The Road to Wigan Pier
by George Orwell 
On This Page
Description
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 show more 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. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
John_Vaughan On re-reading these two books it is hard to believe that these two works were written almost at the same time and about the same culture. One by Blair deliberatly self-impoverished and on foot, one by Morton - by car!
Member Reviews
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 show more 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. show less
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 show more 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. show less
George Orwell is most famous for literary marvels like 1984 and Animal Farm, which both revolves around governmental oppression in one way or another, but what about the rest of his work? Recently I got my hands on a few of Orwell's lesser known books and I must say that this one in particular, The Road to Wigan Pier, is definitely still applicable today. The graphic,unforgettable descriptions of the social injustices in England's social classes is literally still a problem (if you don't believe me, just think about the spikes that London's elites are putting up to deter homeless people from sleeping near their homes/workplaces). Although the situation might've changed somewhat from coal-mining to unemployment or lower-class living, show more there is still a class difference, which makes The Road to Wigan Pier as relevant today as it was back then. Furthermore, it showcases poverty in a way that is gripping, thought-provoking, and - for lack of a better description - grim beyond belief. Nevertheless, I found it extremely informative, not only about the class differences, but because of the vivid descriptions he uses to paint the foreboding world he explores.
The Road to Wigan Pier is divided into two parts: The first part explores, as mentioned above, the bleak working-class lifestyle in Yorkshire, the West Midlands, and Lancashire. However, the second part of the book is somewhat less of a documentary and more of a personal "solution" to the problem. Here, Orwell explores and discusses the relevance of implementing socialism in order to improve living standards in a whole. It's quite a controversial twist in pace (it was controversial back in the day and I'm sure it would still raise a few eyebrows), but what can I say? The guy made a few valid points.
This book might not fall into the taste of everyone, but it's - in my opinion - necessary to read. I finished it in a few days, even though it isn't fiction. It's a real depiction of life back then and life right now, the circumstances are just a bit different. So, if you're in the mood to read about injustice in a whole, and if you want to weigh your problems against the problems of the past, or if you want to just stick it to the elitist 1 Percenters that's making you work like a slave to fill their own pockets ... then yes, you should absolutely get your hands on this book.
In all honesty, I'm surprised it wasn't on any of my reading lists in university.
(Review originally posted on www.tentaclebooks.com) show less
The Road to Wigan Pier is divided into two parts: The first part explores, as mentioned above, the bleak working-class lifestyle in Yorkshire, the West Midlands, and Lancashire. However, the second part of the book is somewhat less of a documentary and more of a personal "solution" to the problem. Here, Orwell explores and discusses the relevance of implementing socialism in order to improve living standards in a whole. It's quite a controversial twist in pace (it was controversial back in the day and I'm sure it would still raise a few eyebrows), but what can I say? The guy made a few valid points.
This book might not fall into the taste of everyone, but it's - in my opinion - necessary to read. I finished it in a few days, even though it isn't fiction. It's a real depiction of life back then and life right now, the circumstances are just a bit different. So, if you're in the mood to read about injustice in a whole, and if you want to weigh your problems against the problems of the past, or if you want to just stick it to the elitist 1 Percenters that's making you work like a slave to fill their own pockets ... then yes, you should absolutely get your hands on this book.
In all honesty, I'm surprised it wasn't on any of my reading lists in university.
(Review originally posted on www.tentaclebooks.com) show less
Alright, let me tell you about George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier – seriously, if you haven't read this, you're missing out. It's a book that hits you right in the gut, even 80 years after it was written.
So, picture this: it's the 1930s, and a left-wing book club basically sends Orwell up to the industrial heartlands of northern England. His mission? To really get down and dirty, investigate, and record the grim reality of working-class life. And boy, did he deliver. This wasn't some academic, armchair study. Orwell went all in. He wasn't just observing; he was living it. He went into the absolute deepest, darkest parts of the coal mines, experiencing the back-breaking, dangerous work first hand. He stayed in those notoriously show more dilapidated and often filthy workers' houses, seeing the poverty and despair up close.
