The Road to Wigan Pier

Written by George Orwell

Narrated by Frederick Davidson

When Orwell went to the north of England in the thirties to find out how industrial workers lived, he not only observed but shared in their experience. He stayed in cramped, dreary lodgings and subsisted on the scant, cheerless diet of the poor. He went down into the coal mines and walked crouching, as the miners did, through a one- to three-mile passage too low to stand up in. He watched the back-breaking, dangerous labor of men whose net pay then averaged $575 a year. And he knew the unemployed, those who had been out of work for so long they had sunk beyond despair into an inhuman apathy.

In his searing yet beautiful account of life on the bottom rung, Orwell asks himself why Socialism-which alone, he felt, could conserve human values from the ravages of industrialism-had so little appeal. His answer was a harsh critique of the Socialism and Socialists of his time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Sep 11, 2008
• ISBN: 9780786103041

George Orwell

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. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of 1984 (1949), which brought him worldwide fame. 

Reviews for The Road to Wigan Pier

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a book about poverty, either in work or unemployment, Socialism, and the ills of industrialisation. Written during the "Great Depression", it shows the effects of this period on the lives of working class people. In the first half of the book Orwell describes his visit to the Lancashire and Yorkshire in the mid 1930s, where he spends time in Wigan, Barnsley, Sheffield, and other predominantly coal mining towns. The difficult lives of coal miners are described vividly, including their working life, family life, housing, and living conditions. Orwell is quite detailed in his descriptions of people, their mannerisms, their environment, and their attitudes, which put together a picture of almost Dickensian poverty and hardship. In the second part of the book Orwell talks about his own upbringing, class prejudice, and how this has affected his social and political attitudes. There is also quite a bit of discussion on the causes of poverty and dire living conditions which are rooted in industrialisation and "machine-civilisation". Socialism is discussed as a possible alleviation to the circumstances that induce poverty, and arguments are made on how and why socialism must change to gain greater acceptance and influence.Like Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, this book shows Orwell's political engagement on behalf of those who do not usually have a voice in literature. As a record of social history it is also of considerable interest aside from any political or moral implications that it might have. As always, Orwell is a pleasure to read and intelligent in his arguments and observations.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A brilliant, compassionate portrait of the English working class, specifically mining families and northern England followed by a sharp critique of Socialism.

[rabascaa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book is written in the style of persuasive essay. The author writes paragraphs that tackle the staggering arguments he himself sets forth. He provides a recorded account of what he witnesses, and then offers the reader compelling statements that only a misanthropic man could defend.

[histreader · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I don't know why I have such an affinity for Mr. Orwell, because our politics are nearly polar opposite. However, I do enjoy reading his take on the need for Socialism and how the slogans and "arguments" have not changed since the 1930s. The Road to Wigan Pier is a two-part work by Mr. 1984. The first section is an expose on the horrid living and working conditions of working class Britons in the coal mines. He uses this introductory section to set-up his justification for bringing about Socialism (which I thought Great Britain always was). Part Two makes up the bulk of the section, a sort of philosophical dissertation about how previous attempts to unite the citizenry of England have failed and his fear of sliding towards Fascism is ever present. The more I read works by those who bemoan the "class" society, the more I realize a "classless" world will never exist; abolishing classes is to abolish an innate human function of compartmentalizing. Try to deny it as the may, Leftists do it despite their best personal efforts to pretend they don't. We need not abuse others in separate classes, but we shouldn't imagine a radical change in human psychology.

[john257hopper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is George Orwell's classic description of the terrible living and working conditions in industrial towns, particularly among the miners, in the north of England in the mid 1930s, including but not limited to Wigan. Orwell's style is simple and direct and draws you in to the miseries he describes in a way that only the best journalists or commentators can do. In the generally less highly regarded second half of the book, Orwell recounts his views on socialism and different types and characteristics of socialists, many of which he thinks give socialism a bad name. Many of these comments were controversial and Victor Gollancz, editor of the Left Book Club insisted on writing a foreword to the published version of the book to some extent debunking these views, though it seems to me he raises some interesting points for reflection by the Labour movement then and now. Less controversially, he looks ahead to the overwhelming need for all those on the left, and indeed all who believe in social justice and decency, to unite to fight the growing menace of fascism (this was written after Hitler had marched into the Rhineland and Italy had invaded Abyssinia). Occasionally, this second half gets a little repetitive but Orwell is never less than thoroughly readable and should be studied by anyone interested in politics, whatever their own views.

