Burmese Days

A Novel

By: George Orwell

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

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. When Elizabeth Lackersteen arrives - blonde, eligible, and anti-intellectual - Flory finds himself the hapless suitor.

Orwell alternates between grand-scale political intrigue and nuanced social interaction, mining his own Colonial Indian heritage to create a monument of historical fiction.

George Orwell (1903–1950), the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, was an English novelist, essayist, and critic. He was born in India and educated at Eton. After service with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, he returned to Europe to earn his living by writing and became notable for his simplicity of style and his journalistic or documentary approach to fiction.

©1934 George Orwell (P)1992 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A well integrated, fast-moving story of what life was like in a remote backcountry Asiatic station.” (Chicago Tribune)

Interesting Snapshot of Time and Place

This is not Orwell's best (but not a big Orwell fan in the first place). I was listening because I teach 1984 every year, and every year I read another Orwell piece to broaden my own knowledge of the author. This book is an interesting snapshot of a time and place. In truth, I lost interest in the story and the characters. But the narrator's voice seems especially well suited to the material, so a person with more tolerance for fiction than I have might enjoy the whole thing. For me, eating half the cake was good enough.

Amazing narrator.

It’s a story of the end of the British colonial days in Burma, with the white skinned overlords ruling over the dark skinned native savages. Meanwhile the protagonist is trying to get a woman to marry him. I enjoyed it, thanks to the amazing narrator...

Orwell's first novel, published nearly 90 years ag

To this day, Burma (Myanmar) has never known peace. Many of the British despised them, not training them to run an independent country. Orwell captures this extremely well in his early 1930's depiction of life in an out-the-away upcountry station in Burma that then was a part of India. The novel at times is repetitive and could have used a good editing, which probably was not available to an unknown author during the depression. The audiobook is enhanced by a fine narration Fredrick Davidson.

Surprising Gem

This is really an excellent work. Like most people, I had largely associated Orwell with 1984 and Animal Farm, knowing nothing of his background in the then colonial India. Even though it appears that he did not continue thematizing the British India and Burma in his later works, Burmese Days displays impressive insight into the daily dealings of those who governed and were governed in the early twentieth-century colonies. I can understand the difficulty that some contemporary reader-listeners might have in connecting with the plot in the twenty-first century, but for those (like myself) who have spent many decades of their lives in Asia yet outside of their own countries of birth, the plot themes remain astonishingly - if not eerily - real today, even as they were a century ago. Orwell captures the nuances of these themes remarkably well.

I don't really understand or agree with criticisms lodged by previous reviewers. The plot is steadily paced, the characterization extremely astute (regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, age, ideological position, etc.), and the crude, ironical (in)justice befalling so many protagonists rings aggravatingly true to those who have experienced (and hopefully survived) the machinations of psychopathic schemers, bigoted colleagues, mercenary opportunists, two-faced lovers, and self-pitying, victimized-victimizers on all sides of the political/socio-economic divide. Many lessons can be drawn from Orwell's fictional(??) account about human nature, colonial-class relations, and even some insight into Burma/Myanmar's ongoing struggles today. I've a newfound respect for Orwell after listening to this work.

And extra kudos for the fantastic narration by Frederick Davidson. Superbly done!

dramatic funny and real

Orwells magnum opus of the glory of the britisj raj at its height. joy and pain.