Burmese Days

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of George Orwell's Burmese Days - first published, in the United States, by Harper's on 25th October 1934 - the Orwell Prize 2010 is launching with a debate on contemporary Burma. We're also delighted to bring you George Orwell's own work from, and about, Burma; an extract from Emma Larkin's introduction to the latest edition of Burmese Days; and a photo-essay by Julio Etchart, who retraced some of Orwell's steps in Burma.

For more about Orwell's time in Burma, D. J. Taylor's brief biography provides an introduction.

George Orwell

Preliminary sketches for Burmese Days

• Preliminaries to Burmese Days (introduction by Peter Davison)
• 1. John Flory - My Epitaph
• 2. Extract, Preliminary to Autobiography
• 3. Extract, the Autobiography of John Flory
• 4. An Incident in Rangoon
• 5. Extract, A Rebuke to the Author, John Flory

Essays

• How a Nation is Exploited: The British Empire in Burma
• A Hanging
• Shooting an Elephant

Reviews

• Anonymous review of Burmese Interlude by C. V. Warren
• Anonymous review of Trials in Burma by Maurice Collis

Emma Larkin

• Introduction to Burmese Days (extract)

Julio Etchart

• Burmese Days revisited (PDF)
• Burmese Days revisited (essay)
• Burmese Days revisited (photo gallery)
• Julio Etchart's website

Maung Zarni

• 'Confronting the Demons' for The Irrawaddy (external site)

Douglas Kerr

• Orwell, Kipling and Empire (originally published by Finlay Publisher)