The Road to Wigan Pier- George Orwell

So before I get into talking about this book, I thought I might explain why I am talking about a book in what, up to now, has been a music blog. Well…  I use a facebook application called ‘Visual Bookshelf’. On there I update what I have read/am reading/want to read next pretty regularly, and review most books that I have read, occasionally writing 500 words, sometimes writing 50. But not many people read them. So I thought people might be interested here. It’s also a good way of making this look like I regularly update it without doing much work.

First up is ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ by George Orwell. I’m a big fan of Orwell, so it’s a great place to start. It took me a while to read this once I began, as despite not being that lengthy, I have been fairly busy/easily distracted in the last few weeks. However, I’ve had a lot more time in the past few days as I have moved back to Southend for the summer and I don’t have any friends here, which means I can be a bit more productive (if blogging and sewing patches counts as productive). I also haven’t started work yet, so I’ve had the luxury of lying in bed reading in the morning/when I wake up in the afternoon.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the book…

‘The Road to Wigan Pier was written by George Orwell and published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World War II. The second half is a long essay of his upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, which includes a denunciation of some aspects of British socialist attitudes and behaviour.

Victor Gollancz suggested at the end of 1935 that Orwell spend a short time investigating social conditions in economically depressed northern England. In the period from 31 January to 30 March 1936, Orwell lived in Wigan, Barnsley and Sheffield researching the book. The conventional view, based on a recollection by George Gorer, is that this was a specific commission with a £500 advance — two years’ income for him at the time. However Taylor argues that Orwell’s subsequent circumstances showed no indication of such largesse, Gollancz was not a person to part with such a sum on speculation, and Gollancz took little proprietorial interest in progress. Gollancz published the work under the Left Book Club which gave Orwell a far higher circulation than his previous works. However Gollancz feared the second half would offend Left Book Club readers and inserted a mollifying preface to the book while Orwell was in Spain.’

And here is what I have to say…

Despite the fact that this was written in a world where the economic climate depended on quite different things and a myriad of other factors, and the additional consideration that many of the subjects Orwell laments about (particularly in part one of the book) are thankfully things of the past, this collection of essays on poverty, are still intensely powerful and relevant. The sheer conviction and logic with which he examines the cause of poverty, and the value of socialism in combating this and the simplicity in which he manages to put forward his arguments, make this book as important today, as it was back in the 1930’s. The first part of the book is an unflinching account of the lives of the working class, and really helps to convey the real poverty which afflicted much of Britain. This book manages to create a startling and vivid picture of the depravation which many people lived and worked in, and is a brilliant analysis, providing a real sense of the filth and despair, and it suits Orwell’s style perfectly. Every page of this book is compulsive reading, even down to mathematical calculations of the wages for jobs that simply don’t exist anymore, with the money being in shillings- something I struggled to work out as it is very much a foreign currency to me.

The second part of the book shifts gear considerably. Using part one as a basis, part two is where the politics really come in. Orwell was a committed socialist who never really became deeply involved with the movement as it were; this book goes a long way to saying why. Not only is it honest, open and compelling, it is often very amusing, as Orwell rants about the idiocy of his fellow middle class members and other socialists, particularly those in the bourgeoisie. I particularly enjoyed his scathing diatribe of sandal wearing socialists and how in high society, to progress, you must ‘kiss the bums of verminous little lions.’ Frequently he references his own warped prejudices, which have been firmly instilled within him by his own upbringing, and the sense of his logic wrestling with this, makes for interesting, humorous reading, serving to make you like him a little bit more. He completely nails the uncomfortable nature of an relatively upper class left winger, who maintains the essence of superiority with the working class, battling with an ideology that he believes in, it is even funnier when he talks about the true upper class (Orwell, despite being clearly middle class, was not from a particularly wealthy family- he mentions how they were barely better off than some working class families and how every spare penny went into ‘keeping up appearances’ of middle class respectability).

Orwell possessed a fantastic gift in that he could make any subject to which he turned his hand appear straightforward. Playing Devils Advocate, he understands why some may object to socialism and the reasons behind this- much of this still applicable today, some of it even more so. He then uses this understanding to make an even stronger case FOR it, in a way in which the reader is actually engaged, where much of socialist literature fails. Constantly witty, sincere, furiously written and interesting both as a historical study of poverty and also as a political polemic, you really get a sense of the humanity of Orwell, and how social injustice truly was a pain to him. This empathy is a quality to be revelled in by the reader, something that is unusual and seldom seen in political works. This is also interesting in light of his later fiction, forming groundwork for much of his politically inspired work. As good an example of left wing politics and the necessity of them, as I think you are likely to find.

I’d definitely recommend you read this, or any of Orwell’s other work.