Janet
18th March 2008, 09:41
The Road to Wigan Pier (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Wigan-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141185295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205826905&sr=8-1) by George Orwell
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Bagpuss/Bagpuss_Books%202008/007-2008-Mar-17-TheRoadtoWiganPier.jpg
The ‘Blurb’
A searing account of George Orwell's observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, "The Road to Wigan Pier" is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity.
This book is divided into two parts.
Part one deals with Orwell’s time spent living with the working-class people in the industrial North. It paints a bleak picture of a class of people so poor that they lived in conditions unimaginable to most of us these days - families living in tiny back-to-back houses, sharing beds and toilet facilities and sleeping on rags.
Whilst the picture he paints is depressing, one gets a sense of the community spirit of people despite him being less than flattering about the appearance of the towns he stays in. This book divided people’s opinions when it was published (1937) but Orwell obviously feels genuine affection and respect for the people in his book - if not for the towns themselves.
The colloquial writing style makes part one an easy, enjoyable read, despite the subject matter.
With part two, however, I couldn’t wait to get to the end! Orwell talks about socialism, and how it, in his opinion, is the only fair way for society to be. I’m not a very political person (although I always use my vote) so a lot of it went over my head and I’m afraid I found it rather dull! This is more of a failing of mine than of Orwell!
He ends by saying that “we of the sinking middle class. . . . . . may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose but our aitches.”
To sum up, part one was very interesting, part two, less so for me, but I do like his writing style. I’ve recently read and enjoyed Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, and look forward to reading more of his books.
The paperback is 215 pages long and is published by Penguin. The ISBN number is 978-0141185293.
Part 1 - 7/10
Part 2 - 3/10
(Read March 2008)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y65/Bagpuss/Bagpuss_Books%202008/007-2008-Mar-17-TheRoadtoWiganPier.jpg
The ‘Blurb’
A searing account of George Orwell's observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, "The Road to Wigan Pier" is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity.
This book is divided into two parts.
Part one deals with Orwell’s time spent living with the working-class people in the industrial North. It paints a bleak picture of a class of people so poor that they lived in conditions unimaginable to most of us these days - families living in tiny back-to-back houses, sharing beds and toilet facilities and sleeping on rags.
Whilst the picture he paints is depressing, one gets a sense of the community spirit of people despite him being less than flattering about the appearance of the towns he stays in. This book divided people’s opinions when it was published (1937) but Orwell obviously feels genuine affection and respect for the people in his book - if not for the towns themselves.
The colloquial writing style makes part one an easy, enjoyable read, despite the subject matter.
With part two, however, I couldn’t wait to get to the end! Orwell talks about socialism, and how it, in his opinion, is the only fair way for society to be. I’m not a very political person (although I always use my vote) so a lot of it went over my head and I’m afraid I found it rather dull! This is more of a failing of mine than of Orwell!
He ends by saying that “we of the sinking middle class. . . . . . may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose but our aitches.”
To sum up, part one was very interesting, part two, less so for me, but I do like his writing style. I’ve recently read and enjoyed Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, and look forward to reading more of his books.
The paperback is 215 pages long and is published by Penguin. The ISBN number is 978-0141185293.
Part 1 - 7/10
Part 2 - 3/10
(Read March 2008)