Burmese Days FAQs

Orwell's first novel.
First published in the USA.

Summary, long:
"...each year Flory found himself less at home in the world of the
sahibs, more liable to get into trouble when he talked seriously on
any subject whatever. So he had learned to live inwardly, secretly, in
books and secret thoughts that could not be uttered....But it is a
corrupting thing to live one's real life in secret. One should live
with the stream of life, not against it."

Summary, short:
"pagodas, pariahs, pigs, priests and prostitutes"

Influences:
Maugham, Conrad, E.M. Forster, mosquitoes


Extract from original review:
"The spirit of Mr. Orwell's book is in harmony with a very ancient
doctrine - that it is better to be a dead dog than a live rat." (John
Cowper Powys)

Orwell's assessment:
"The descriptions of scenery aren't bad, only of course that is what
the average reader skips."


Main characters:
Flory - selfish but not shallow.
U Po Kyin - selfish but not shallowly selfish.
Elizabeth - shallow and selfish.
Doctor Veraswami - shallowly selfish.
Ma Hla May - selfish and shallow.
Ellis - selfishly shallow.
Maxwell - selfish; shallow grave.
Flo - not selfish; shallow dog.
Molly - some smelly little bitch.


Tragic Flaw :
< The Birthmark >

Vocabulary list:

terpsichorean
pennoned
genii
meerschaum
taradiddle
analphabetic
neuralgia
mosquitoes
pyinkado
frangipani
longyi
thakin.
tuktoo
pwe
sahiblog
dacoity
thathanabaing
chokra
Mandalay
Rangoon
Irrawaddy
Ingyi
Sagaing
Kyauktadatadatadatada


Memorable passages:

1. Nasty:
"Painting is the only art that can be practiced without either talent
or hard work."

2. Tender and drolly:
"Flory took one of the little green corpses to show to Elizabeth.
'Look at it. Aren't they lovely things? The most beautiful bird in
Asia.'
Elizabeth touched its smooth feathers with her finger-tip. It filled
her with bitter envy, because she had not shot it. And yet it was
curious, but she felt almost an adoration for Flory now that she had
seen how he could shoot.
'Just look at its breast-feathers; like a jewel. It's murder to shoot
them. The Burmese say that when you kill one of these birds they
vomit, meaning to say, "Look, here is all I possess, and I've taken
nothing of yours. Why do you kill me?" I've never seen one do it, I
must admit.'
'Are they good to eat?'
'Very....' "

3. Tender and sad:
"The leopard-it was a male-was lying curled up with his head between
his forepaws. He looked much smaller than he had looked alive; he
looked rather pathetic, like a dead kitten."

4. Descriptive:

"...he looked offensively young and fit."


6. Factual:
"One cannot propose marriage immediately after an earthquake."

5. Mosquito:
"At night, master too drunk to notice mosquitoes; in the morning,
mosquitoes too drunk to notice master."


Links:
Some Cultural, Historical, and Linguistic References in Burmese Days
are explained here:
http://eee.uci.edu/programs/humcore/Student/Winter2007/BurmeseDaysEndnotes.htm

Orwell's Burma:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/traveler/021017/orwell.html


B.

Omitted from the book:

Here lie the bones of poor John Flory;
His story was the old, old story.
Money, women, cards and gin
Were the four things that did him in.

He has spent sweat enough to swim in
Making love to stupid women;
He has known misery past thinking
In the dismal art of drinking.

O stranger, as you voyage here
And read this welcome, shed no tear;
But take the single gift I give,
And learn from me how not to live.
--
--- Joe Fineman joe_f.TakeThisOut@verizon.net

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