And what he brought back, using just the tip of his pen, is just incredible. He vividly paints a picture of every single aspect of those coal miners' lives – the exhaustion, the camaraderie, the hunger, the constant threat of injury, the sheer struggle to survive. Reading it today, honestly, it's still shockingly true. The despair and poverty he describes in those pages have this terrifying, raw power that just transcends time and national boundaries. You feel it deep down, and it makes you think about similar struggles happening even now, all over the world.
But The Road to Wigan Pier isn't just a brutal snapshot of hardship; it's also Orwell's own personal journey. It's his "road to socialism," where he really digs deep into his own conscience. Born into the British middle class, he openly discusses how he slowly but surely started to question, and then ultimately despise, the rigid class barriers that carved up British society back then. For him, at its core, socialism boils down to two incredibly simple, yet profound, ideas: "justice and freedom." And you can feel that conviction burning through his writing.
Seriously, this book is a masterpiece. It's not just a historical document; it's a profound exploration of empathy, class, and the human condition. It's powerful, it's moving, and it's shockingly relevant. If you want a book that makes you think, makes you feel, and genuinely stays with you long after you've turned the last page, then you absolutely have to pick this one up. Can't recommend it enough! show less
So, picture this: it's the 1930s, and a left-wing book club basically sends Orwell up to the industrial heartlands of northern England. His mission? To really get down and dirty, investigate, and record the grim reality of working-class life. And boy, did he deliver. This wasn't some academic, armchair study. Orwell went all in. He wasn't just observing; he was living it. He went into the absolute deepest, darkest parts of the coal mines, experiencing the back-breaking, dangerous work first hand. He stayed in those notoriously show more dilapidated and often filthy workers' houses, seeing the poverty and despair up close.
And what he brought back, using just the tip of his pen, is just incredible. He vividly paints a picture of every single aspect of those coal miners' lives – the exhaustion, the camaraderie, the hunger, the constant threat of injury, the sheer struggle to survive. Reading it today, honestly, it's still shockingly true. The despair and poverty he describes in those pages have this terrifying, raw power that just transcends time and national boundaries. You feel it deep down, and it makes you think about similar struggles happening even now, all over the world.
But The Road to Wigan Pier isn't just a brutal snapshot of hardship; it's also Orwell's own personal journey. It's his "road to socialism," where he really digs deep into his own conscience. Born into the British middle class, he openly discusses how he slowly but surely started to question, and then ultimately despise, the rigid class barriers that carved up British society back then. For him, at its core, socialism boils down to two incredibly simple, yet profound, ideas: "justice and freedom." And you can feel that conviction burning through his writing.
Seriously, this book is a masterpiece. It's not just a historical document; it's a profound exploration of empathy, class, and the human condition. It's powerful, it's moving, and it's shockingly relevant. If you want a book that makes you think, makes you feel, and genuinely stays with you long after you've turned the last page, then you absolutely have to pick this one up. Can't recommend it enough! show less
"… the mentality of the English governing class. First you condemn a family to live on thirty shillings a week…"
The Road to Wigan Pier is that rarest of all things: a timeless polemic. The first part of the book is documentary-like, as George Orwell immerses himself in the lives of the Northern English working-class. It is a horrifying and ruthless depiction – and still, remarkably, only a few generations removed from us – written with great penetration and perception. The effect with regard to the mining communities of Yorkshire and Lancashire is something like what John Steinbeck was soon to do with the Okies in The Grapes of Wrath: humanize them, not with condescension but with dignity.
You see the comprehensiveness of the show more degradation, from the black horror of the mines themselves, through the slums and the scrabbling in the dirt, all the way to the "petty inconvenience and indignity… of having to do everything at other people's convenience" (pg. 44). The depiction alone would be enough to convince you of the desolation, but Orwell's humanity and skill with the pen can make you despair, and weep at the wretched tragedy of it. It is as fine a piece of polemical writing as you are likely to find.
