Publisher's summary
In this searing yet beautiful account of life on the bottom rung, Orwell asks himself why Socialism - which alone, he felt, could rescue human values from the ravages of industrialism - had so little appeal. His answer is a harsh critique of the Socialism and Socialists of his time.
Featured Article: 40+ Thought-Provoking George Orwell Quotes
George Orwell transformed literature with his piercing social commentary and allegorical style. His works have become so entrenched in popular culture that the term "Orwellian" is used to describe totalitarian and authoritarian societies. Orwell also wrote nonfiction books and essays that similarly express his gift for satire and controversial views on government. Throughout his writing career, he never feared tackling challenging topics, no matter how subversive.
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In 1936, George Orwell went to Spain to report on the civil war and instead joined the P.O.U.M. militia to fight against the Fascists. In this now justly famous account of his experience, he describes both the bleak and the comic aspects of trench warfare on the Aragon front, the Barcelona uprising in May 1937, his nearly fatal wounding just two weeks later, and his escape from Barcelona into France after the P.O.U.M. was suppressed.
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Excellent book, marred by narration
- By Kirby on 02-02-13
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Such, Such Were the Joys and Other Essays
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Viewed as too libelous to print in England until 1968, the title essay in this collection reveals the abuse Orwell experienced as a child at an expensive and snobbish boarding school and offers insights into his lifelong concern for the oppressed. "Why I Write" describes Orwell's sense of political purpose, and the classic essay "Politics and the English Language" insists on clarity and precision in communication in order to avoid the Newspeak later described in 1984.
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Superb collection of essays, very well read
- By Christopher on 07-07-11
By: George Orwell
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Down and Out in Paris and London
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Orwell's own experiences inspire this semi-autobiographical novel about a man living in Paris in the early 1930s without a penny. The narrator's poverty brings him into contact with strange incidents and characters, which he manages to chronicle with great sensitivity and graphic power. The latter half of the book takes the English narrator to his home city, London, where the world of poverty is different in externals only.
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The King of Boldness, Clearness, and Audacity
- By Darwin8u on 05-21-12
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Coming up for Air
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George Bowling, an insurance salesman, hits middle age and feels impelled to “come up for air” from his life of quiet desperation. With seventeen pounds he has won at a race, he steals a vacation from his wife and family and pays a visit to Lower Binfield, the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. But the pool is gone, Lower Binfield has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of Bowling’s holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF.
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Orwell Flirts and Fishes w/ Nostalgia & Modernity.
- By Darwin8u on 07-10-12
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Burmese Days
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Colonial politics in Kyauktada, India, in the 1920s, come to a head when the European Club, previously for whites only, is ordered to elect one token native member. The deeply racist members do their best to manipulate the situation, resulting in the loss not only of reputations but of lives. Amid this cynical setting, timber merchant James Flory, a Brit with a genuine appreciation for the native people and culture, stands as a bridge between the warring factions. But he has trouble acting on his feelings, and the significance of his vote, both social and political, weighs on him.
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A Sad, Fierce and Ambitious Colonial Novel
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A Clergyman's Daughter
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Dorothy Hare, the dutiful daughter of a rector in Suffolk, spends her days performing good works and cultivating good thoughts, pricking her arm with a pin when a bad thought arises. She does her best to reconcile her father’s fanciful view of his position in the world with such realities as the butcher’s bill. But even Dorothy’s strength has its limits, and one night, as she works feverishly on costumes for the church-school play, she blacks out. When she comes to, she finds herself on a London street, clad in a sleazy dress and unaware of her identity.
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Bottom-Shelf Orwell, but still G-D Orwell
- By Darwin8u on 08-11-19
By: George Orwell
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Homage to Catalonia
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In 1936, George Orwell went to Spain to report on the civil war and instead joined the P.O.U.M. militia to fight against the Fascists. In this now justly famous account of his experience, he describes both the bleak and the comic aspects of trench warfare on the Aragon front, the Barcelona uprising in May 1937, his nearly fatal wounding just two weeks later, and his escape from Barcelona into France after the P.O.U.M. was suppressed.