[sandydog1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book isn't just about coal miners. That's only the first half. Then ol' George is on a tear, and writing brilliantly about class differences, socialism, socialists, socialist literature, food, personal hygiene, unemployment, imperialism, automation, war, fascism, vegetarians, people who wear sandals, "fruit juice drinkers", etc.He's Mark Twain with a lot more eloquence and a lot less hyperbole.How often do you read a foreward that is actually a rebuttal by the publisher? If you start by reading the Left Book Club foreward, read it afterwards as well.

[sanddune_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In 1937 George Orwell travelled through the cities and towns of Northern England investigating the living and working conditions of the unemployed and working class of England, in particular in coal mining areas, and this two part book was the result. The first part is a polemic detailing the sometimes appalling living conditions that poorer people had to put up with at that time, and the second a more discursive section on what should be done about it.The first section stands up well today as historical evidence for some of the worst conditions of that period. In particular the chapters on housing and diet are sobering with the details of large families crammed into tiny damp, back-to-back houses with only one or two bedrooms and no bathroom, and with toilet facilities shared between dozens of houses. What I'd have liked, however, is some assessment of how widespread these conditions were among the working class in general at that time. I know from my own family that many people in these types of job did not always live in conditions such as those described. My mother, born the daughter of a coal miner in 1921, was brought up as one of three children up in a solidly built council house larger than any of those described in the book, which would be an acceptably sized house to bring up a family of that size today. My father, the youngest of six children of a stone-mason working at the same colliery, was brought up in a solid stone built privately rented house, which again would still be an acceptable house today. It may be that housing conditions in South Wales were generally better than those in Northern England (it's not a subject I know much about); my perception is that there was less wholescale slum clearance in South Wales than in the north of England which might suggest that the housing stock was better to start with.As a member of what he describes as the lower upper-middle class, the Eton-educated Orwell was suprisingly sympathetic to the problems of 'the working classes', although perhaps as a consequence of his own background he does seem to consider working people as a homogeneous mass, all with similar aspirations and values, which I think leads him into over-simplification in some areas. For example he comments that 'Working people often have a vague reverence for learning in others, but where 'education' touches their own lives they see through it and reject it by a healthy instinct'. This doesn't ring true with the picture of my mother who left school at 14 in 1936 after coming fourth in the exam to win a scholarship to grammar school where only three places were available, and 77 years later has not completely got over her disappointment. Or my father who always resented the fact that he'd failed his grammar school exam because he had not been able to have private lessons in French. So overall, a flawed but intensely interesting book, which has relevance today in the UK where falling levels of social mobility and the unaffordabilty of houses in many areas are key political issues.

[carolfoasia_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I learned about socialism, and Orwell's reflections as Hitler and Mussolini were on the rise. Fascinating!

[technodiabla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is part journalistic look at 1930s Northern England coal miners and unemployment and part treatise on Socialism. I enjoyed the book, though Part 2 did get a bit tedious and long-winded. It was very interesting to read -- with 2010 hindsight-- Orwell's 1930s vision of Socialism. Also, his predictions about both economics and industrial technology are amusing. Some are right on while others are wildly off-base. His writing and though processes are logical and clearly articulated, which I found refreshing. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the subject matter.

