Orwell in Burma, 'Flatulent' Travel Writing, and Banning the Word 'Plantation'

George Orwell (né Eric Blair) left England for Burma at age 19, a freshly minted graduate of Eton College, the poshest school in the British Empire. The year was 1922, and Orwell/Blair would remain in Burma until 1927, a member of the imperial police force. What little we know of his time there can be learned from his first novel, Burmese Days (1934), and two essays, "A Hanging" (1931) and "Shooting an Elephant" (1936). His Burmese days have always carried with them an air of mystery and an absence of detail, which drove Paul Theroux—travel writer, essayist, novelist, sage—to set himself the task of imagining the young man's years in this eastern edge of the Raj. The result is Burma Sahib, a novel published earlier this year, that brings to life Orwell/Blair's time in Burma.

The post Orwell in Burma, 'Flatulent' Travel Writing, and Banning the Word 'Plantation' appeared first on .