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Excellent book, marred by narration
- By Kirby on 02-02-13
By: George Orwell
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Such, Such Were the Joys and Other Essays
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- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Superb collection of essays, very well read
- By Christopher on 07-07-11
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Down and Out in Paris and London
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The King of Boldness, Clearness, and Audacity
- By Darwin8u on 05-21-12
By: George Orwell
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Coming up for Air
- By: George Orwell
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Overall
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George Bowling, an insurance salesman, hits middle age and feels impelled to “come up for air” from his life of quiet desperation. With seventeen pounds he has won at a race, he steals a vacation from his wife and family and pays a visit to Lower Binfield, the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. But the pool is gone, Lower Binfield has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of Bowling’s holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF.
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Orwell Flirts and Fishes w/ Nostalgia & Modernity.
- By Darwin8u on 07-10-12
By: George Orwell
-
Burmese Days
- A Novel
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Colonial politics in Kyauktada, India, in the 1920s, come to a head when the European Club, previously for whites only, is ordered to elect one token native member. The deeply racist members do their best to manipulate the situation, resulting in the loss not only of reputations but of lives. Amid this cynical setting, timber merchant James Flory, a Brit with a genuine appreciation for the native people and culture, stands as a bridge between the warring factions. But he has trouble acting on his feelings, and the significance of his vote, both social and political, weighs on him.
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A Sad, Fierce and Ambitious Colonial Novel
- By Darwin8u on 11-08-12
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A Clergyman's Daughter
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Dorothy Hare, the dutiful daughter of a rector in Suffolk, spends her days performing good works and cultivating good thoughts, pricking her arm with a pin when a bad thought arises. She does her best to reconcile her father’s fanciful view of his position in the world with such realities as the butcher’s bill. But even Dorothy’s strength has its limits, and one night, as she works feverishly on costumes for the church-school play, she blacks out. When she comes to, she finds herself on a London street, clad in a sleazy dress and unaware of her identity.
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Bottom-Shelf Orwell, but still G-D Orwell
- By Darwin8u on 08-11-19
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Essays
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With great originality and wit, Orwell unfolds his views on subjects ranging from a revaluation of Charles Dickens to the nature of Socialism, from a comic yet profound discussion of naughty seaside postcards to a spirited defense of English cooking. Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose, Orwell’s essays created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and continue to challenge, move, and entertain.
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Great Content; Would benefit from chapter names
- By Laimis on 08-15-20
By: George Orwell
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Keep the Aspidistra Flying
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Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-faithful Rosemary, has the strength to challenge his commitment to his chosen way of life.
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Gordon's Grey World is Colored with Grant
- By Timothy on 09-25-11
By: George Orwell
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Homage to Catalonia
- By: George Orwell
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- Original Recording
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George Orwell's classic account of his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, dramatised for radio by Mike Walker. Produced by Kate McAll.
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The best acted audiobook you'll hear.
- By KellySeoul on 03-05-18
By: George Orwell
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Life at the Bottom
- The Worldview that Makes the Underclass
- By: Theodore Dalrymple
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- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Theodore Dalrymple, a British psychiatrist who treats the poor in a slum hospital and a prison in England, has seemingly seen it all. Yet in listening to and observing his patients, he is continually astonished by the latest twist of depravity that exceeds even his own considerable experience. Dalrymple's key insight in Life at the Bottom is that long-term poverty is caused not by economics, but by a dysfunctional set of values, one that is continually reinforced by an elite culture searching for victims.
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The Painted Bird
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- Unabridged
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A harrowing story that follows the wanderings of a boy abandoned by his parents during World War II, The Painted Bird is a dark masterpiece that examines the proximity of terror and savagery to innocence and love. It is the first, and the most famous, novel by one of the most important and original writers of this century.
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A guided tour of Hell.