[simonw11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Last months book club read took ages to read I felt that I was forcing my way through the Darien Gap. This month It took also as long a time but mainly because I kept stopping for picnics.This really was a most pleasant walk in the park. There was no need to hurry. Orwell's clarity and his ability to find the memorable phrase made for easy reading. The book consists of two parts in the first he launches us without explanation straightinto a scene of the most squalid poverty. Then leads us around the towns and cities of the north illustrating the grim economic servitude that brings such conditions about.All the time struggling to be fair in his description for this is no mere polemic, no need to preach since it was originally writtenfor the Left Book Club. Instead throughout he assumes that the audience is as they say on side. Thus as outsiders it is only gradually by and by implication that it it becomes clear what Orwell thinks all reasonable men believe.In part two Orwell addresses the problem of disseminating that message to a largeraudience. The obstacles are many: There are numerous cranks within the movement, that harm its reputation. There is lack ofsolidarity amongst a people who's perceived social classes have little resembance to the economic groupings that Marxian theory envisioned. The fears of a dehumanising state and of course the spectre of Fascism.To modern eyes many of the problems presented by these obstacles are overwhelming.But Orwell continues with an idealistic naif intelligence. Urging a reformation in approachand changes with the socialist novement This is "leak3ed Memo"stuff but he is uncaring as to how it might read outside the readingcircle of the left book club. As it is number of times I found myself wanting to tell himHe would be first against the wall when the revolution came.I did enjoys his side swipes at other literary figures.Now if they were to do a series of Big Brother where they locked orwell in a house with a christian apologian, say Chestertonor Lewis and some reactionary, maybe Waugh. I might watch it.In conclusion the historical pespective has inevitably removed much of the heat From this book. The times when people from my home town would boast about dropping brownshirtson their heads, when idealists went to fight in Spain are no longer with us. The work remains urbane, informative and well written but there is no fire left no cause to rally. The battle is lost and won. This battle flag just one more museum display.

[burritapal · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The first part was interesting, when he lived in lodging houses in a coal mining settlement and explored the lives of coal miners. What a life!

After that, he got bogged down, going on about socialism, and after awhile I lost interest. Bernie Sanders is more interesting on that subject.

[k6gst · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My third Orwell in as many weeks, if you’re keeping score.Part 1 is his tour through the living conditions of the working class in industrial Lancashire and Yorkshire, primarily coal miners and the unemployed. Part 2 is an examination of the feelings of middle class British socialists (virtually all British socialists, Orwell included, being middle class) and the British working class (virtually none of them socialists) towards each other. He concludes that British class feeling is basically impossible to eradicate and that British socialists would do well to stop vilifying the middle class, i.e., themselves, because everybody can smell a phony.It was first published with grave reservations by noted lefty publisher Victor Gollancz as a selection of the Left Book Club. He tried to get Orwell to let him publish part 1 without part 2, but Orwell refused. The compromise was that Gollancz published the whole thing but also included a forward he wrote in which he more or less apologizes to every member of the Left Book Club and repudiates all of part 2, which includes gems like this:"The first thing that must strike any outside observer is that Socialism, in its developed form is a theory confined entirely to the middle classes. The typical Socialist is not, as tremulous old ladies imagine, a ferocious-looking working man with greasy overalls and a raucous voice. He is either a youthful snob-Bolshevik who in five years’ time will quite probably have made a wealthy marriage and been converted to Roman Catholicism; or, still more typically, a prim little man with a white-collar job, usually a secret teetotaller and often with vegetarian leanings, with a history of Nonconformity behind him, and, above all, with a social position which he has no intention of forfeiting. This last type is surprisingly common in Socialist parties of every shade; it has perhaps been taken over en bloc from the old Liberal Party. In addition to this there is the horrible—the really disquieting—prevalence of cranks wherever Socialists are gathered together. One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words ‘Socialism’ and ‘Communism’ draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England."(Tag yourself in that last bit.)Think of all of those sad British lefties in 1937, crying into their warm beers when they read that.Even so, part 1 was compelling enough that I am convinced that no owner of a colliery has ever been admitted to Heaven. Absolutely brutal.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Road to Wigan Pier is a book in two parts, both observant and fiery. This is one of Orwell's lesser-known works, but still one of his better ones. It surpasses Burmese Days and might almost reach Homage to Catalonia.

The first part is a visit to the coal-mining areas up north, and a chronicling of the miners' lives. It's reminiscent of Engels' Conditions of the English Working Class, but with less statistics and more coal mining, and the social conditions of the miners themselves. Here, he has an astonishing eye for detail. He crawls into the mines - you can crawl or kneel most of the way. Breathes in the black corrosive dust which the workers never seem to get off of their hands. Sits down at their table. Talks to them. Orwell, who confesses that his life was full of easy comfort, recognizes a real empathy with these people beyond class. He could not imagine living and working as hard as they do.



This little journey of his shatters myths. It's only too familiar to learn that even in the early 20th century, the old canards about the poor were still there - the belief that the poor were all lazy, and would get drunk and do nothing forever if unemployed. When Orwell interviewed those without work, the vast majority were desperate for it. All this in spite of the horrific labor conditions. They wanted to be able feed their families better than what stipend or charity provides and to end the gnawing boredom and feelings of uselessness. "Oh, God, please, let me work!" one begs.

