Burmese Days by George Orwell

Published 1934 · 97,064 words · about 8 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Political Fiction

How hard is Burmese Days to read?

Burmese Days scores 60 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 60 out of 100
Orwell employs a rich vocabulary, frequently introducing specialized Anglo-Indian and Burmese terms such as 'longyi,' 'shikoed,' 'dacoits,' 'pukka sahib,' and 'pwe,' which require contextual understanding. While not as dense with archaic words or invented language as 'Moby-Dick' or 'Finnegans Wake,' the consistent use of foreign terms and occasional literary allusions elevates its complexity above accessible contemporary fiction.
Sentence structure: 68 out of 100
The prose features many long, multi-clause sentences, often packed with descriptive detail and subordinate constructions, demanding sustained attention from the reader. Although generally clear and grammatically sound, the frequent use of hypotaxis and extended descriptive passages makes it more challenging than the direct style of '1984,' approaching the navigability of '2666' rather than the extreme convolutions of Jamesian or Proustian syntax.
Abstraction: 78 out of 100
While grounded in a concrete narrative of colonial life, 'Burmese Days' is deeply philosophical, exploring themes of imperialism, racism, morality, and identity through character internal monologues and explicit debates. The discussions between Flory and Dr. Veraswami, and Flory's extensive self-reflection on the 'white man's burden humbug,' move the narrative beyond simple social observation, akin to the philosophical drama found in 'Brothers Karamazov.'
Information density: 72 out of 100
The text is saturated with cultural, social, and psychological information, detailing the intricacies of Burmese customs, the rigid hierarchies of the British Raj, and the internal conflicts of its characters. Every scene and dialogue contributes to a dense critique of colonialism, requiring close attention to absorb the layers of meaning and context, making it significantly more demanding than 'The Great Gatsby' in its conceptual load.
Narrative indirection: 40 out of 100
Orwell's prose is largely direct, explicitly stating character motivations and societal critiques. For instance, U Po Kyin's villainy and Flory's self-loathing are clearly articulated, rather than left for deep inference. This direct exposition places it closer to works like '1984' (35) than 'The Great Gatsby' (65).
Symbolic density: 60 out of 100
The novel employs consistent, though not overwhelming, symbolic elements. Flory's birthmark symbolizes his internal shame and moral compromise, while the European Club functions as a 'spiritual citadel' of colonial power and decay. The recurring 'crocodile' metaphor for U Po Kyin strongly conveys his cunning and cruelty, adding layers of meaning beyond the literal events, though less pervasively than 'The Great Gatsby' (75).
Ironic distance: 70 out of 100
Orwell maintains a significant ironic distance, particularly in his portrayal of colonial hypocrisy. The narrator explicitly highlights the contrast between U Po Kyin's 'impartiality' and his corrupt methods, and Flory's internal monologues expose the 'white man's burden' as a lie. This pervasive, sharp irony is comparable to 'The Great Gatsby' (70) where sympathy and critique are simultaneous, but less experimental than 'Ulysses' (88).
Resolution withholding: 65 out of 100
The excerpt establishes clear, ongoing conflicts, such as U Po Kyin's plot against Dr. Veraswami and Flory's internal struggles with his identity and the colonial system. While the narrative progresses, it resists easy closure, leaving character arcs and systemic issues unresolved. This open-endedness regarding meaning and character fate is similar to 'Lolita' (65) where the aftermath is known but meaning remains open, rather than a genre-expected 'HEA ending' (25).
Structural complexity: 45 out of 100
The novel follows a largely linear and chronological narrative, primarily from a third-person omniscient perspective. While it delves into various characters' thoughts and includes clear flashbacks, there are no significant formal experiments, multiple unreliable narrators, or fragmented timelines. Its structure is straightforward, more akin to 'War and Peace' (40) than 'Flights' (88) or 'Ulysses' (98).

How Burmese Days is regarded

Burmese Days holds a literary regard score of 78 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Where Burmese Days sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (186 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Burmese Days scores 72 out of 100. A second mythos, comedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.25. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
Flory was a man of about thirty-five, of middle height, not ill made. He had very black, stiff hair growing low on his head, and a cropped black moustache
Symbol: Formal
In any town in India the European Club is the spiritual citadel, the real seat of the British power, the Nirvana for which native officials and millionaires pine in vain.
Mythos: Tragic Pathos (Ironic Tragedy iv) (irony iv)
Genre: Novel + Anatomy
Item, eleven dummy guns carved out of teakwood.

Where the story of Burmese Days takes place

  • British colonial Burma, 1926, the main setting
  • Flory's earlier years in Burma and school England (1910 to 1925)
  • Kyauktada, Upper Burma, April-June 1926

7 things that are true of Burmese Days, with the passage for each

  1. Flory's birthmark is a blue crescent on his left cheek.

    a hideous birthmark stretching in a ragged crescent down his left cheek, from the eye to the corner of the mouth.

  2. The Kyauktada Club has never admitted an Oriental member.

    it was the proud boast of Kyauktada Club that, almost alone of Clubs in Burma, it had never admitted an Oriental to membership.

  3. The rebels' armoury included eleven dummy guns carved from teakwood.

    Item, eleven dummy guns carved out of teakwood.

  4. Flory shoots his dog Flo before shooting himself.

    When she was a yard away he fired, blowing her skull to fragments.

  5. The official verdict on Flory's death was accidental.

    It shall not be written on his tombstone that he committed suicide.

  6. U Po Kyin dies of apoplexy three days after receiving his decoration.

    Only three days after the Governor's durbar, before so much as a brick of those atoning pagodas had been laid, U Po Kyin was stricken with apoplexy and died without speaking again.

  7. Elizabeth ends up marrying Mr Macgregor.

    when—Mr Macgregor proposed to her.

Scenes in Burmese Days that Frye would name

20 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Pathos, untitled
A tiny lizard, translucent like a creature of gelatine, was stalking a white moth along the edge of the table. Flory pulled the trigger with his thumb. The hero's death by his own hand is the book's sacrificial scene.
Alazon, untitled
His practice, a much safer one, was to take bribes from both sides and then decide the case on strictly legal grounds. This won him a useful reputation for impartiality. U Po Kyin is the impostor of justice, a corrupt magistrate posing as an impartial judge.
Anatomy, untitled
The British Empire is simply a device for giving trade monopolies to the English—or rather to gangs of Jews and Scotchmen. The symposium-style ideological argument is the anatomy's debate form.
Hamartia, untitled
because he lacked the small spark of courage that was needed to refuse. Cowardice before the Club, not villainy, is Flory's fatal flaw.
Anatomy, untitled
Item, six home-made guns with barrels of zinc piping stolen from the railway. These could be fired, after a fashion, by thrusting a nail through the touch-hole and striking it with a stone. A mock-catalogue of the 'armoury' is a typical Menippean inventory of satire.
Sparagmos, untitled
It was the body of Maxwell, cut almost to pieces with dahs by two relatives of the man whom he had shot. Literal tearing-apart of the body: the demonic image of colonial violence.

Books that share these scenes with Burmese Days

About the author

George Orwell