Burmese Days
by George Orwell · first published 1934
35% recommend61% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Sharp portrait of British colonial life in Burma, praised for capturing the attitudes of newcomers and long-established colonists; many readers rank it among Orwell's best after 1984.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Burmese Days is set in 1920s imperial Burma, in the fictional district of Kyauktada. The story involves U Po Kyin, a corrupt Burmese magistrate, who works to destroy the reputation of the Indian Dr. Veraswami, so he (Kyin) can be admitted to the European Club instead of the more likely Dr. Veraswami. The Doctor's main protection is his friendship with John Flory who, as a pukka sahib (European white man), has higher prestige. U Po Kyin, however, succeeds and is admitted to the club. Racism and classism undergird the actions of the major characters. Kyin plans to redeem his life and cleanse his
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…most folks here) Some of my top choices would be: Anything by Bulgakov (Heart of a Dog and Master and Margerita are both pretty widely available in English) Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood Burmese Days by George Orwell Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham Color of Summer by Reinaldo Arenas Williwaw by Gore Vidal The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
on “Ask HN: What do you read?” ↗…Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini - http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Splendid-Suns-Khaled-Hosseini... Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - http://www.amazon.com/Brave-World-P-S-Aldous-Huxley/dp/00617... Burmese Days - George Orwell - http://www.amazon.com/Burmese-Days-Novel-George-Orwell/dp/01... The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway - http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Also-Rises-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/074... Catch 22 - Joe…
on “Ask HN: Book recommendations?” ↗…poignant when applied to today's society as they were about the Soviet Union. Homage To Catalonia is a wonderful book. I would also highly recommend checking out Down and Out in Paris and London and Burmese Days (two works of fiction loosely based on events from his real life experiences).
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗…great interview, with an unusual perspective … the son mainly knows Orwell secondhand, but understands him in a way that no scholar or fan or friend or journalist ever could. I happen to be re-reading Burmese Days at the moment, which I think is his best after 1984. The movie 1984 with John Hurt is also very powerful - I watched it with my teenager a few years ago and he was transfixed.
on “George Orwell and me: Richard Blair on life with his extraordinary father” ↗Burmese Days is my favorite Orwell. It captures the state of the colonies under British rule extremely well - the British new-arrivals who are derisive and at best ignorant of the local customs, the British who've…
on “George Orwell and me: Richard Blair on life with his extraordinary father” ↗The one that hit me like a thunderbolt was "Burmese Days". I need to reread "Catalonia" though.
on “George Orwell in Spain” ↗Too bad those experience-seekers never read Burmese Days: "Beauty unshared is diminished" "Experiences" evaporate without being able to revive them with someone who experienced them with you. In my experience, at least
on “Would You Rather Have Married Young?” ↗> I happen to be re-reading Burmese Days at the moment, which I think is his best after 1984. Better than Homage to Catalonia?!
on “George Orwell and me: Richard Blair on life with his extraordinary father” ↗…rewards the latter. NB. I'm not arguing against Ellon Musk, I'm arguing against the way you phrased that sentence, and what people are sometimes mislead into viewing as a great deeds. See also Orwell's Burmese days.
on “To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations ” ↗I take it that 'Did you know the man?' is a rhetorical question. I 'know' that Orwell was antisemitic, because of some of the stuff he has written. I have read 'Down and out in Paris and London', and 'Burmese Days' (apart from 'Homage to Catalonia' and '1984'), and in both books I got the clear impression that Orwell was an anti-semite. The essay to which you have linked surprised me; I can only conclude that…
on “Letter from Orwell to his publisher regarding 1984” ↗…had from Burke. It's just been abused to identify illiberal things. What surprised me is that Orwell did not directly identify the sadomaschistic core of Naziism. Perhaps that came later, but given "Burmese Days" and how well known the ...libertine nature of Wiemar was, why I'd a thought...
on “George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)” ↗…brought with me was my iPhone, loaded up with iTravel, a free app that downloads entire countries worth of Wikivoyage entries for offline viewing (Although I spent most of my downtime reading Orwell's Burmese Days). If you're trying to make a point about the uselessness of paper travel guides in the modern world, you couldn't pick a better destination than Myanmar. Since the opening of the borders to foreigners…
on “On the obsolescence of guidebooks; traveling in Myanmar” ↗The US inherited an existing slave regime from the Caribbean. It entailed exactly the same cognitive dissonance required of soldiers in the British Empire as described by Orwell in "Burmese Days". So it looks Mercantilist to me. I don't hold that debt is inherent to what we consider capitalism. I run the risk of a "no true Scotsman" fallacy with this, but debt is something we have because of…
on “Stephen Hawking confirms: The problem is Capitalism, not robots” ↗…young men not getting married and having 12 kids is the problem. Maybe culturally getting married is incredibly more time consuming and difficult than it used to be? I mean I'm reading George Orwell's Burmese days and the main character was trying to propose (and the girl wanted him to) within 2 weeks of knowing eachother! Granted it's a book, but that doesn't sound outside the realms of normalcy, especially in…
on “Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force” ↗It is said by some Burmese people that George Orwell wrote three books about Burma; Burmese days, Animal Farm, and 1984
on “The Internet has been cut in Myanmar for the 36th consecutive night” ↗