Orwell even notes a trend where those who have less money to spend on food tend to spend it on more unhealthy food - an interesting precursor to the trend between obesity and income in the United States today. Only the rich can afford to eat healthy.

No doubt mining is different here - so we'd like to think in the United States, with empty promises of 'clean coal'. But there are still consequences here. For an example, see West Virginia, all of it. Economic dependence, decline, depressed standards of living, political entanglement with King Coal. Accidents still do happen. And if not that, then the wasting death of black lung, which has made a recurrence. Then we remember that the Chinese produce the most coal in the world today, and they do not have nearly as many bothersome safety or environmental regulations.

--

The second part is even more fiery. It is an examination of the political means - what is to be done? First, he states that these living conditions are intolerable. Second, he acknowledges that socialist policies would be an effective means of affecting this economic problem. So his Big Question is: why, then, is not everybody a socialist?

Already, in 1936, he notes that something is wrong with the state of Socialism. There is, of course, the matter of Stalin's empire in the east, and the unsettling rumors which arise from its gaping maw. Socialism, instead of the charitable ideal of reducing exploitation here and abroad, and raising the standards of living, has been mutated into yet another excuse for tyranny.

Not just this. He also lances the ugly boils which marred socialism then and now. Endless petty factionalism, boring terminology, a religious adherence to major thinkers (Marx), and so forth. These would create disunity within socialists, and scare away any new converts. Thus they are easy prey for political enemies.

Orwell also has to combat ideas of what socialism is not. He has to argue with the 'useful idiots' who praise Stalin - George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair, H. G. Wells. Their visions were of a machine socialism, were technology somehow makes everything better without any major societal change. Technology, as good as it can be, has a cost. If the rich can afford to live in comfort, then the disparity between them and poor would only worsen. Technology has to be cheap and public in order for any real change to disseminate.

Orwell sees their visions as useless. A paradise of 'fat little men' reduced to hedonistic consumerist pleasure. They resemble the infantile dreams of Ray Kurzweil, who starts off with explanations of doubling computer power, and ends with humanity becoming godlike immortal computer beings, a deranged version of that already dangerous dogma of Rapture.

Orwell does take a moment here to praise Aldous Huxley and his Brave New World, which describes this 'paradise'. No doubt it would influence his 1984.

It is not just the future of socialism which concerns him, however. Fascism continued its bloody march in Europe. At the time he wrote this, the Civil War in Spain broke out. Socialist v. Anarchist v. Fascist.

The events of this book gave him a firm conviction that he needed to do something. This led to his volunteering to fight in a Socialist militia in the Spanish Civil War, and the experiences in that war would lead to a new book, Homage to Catalonia. The nature of totalitarian regimes deeply frightened and scared him, and the rest is 'history'.

An excellent book, perhaps one of Orwell's best.

[jonfaith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Much like Hemingway's lost satchel or Genet's samizdat manuscripts, I'll piece this together from jumbled memories. How's that for hubris?

The Road To Wigan Pier was amongst the best books I've read this year. The route established by Orwell is more sinuous than expected. He examines a lodging house and then travels to the pits themselves. He finds valor in those who toil. He doesn't patronize.

He ponders the unemployment issue in England. He busts myths. He unrolls lengths of statistics. He then concludes his book by meandering back and forth between the theoretical and the autobiographical. It is easy to see how this spurned readers, both then and now.

