine, weapons, etc. imposes itself on a poor population without any means to hold itself together in the face of an outside force with seemingly unlimited resourses.

How would Ellis, the Lackersteens, Verrall and Macggregor have fared if they had stayed in England? Would they be kicking their servants/employees (if they were to have them)? or tolerating others doing it in their circle? How would they feel about confiscating property of others? Blinding teenagers? Shooting into crowds on Picadilly Square? Are these Britons different from their contemporaries in Germany avoiding witness to, indirectly/directly abetting or actively forcing Jews to camps?

Orwell describes a situation which poses but does not answer big questions. What is humanity? Is ethical, or even "normal" behavior situational? Is it easier for the negative to inspire than the positive? The provoking of these questions, and the way in which Orwell provokes them, guarantees that this novel will continue to be read 71 years from now.

Orwell writes an engaging novel that clearly reveals typical attitudes from the side of the master and of the servant. I found that his portrayal of the British men in the lonely Burmese outpost to be believable and probably highly descriptive of common beliefs of the day. I also found his treatment of the subservient native population to be most likely accurate.
Orwell has a way of capturing thoughts and emotions common to any man, and he expresses those so very clearly. He clearly shows the danger and sadness of unrestrained ego, of submission to the baser desires common to man, and of the passions of men in search of significance.
While some argue that the work is not relevant to today, I argue otherwise. The same racist attitudes, conniving spirits, and raw emotions are just as prevalent today in every culture of the world as Orwell's day of 80 years ago and as probably all of history. The novel is chock full of lines worthy to be quoted with frequency.
It is an excellent read for those interested in the British Colonial Empire, the history of subjugation, or just a story of love forsaken.
Likewise, those interested in Indian/British history may consider an equally informative book by Mark Tully called "No Full Stops in India."

(For background info, please read the review first...)

I was fascinated by this novel and thought it well-written. It is ultimately a cynical novel, yet the experiences detailed in the novel are devastating and could easily lead a decent person to utter despair... British colonialism seems to be bottomless; as if there is no continent that hasn't been contaminated by it. Although it is now a thing of the past, learning about it still has the power to chill, by its utter cruelty, indiffence and arrogance.

The setting is all-important, and I kept thinking as I read, this would make a really good movie. But by the time, I got to the end, I realized why it hadn't: the grotesqueness of the characters, predominantly British traders, merchants and soldiers who are stationed in the middle of nowhere, in a tropical nightmare. This novel is not politically correct: the Burmese are not spared. They are as ignorant, corrupt and cowardly as the Brits who sit around drinking and cursing them. And the Brits range from snobbish, pathetic and weak to vicious, violent and bigoted. The one Brit with insight is riddled with fear, self-loathing and cowardice. There are no heroes here. British colonialism in Burma has seemingly brought out the worst in everyone. The ending is shocking, but ulimately quite reasonable. If you have any doubts about the amorality of colonial occupation, you must read this.

"There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief, there's too much confusion, can't get no relief..."

I read this novel for the first time when I was sixteen and then again eleven years later. The profound shock which I felt was remarkable on both occasions. That someone could write with such bitter honesty about this dark chapter of human civilazation in that day and age seemed very hard to believe. But such an expose does exist and those who still have not read it have missed out on a lot. The novel grips one in its steel clutches and by the time it lets go, one is in a state of a much higher understanding of what colonialism must have meant to a lot of colonisers and the suffereing colonised. That this account comes from someone who was part of the colonising force in Burma is all the more remarkable and appreciable. This novel intrigued me so much about Orwell that I went on to read most of his other books and I have come to admire him tremendously and regard him as one of the most important writers of this century. If comparisons are a valid exercise, and I doubt whether they are, 'A Passage to India' rang shallow and naive in its treatment of colonialism after I sat down and compared it to Burmese Days. This is definitely the best I have read in the colonialism context and one of the best novels of the 20th century in my opinion. All casual and hardline supporters of colonialism as well as everyone else who is interested in the subject must read it. I have already gifted this book to several of my friends and recommend it to all those who read literature.

Orwell mines the rich experience of British colonialism in the same way he mined his Spanish Civil War experience. The difference that here he uses the novel as his means of expression.

This is a quality piece of Orwellian writing. Which means that it is excellent. His themes are the decay of the British both empire and colonists and the difference between not just knowing right versus wrong but also acting on it.

Orwell's descriptions of British colonists and their insular world and that contrast between the poverty and anger of the colonized is well done. He doesn't treat the Burmese as noble nor as crafty second class citizens. The great struggle here is within Flory. A man who represents the colonizers and comes to realize they are no better and no worse than the colonized.

As always Orwell is one of the greatest at locating and describing human behavior and culture. He is one of the great writers of the twentieth century.

Unevenly written at times, but a great story of the decaying British empire: After some 15 years in hot and miserable Upper Burma, the wretched James Flory, 35, a man whose inner rot is as obvious as the great, ugly birthmark on his pasty cheek, convinces himself that a vapid young English girl carries his hope of redemption. Flory is sick about the state of the empire, sick about the way his fellow Club members slag the natives and Flory's Indian friend Dr. Veraswami, sick about his Burmese concubine, and just generally, fundamentally sick. Elizabeth, a club member's niece, is pretty and modern, but he never quite figures out that she's as twisted, racist, and proud as his hated colleagues, and meanwhile he stumbles in the way of the plans of the fabulously corpulent and corrupt U Po Kyin, a Burmese bureaucrat of ruthless ambition. Needless to say, it all ends quite badly. Narratively, the book is most remarkable for its cinematic style, especially considering when it was written.