Burmese Days: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "U PO KYIN, Subdivisional Magistrate of Kyauktada, in Upper Burma, was sitting in his veranda..." (more)
Key Phrases: Military Police, Kin Kin, Burmese Patriot (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Imagine crossing E.M. Forster with Jane Austen. Stir in a bit of socialist doctrine, a sprig of satire, strong Indian curry, and a couple quarts of good English gin and you get something close to the flavor of George Orwell's intensely readable and deftly plotted Burmese Days. In 1930, Kyauktada, Upper Burma, is one of the least auspicious postings in the ailing British Empire--and then the order comes that the European Club, previously for whites only, must elect one token native member. This edict brings out the worst in this woefully enclosed society, not to mention among the natives who would become the One. Orwell mines his own Anglo-Indian background to evoke both the suffocating heat and the stifling pettiness that are the central facts of colonial life: "Mr. MacGregor told his anecdote about Prome, which could be produced in almost any context. And then the conversation veered back to the old, never-palling subject--the insolence of the natives, the supineness of the Government, the dear dead days when the British Raj was the Raj and please give the bearer fifteen lashes. The topic was never let alone for long, partly because of Ellis's obsession. Besides, you could forgive the Europeans a great deal of their bitterness. Living and working among Orientals would try the temper of a saint."

Protagonist James Flory is a timber merchant, whose facial birthmark serves as an outward expression of the ironic and left-leaning habits of mind that make him inwardly different from his coevals. Flory appreciates the local culture, has native allegiances, and detests the racist machinations of his fellow Club members. Alas, he doesn't always possess the moral courage, or the energy, to stand against them. His almost embarrassingly Anglophile friend, Dr. Veraswami, the highest-ranking native official, seems a shoo-in for Club membership, until Machiavellian magistrate U Po Kyin launches a campaign to discredit him that results, ultimately, in the loss not just of reputations but of lives. Whether to endorse Veraswami or to betray him becomes a kind of litmus test of Flory's character.

Against this backdrop of politics and ethics, Orwell throws the shadow of romance. The arrival of the bobbed blonde, marriageable, and resolutely anti-intellectual Elizabeth Lackersteen not only casts Flory as hapless suitor but gives Orwell the chance to show that he's as astute a reporter of nuanced social interactions as he is of political intrigues. In fact, his combination of an astringently populist sensibility, dead-on observations of human behavior, formidable conjuring skills, and no-frills prose make for historical fiction that stands triumphantly outside of time. --Joyce Thompson

Review

U Po Kyin's campaign against Dr. Veraswami turns out to be intended simply to further his aim of becoming a member of the European Club in Kyauktada. The club has been put under pressure to elect a native member and Dr. Veraswami is the most likely candidate. U Po Kyin arranges the escape of a prisoner and plans a rebellion for which he intends that Dr. Veraswami should get the blame. The rebellion begins and is quickly put down, but a native rebel is killed by acting Divisional Forest Officer, Maxwell. A few days later, the body of Maxwell is brought back to the town. This creates a tension between the Burmese and the Europeans, exacerbated by a vicious attack on native children by the spiteful Ellis. A large riot begins and Flory becomes the hero for bringing it under control with some support by Dr. Veraswami. U Po Kyin tries to claim credit but is disbelieved and Dr. Veraswami's prestige is restored.

Verrall leaves Kyauktada without even saying goodbye to Elizabeth and she falls for Flory again. Flory is happy and plans to marry Elizabeth. However, U Po Kyin has not given up; he hires Flory's former Burmese mistress to create a scene in front of Elizabeth during the sermon at Sunday church. Flory is disgraced and Elizabeth refuses to have anything more to do with him. Overcome by the loss and seeing no future for himself, Flory commits suicide.

Dr. Veraswami is demoted and sent to a different district and U Po Kyin is elected to the Club. U Po Kyin's plans have succeeded and he plans to redeem his life and cleanse his sins by financing pagodas. He dies of apoplexy before he can even start on building and his servant envisages him returning to life as a frog. Elizabeth eventually marries Macgregor, the Deputy Commissioner.- Wikipedia

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (March 20, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156148501
• ISBN-13: 978-0156148504
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,837 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pox Britannica, June 30, 2008

By	H. Schneider "Hermit" (window seat) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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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.

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Summers in Rangoon, October 5, 2003

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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Orwell's "Burma Days" is a masterpiece. I ought stop right here and just do nothing more than insist in my most persuasive tones that you should read it. But that wouldn't be much of a review, so I will say that Orwell wrote a novel that showcases exquisitely-drawn characters against Colonial Burma and the English Raj in the most masterful way possible. The descriptions of the British and Burmese characters (especially the unsavory ones,) the sweltering heat, the sodden texture of everything rotting in the jungle humidity, and the awful, filthy Burmese food are astonishingly to the point. After a few paragraphs, you can almost feel the brazen sun roasting your own head.

James Flory, the protagonist, is described as ugly, deformed, badly brought up, cheaply educated, and yet, we sympathize with him, as Orwell means us to do. Flory is obviously an alter-ego of Orwell, who also served in Burma. The plot, where a nasty local Burmese magistrate connives to discredit a social climber of an Indian doctor, is a simple enough device to manipulate each character along the fatalistic road to Hell.

The theme of a man past his youth, who drinks and thinks too much, who falls in love with a simple, thoughtless pretty woman is very like Winston Smith in 1984 and his fatal attraction to Julia. Here, Flory falls smack in love with Elizabeth, who is a bob-haired adolescent who cringes at the word "Art."

Orwell satirizes the British bullies and exiled failures who run the colonies and love the natives for being powerless and meek. Orwell's eye for cruelty is sharp, his wit is biting, and his writing skill is at its best in this novel. Highly recommended.

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biting satire; Orwell at his very best!, December 1, 2000

By	Gerrit Ruitinga "gerrit ruitinga" (Antwerp) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.