My reasons for reading this now were related on Hadrian's Wall (sorry I couldn't resist.) but Orwell's book did serve as a pleasurable counterpoint to my own holiday experiences.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“It is only when you meet someone of a different culture from yourself that you begin to realise what your own beliefs really are.”The Road to Wigan Pier is written in two parts. The first part of this book in truth needs little description as Orwell tries to give a detailed view of the conditions of the poor and unemployed. In the first chapter Orwell describes living in a cheap lodging-house, a thing that he actually did himself for a couple of weeks in this house during his researches. Next he moves on to the life of the miners, their working conditions which perhaps unsurprisingly are very bad, the hygienic situation where only a third of mines has a bath or shower for the miners to use whilst the situation at home is even worse with very few homes having bathrooms, the misconception that miners have plenty of leisure time and are well paid, pay levels are dependant on exactly what job the miner is doing at the pit, then there are all kinds of stoppage which are deducted from the miner’s wage every week which actually includes some of his tools and safety equipment.The next chapter deals with the housing situation in the mining districts in particular the shortage of decent housing. Where people are forced to accept all sorts of unsuitable housing and bad landlords, just to get a roof over their heads. Sounds familiar even today.This is then followed by a chapter on unemployment. In 1937, when this book was written, there were about two million unemployed. But this number only shows how many persons are receiving the dole rather than everyone who was economically inactive. This then moves on to look at the food that a family living on the dole might exist onIn the second part Orwell describes his personal idea of socialism in England. The general idea being that Orwell believes that socialism and communism are no longer movements of the working class. Rather the movement is lead by the middle-class and it is often the British class system that stops real Socialism occurring. In particular Orwell dislikes middle-class socialists who speak out against their own class yet their behaviour is that of a middle-class person. Overall Orwell seems to suggest that socialism is a nearly impossible thing.Now I must admit that I felt thoroughly engaged with the first half of this book as I am always interested to read about 'social' history. However, whilst I agree with many of the points that he made in the second half about socialism (personally I feel that the vast majority of the MPs of today's Labour Party are professional politicians who have never done a hard days work in their lives so can not truly have any idea of what it means to be working class) I found it rather overblown and as such much of his message got muddled if not lost altogether. An interesting read overall which perhaps show his true perceptibility as it is still largely relevant today 80 years after its first publication.