- By Shawn on 12-01-11
By: Jerzy Kosinski
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The Lion and the Unicorn
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George Orwell's moving reflections on the English character and his passionate belief in the need for political change. 'The Lion and the Unicorn' was written in London during the worst period of the Blitz. It is vintage Orwell, a dynamic outline of his belief in socialism, patriotism and an English revolution. His fullest political statement, it has been described as 'one of the most moving and incisive portraits of the English character' and is as relevant now as it ever has been.
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information
- By Amazon Customer on 06-12-24
By: George Orwell
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Orwell: The Essays
- By: George Orwell
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- Unabridged
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A wide-ranging selection of George Orwell's essays, written in the clear-eyed, passionate and uncompromising style that has earned him a reputation as one of Britain's greatest writers.
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He understood the times
- By Wes on 08-19-23
By: George Orwell
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We
- By: Yevgeny Zamyatin
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- Unabridged
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Set in the 26th century A.D., Yevgeny Zamyatin's masterpiece describes life under the regimented totalitarian society of OneState, ruled over by the all-powerful "Benefactor." Recognized as the inspiration for George Orwell's 1984, We is the archetype of the modern dystopia, or anti-Utopia: a great prose poem detailing the fate that might befall us all if we surrender our individual selves to some collective dream of technology and fail in the vigilance that is the price of freedom.
By: Yevgeny Zamyatin
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Point Counter Point
- By: Aldous Huxley
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- Unabridged
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In music, counterpoint is the art of writing melodies that play in conjunction with one another, according to a strict set of rules, in order to emphasize the melody by contrast. In debate, point/counterpoint is a means of persuasion in which the speaker begins by conceding to their opponent’s argument before refuting it wholeheartedly. Aldous Huxley follows these traditions in his masterpiece Point Counter Point. The polarity between passion and reason in the intellectual life of the 1920s is demonstrated both in form and in theme in Huxley’s ambitious satire.
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finally - another classic from Huxley
- By Andorboth on 02-20-24
By: Aldous Huxley
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The French Revolution
- From Enlightenment to Tyranny
- By: Ian Davidson
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- Unabridged
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The French Revolution casts a long shadow, one that reaches into our own time and influences our debates on freedom, equality, and authority. Yet it remains an elusive, perplexing historical event. Its significance morphs according to the sympathies of the viewer, who may see it as a series of gory tableaux, a regrettable slide into uncontrolled anarchy - or a radical reshaping of the political landscape. In this riveting new book, Ian Davidson provides a fresh look at this vital moment in European history. He reveals how it was an immensely complicated and multifaceted revolution....
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superficial; trite
- By David Hart on 04-25-19
By: Ian Davidson
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Brave New World
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Michael York
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity. Cloning, feel-good drugs, anti-aging programs, and total social control through politics, programming, and media: has Aldous Huxley accurately predicted our future? With a storyteller's genius, he weaves these ethical controversies in a compelling narrative that dawns in the year 632 A.F. (After Ford, the deity). When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity.
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Michael York should stick to the stage and leave narration to the pros.
- By SD on 08-21-19
By: Aldous Huxley
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Puck of Pook's Hill
- By: Rudyard Kipling
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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On Midsummer Eve in a Sussex meadow, Dan and Una act out their version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Suddenly, Puck, as old as Time itself, miraculously appears. The youngsters are swept into the past as Puck conjures up villages of long ago, filled with craftsmen, a Roman centurion, and a Norman knight. Rudyard Kipling’s magical tale brings English history dramatically to life to captivate both the young and the young at heart.
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The most charming bit of English history ever
- By Ellenaeddy on 09-06-15
By: Rudyard Kipling
What listeners say about The Road to Wigan Pier
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Braden
- 10-21-11
Very interesting book by a socialist in the 1930s!
This book is an interesting and detailed insight into the life of the working class in England in the 1930s, as well as into the thinking life of the intellectual socialists of that time. Mind you, most of the predictions Orwell made about the bleakness of the future of industrialization, and the inevitablility of socialism's adoption were way off-target, but then he didn't have the historical record of socialism's abject economic failures to draw upon as we do today, since it was almost all in the future at that time.
