Birmańskie dni

George Orwell

George Orwell (1903-1950) - angielski pisarz, dziennikarz, uczestnik wojny hiszpańskiej po stronie republikańskiej, socjalista z przekonąń, ale zarazem radykalny przeciwnik systemów totalitarnych. Uznawany za twórće najwybitniejszych dystopii w historii literatury - Folwark zwierzęcy i 1984. Birmańskie dni czyli druga książka George'a Orwella jest pokłosiem jego pobytu w Birmie, gdzie przez blisko 6 lat pracował w Królewskiej Policji Imperialnej. Opowiada w niej historię Johna Flory'ego jednego z angielskich kolonizatorów na birmańskiej prowincji. Stykają się tutaj dwa światy - traktujących z pogardą miejscową ludność Anglików, a światem Birmańczyków, choć akurat główny bohater do Birmy żywi wielki sentyment, szanuje Birmańczyków i zamieszkujące ten kraj inne nacje (Indusi, Chińczycy). Jednak tych dwóch światów pogodzić się nie da - pozostają sobie obce, a główny bohater czuje się coraz bardziej wyobcowany (zarówno z jednej jak i drugiej strony). Widać już w tej książce jak bystre jest oko Orwella, uczulone na biedę, wyzysk, niesprawiedliwość, a przepełnione troską o zwykłego człowieka.

Burmese Days

George Orwell

“Burmese Days“ is a novel by George Orwell, an English novelist, essayist, and journalist. He is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.   Burmese Days is the first novel by English writer George Orwell, published in 1934. Set in British Burma during the waning days of the empire, when Burma was ruled from Delhi as part of British India, the novel serves as "a portrait of the dark side of the British Raj."  

Burmese Days. A Novel

George Orwell

Burmese Days is an early novel by Orwell, in which the future great English writer enters into a kind of literary confrontation with his no less brilliant predecessor, Kipling. The life of the British colonists in Burma, united in a sense of superiority over the natives, but internally divided, exhausted by snobbery and petty strife. The fate of the local inhabitants, who seem to have become Europeanized, but who have preserved deep inside the eastern mentality, inaccessible to the understanding of the British.

Coming Up for Air

George Orwell

Insurance company agent George Fatty Bowling lives with his family in a featureless house among the same featureless houses in the London suburbs. When George wins some money at the races and is thinking about what to spend it on, he catches his eye on an advertising poster, and George begins to sort through his own memories memories of his childhood spent in Lower Binfield.

Coming Up For Air

George Orwell

“Coming Up For Air“ is a novel by George Orwell, an English novelist, essayist, and journalist. He is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.   Coming Up for Air is the seventh book by English writer George Orwell. The story follows George Bowling, a 45-year-old husband, father, and insurance salesman, who foresees World War II and attempts to recapture idyllic childhood innocence and escape his dreary life by returning to Lower Binfield, his birthplace.  

Critical Essays

George Orwell

“Critical Essays“ is a book by George Orwell, an English novelist, essayist, and journalist. He is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.   Critical Essays (1946) is a collection of wartime pieces by George Orwell. It covers a variety of topics in English literature and also includes some pioneering studies of popular culture. It was acclaimed by critics, and Orwell himself thought it one of his most important books.  

Down and out in Paris and London

George Orwell

Down and out in Paris and London is a dramatic and at the same time full of Orwell caustic humor autobiographical story of a young English intellectual, who lives in the capitals with odd jobs as a dishwasher in restaurants. A dark, brilliant and accurate self-portrait of one of the typical representatives of the European lost generation.

Down and Out in Paris and London

George Orwell

“Down and Out in Paris and London“ is a book by George Orwell, an English novelist, essayist, and journalist. He is best known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.   Down and Out in Paris and London is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell, published in 1933. It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. Its target audience was the middle- and upper-class members of society—those who were more likely to be well educated—and exposes the poverty existing in two prosperous cities: Paris and London. The first part is an account of living in near-extreme poverty destitution in Paris and the experience of casual labor in restaurant kitchens. The second part is a travelogue of life on the road in and around London from the tramp's perspective, with descriptions of the types of hostel accommodation available and some of the characters to be found living on the margins.