[edgeworth_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After returning from Burma in 1927, George Orwell found that his beliefs and prejudices had been completely upturned after witnessing the evil brutality of the British imperial system. He decided he wanted “to escape not merely from imperialism but from every form of man’s dominion over man. I wanted to submerge myself, to get right down among the oppressed, to be one of them and on their side against the tyrants.”He ended up spending much time amongst the working class, and the result of that was his excellent book Down And Out In Paris And London, which I read last year and greatly enjoyed. The Road To Wigan Pier continues in this vein, but was written several years later after Orwell had established himself as a writer and distilled his outrage into a coherent socialist philosophy. He was commisioned by an organisation called the Left Book Club to carry out a report on the living conditions of the unemployed in England’s industrial North. This investigation comprises the first half of the book; the second comprises Orwell’s reflections upon that situation, and what must be done about it.I preferred the first half of the book to the second, as Orwell throws himself into the atrocious hovels and slums of Wigan and Sheffield, making his usual wry and witty observations. (“There are also houses of what is called the ‘blind back’ type, which are single houses, but in which the builder has omitted to put in a back door – from pure spite, apparently.”) Orwell’s famous dedication to clear, concise writing makes him endlessly entertaining and readable, and he comes up with some marvellous similes.The second half of the book was less entertaining; it is largely a political essay, which I don’t mind, but like many essays in Shooting An Elephant it is quite dated. Orwell wrote this book in the late 30s when socialism was still considered a feasible possibility in many parts of society, and while fascism was running rampant across Europe. He very clearly thought the next major struggle in the world would be between Fascism and Socialism, not Capitalism and Communism. Reading through it, I was mostly struck by how wrong Orwell turned out to be. He spends much of his time arguing why socialism had failed to gain many adherents, and one of his points is that many people disliked industrialism and mentally associated it with socialism. Orwell himself, while believing it to be “here to stay,” is also quite critical of what he calls “the machine-society.” He then later says:There is no chance of righting the conditions I described in the earlier chapters of this book, or of saving England from Fascism, unless we can bring an effective Socialist party into existence. It will have to be a party with genuinely revolutionary intentions, and it will have to be numerically strong enough to act. We can only get it if we offer an objective which fairly ordinary people will recognise as desirable. Beyond all else, therefore, we need intelligent propaganda. Less about ‘class consciousness,’ ‘expropriation of the expropriators,’ bourgeois ideology,’ and ‘proletarian solidarity,’ not to mention the sacred sisters, thesis, antithesis and synthesis; and more about justice, liberty and the plight of the unemployed. And less about mechanical progress, tractors, the Dneiper dam and the latest salmon-canning factory in Moscow; that kind of thing is not an integral part of Socialist doctrine, and it drives away many people whom the Socialist cause needs, including most of those who can hold a pen.No such Socialist party came about, yet England was not consumed by Fascism. And how were the conditions in northern England righted? Through technological advances and the progress of the machine-society which Orwell so disapproved of. There is clearly still an imbalance of wealth in England today, but to compare the houses of the working class now with the houses of the working class of eighty years ago is to compare modern luxury with medieval squalor. Television, broadband Internet, mass-produced clothing, central heating, affordable white goods, hot water, subsidised medical care and unfailing electricity combine to create what the miners and labourers of Orwell’s day would regard as paradise.Curiously enough, Orwell actually touched upon in the first half of the book:And then there is the queer spectacle of modern electrical science showering miracles upon people with empty bellies. You may shiver all night for lack of bedclothes, but in the morning you can go to the public library and read the news that has been telegraphed for your benefit from San Francisco and Singapore. Twenty million people are underfed but literally everyone in England has access to a radio. What we have lost in food we have gained in electricity. Whole sections of the working class who have been plundered of all they really need are being compensated, in part, by cheap luxuries which mitigate the surface of life.The difference, of course, is that the modern British welfare state (which I am not particularly familiar with the history of, but which appears to exist in a limited form in The Road To Wigan Pier) ensures that nobody is actually starving, even if they have been unemployed their entire lives. Whether or not the “cheap luxuries” of today seem superior to those of Orwell’s time because of my own modern vantage point, or because they actually are, is hard to say. Perhaps eighty years from now we will all have robot butlers and want for nothing, and consider having to work forty hours a week to have been a cruel and terrible fate.Then, however, there’s the fact that our own cheap luxuries are not a result of the industrial process having been perfected, but rather because the Western world simply bucked its “working” class status onto East Asia. Now the same thing is happening in China, as hundreds of millions are lifted out of poverty and expect higher living standards, and manufacturers look to Vietnam or Indonesia or somewhere else where people are still poor and will work for a dollar a day. What happens when everybody on Earth is rich and prosperous? I can’t find the exact quote, but somewhere in The Road To Wigan Pier Orwell mentions that the whole world is a raft flying through space, which contains more than enough for everybody to live comfortably. This may have been true at the time, but it certainly isn’t today; the one or two billion OECD citizens are living well beyond their means, let alone the five billion in the developing world. Either we will exhaust the planet’s resources and collapse into a prolonged Dark Age of death, misery and poverty, or we will expand space travel and harvest the resources of other planets to provide for the billions of new TV-watching, Coke-drinking people who will be created once the developing world finishes developing, which will certainly happen within the next fifty years. And, ironically enough, the most likely push for that more optimistic outcome will be capitalist thirst for raw materials.As you can see, Orwell gets me thinking. I didn’t enjoy The Road To Wigan Pier quite as much as Down And Out In Paris And London, but it’s still an excellent book and a valuable historical document.

[seisdedos_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Orwell’s anti-communism is primarily seen through his two great works, ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984.’ But for a deeper understanding of his beliefs it is necessary to read his two major works of non-fiction. The events described in “The Road to Wigan Pier’ and ‘Homage to Catalonia’ take place well before he achieved any fame and acclaim and go a long in explaining why he initially achieved infamy in left-wing circles. In ‘Wigan Pier’ Orwell travels to the north of England and describes in exacting detail the living and working conditions of its laborers. Orwell’s language is very straight-forward and accessible. Nothing pretentious or overly scholarly here. He completely immerses himself in the working-class environment and culture of the region - the cramped and unsanitary lodgings, the meager and debilitating diet and even comments on the centrality of the pub to the worker’s lives and working-class slang. But Orwell’s most harrowing description is of the miners “going down to the pit” and discovering for the first time in his life the grueling and almost inhuman work which, according to him, constitutes the backbone of industrial society. In the second half of the book, Orwell discusses how the large gulf between Britain’s intelligentsia and its working-class could ultimately pave the way for fascism or a government sympathetic towards it. He counsels democratic socialist and Labour party leaders to be less concerned with dogma, orthodoxy, Marxist rhetoric and to instead focus on the basic ideas of social justice and equality. He also takes some shots at feminism, pacifists, and vegetarians which modern readers would find offensive if not down right reactionary. But it’s hard to argue with his main argument that radical intellectuals of the 1930s were every bit as outside the mainstream as a member of the House of Lords.