Nevertheless the way he analyzes from every angle, the thinking of socialists and non-socialists alike, is fascinating. What an intelligent man he was (I know, I know, if he was so intelligent, why did he get the future and the workability of socialism as an economic model so wrong? But I already addressed that in the last paragraph). Also, the details he describes in the everyday are a testimony to his incredible way with words.
The narrator's snobbish-sounding upper-class British dialect adds a lot to the reading, capturing the spirit of condescencion that Orwell clearly had for all sorts of groups he describes, whether socialists or non-socialists.
A first-class listen. I almost couldn't put it down.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mark Brady
- 12-24-20
Hard to believe that was so recent
Orwell starts by recounting the living conditions of, what Victor Davis Hanson has termed, the muscular class. Post-war England’s working poor (or not working) dealt with conditions that are hard to comprehend. Made me chuckle when I think of the American college student rebelling against the ‘slave wages’ of $12/hour. After listening to this you’ll look at your bathtub or shower and H&C faucets with a sort of lust and relief.
The end of the book is a recipe for winning the cultural/political battle against the rise of Fascism. Still apropos to this day.
Worth your time to be sure.
Oh, and pay attentions to the last few paragraphs of the first 6 chapters. He polished them to a mirror-like finish with a razor’s edge.
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1 person found this helpful
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- William
- 09-02-20
Still relevant
Enjoyed very much. Many of Orwell’s observations remain relevant today. Perhaps not the one about the working class smelling bad!
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- chad johnson
- 12-26-22
modestly interesting
repossessed by Jordan Peterson, the last few chapters about fascism, socialism, capitalism, etc, were the best. Neat insight into the common man's world at the time. typically I don't like this Blackstone narrator, but he didn't overly dramatized his accent in this treating, somehow.
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- Cassie
- 06-17-09
An Interesting Social Commentary
I'm a fan of dystopian novels so I decided to give Orwell's nonfiction work a shot. I was pleasantly surprised with his commentary on the state of the English working class and socialism in the 1930s. The description of the work day and home life of the working class was quite interesting and eye opening, as was Orwell's commentary on the ills of society.
Some of the book was geared toward English society and more applicable to a nation with a long history and more definitive class structure. Other statements still applied to current U.S. society, including some of his foreboding predictions (like eating unhealthy foods becoming the new fatal disease). I was fascinated with his foresight yet appalled at the same time that someone noticed this 70 years ago yet nothing was to head off or solve the problems.
The narrator had a great accent and made the book come alive. Thoroughly enjoyed the book and the narrator. I will look for more books read by this narrator.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-20-20
socialism leads to fascism
it took a minute to get used to the narrator and there's a slight background nose. But very insightful look as to why you cannot fight for justice and liberty based solely on income, race, and class.
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- Jonathan
- 10-16-20
Enlightening
Worth listening to even if you aren’t a socialist (I’m not). Feels especially relevant in 2020.
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- Jamie Lamb
- 11-03-21
Capitalism eventually makes everyone rich
Orwell read his Malthus, shook in his boots and let that experience color everything he wrote in this book. Now we know Malthus is so completely wrong.
Orwell also has limited knowledge while writing of the socialist purges in Russia in the 20’s and the Holodomor in the Ukraine. If he does know about these and still wrote this book promoting socialism, his soul has been condemned.
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- Steff Doles
- 06-09-21
A rather unsettle reality check...
Orwell shows off his personal prejudices more than a few times in this book but I think that only adds to the reality check that it provides for those of us who like to believe that we aren't really part of a class system. It's certainly worth a read and some good self-reflection. Like all of Orwells work it's thought-provoking and poignant and he didn't have to delve into the world of make-believe to show us just how unfair and wrong we can be. Animal farm is still my Favorite Orwell but I would recommend this book to anyone. :)
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- Ivan A. Camus
- 02-19-21
A highly recommended reading...
having read 1984 and Animal Farm some 30 years ago, I have been treated for the deeply revealing and honest introspect of the author, particularly on the second part of the book. The last two chapters have to carefully analyze.
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