"… and then you have the damned impertinence to tell them how they are to spend their money." (pg. 92)
The second part of the book is where the controversy is. Orwell moves from his documentary focus to provide a commentary on class politics. In one respect, this is brilliant and useful: Orwell is incredibly perceptive on class, and he is withering in his analysis of the Socialists, particularly what we would nowadays call the 'champagne socialists' and their "sniffish middle-class superiority" (pg. 162). He notes the near-fatal "prevalence of cranks" in an ideology that seems to draw "with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist and feminist in England" (pg. 161). The book could have been written this year, except that nobody is this fearless now, and if you cannot see the modern analogues then you've not been paying close enough attention to the news.
But rather than just railing against proto-SJWs (as gleeful as that is to read), Orwell's scorn for this sort of 'socialist' is justified by his earlier documentary focus on the miners. These fine people are really, truly, heavily suffering, and the prevalence of these Socialist puritans not only does nothing to help, but actively hinders the alleviation of the plight of the working class, because they hog the soapbox and misdirect the social impetus.
In light of this, it is strange that part two of the book also engages in a somewhat quixotic defence of Socialism. Orwell assumes a distinction between Socialism and Socialists – that is, between the ideology and its adherents – that is not at all clear, and launches a plea for 'liberty and dignity' to return to the Socialist 'movement'. Given he had earlier cautioned against "scoutmasterish bellows of good will" (pg. 149), it is strange that Orwell so keenly falls into this trap himself. He assumes that Socialism is being cast in a "misleading light" (pg. 197), rather than considering that there might be something in the ideology itself that attracts such petty malevolents, and will continue to do so, and that even if Orwell could attain his Socialist purity, the weeds would inevitably return to the garden again. The only reason this does not sink the book is that, a) Orwell actually paid his dues in living among the working class, in a clearly genuine attempt to understand, and b) it is a view he rectified in his later (and more prominent) work, particularly Animal Farm, which makes the very point that the ideology is inherently compromised.
So all's well that ends well, and if Orwell did not reach the right conclusion in Wigan Pier, he at least reached it in his writing career. (A career that was far too short; one yearns to know what he would have made of MAD or the Winter of Discontent, let alone the reigning modern SJW malignancy.) He writes fearlessly and with wit, making some great and enduring points, and the book flows easily in the way that only a great polemic can.
Orwell is perceptive and humane and he practiced what he preached. And he's got their number, these Communists who "will be Fascists five years hence" (pg. 169). It's just a shame he wasn't yet ready to break from Socialist ideology, because if he had banished his political angst sooner, he might have recognized the importance of one of his earlier observations: "when you are underfed, harassed, bored and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'." (pg. 88). Men are not piano keys, as Dostoevsky wrote, and if all was perfect and orderly, man would choose to disrupt it, just for the mortal sake of it. We don't want utopia. We want to be free to spout heresy. We want to get drunk and fear God. show less
The Road to Wigan Pier is that rarest of all things: a timeless polemic. The first part of the book is documentary-like, as George Orwell immerses himself in the lives of the Northern English working-class. It is a horrifying and ruthless depiction – and still, remarkably, only a few generations removed from us – written with great penetration and perception. The effect with regard to the mining communities of Yorkshire and Lancashire is something like what John Steinbeck was soon to do with the Okies in The Grapes of Wrath: humanize them, not with condescension but with dignity.
You see the comprehensiveness of the show more degradation, from the black horror of the mines themselves, through the slums and the scrabbling in the dirt, all the way to the "petty inconvenience and indignity… of having to do everything at other people's convenience" (pg. 44). The depiction alone would be enough to convince you of the desolation, but Orwell's humanity and skill with the pen can make you despair, and weep at the wretched tragedy of it. It is as fine a piece of polemical writing as you are likely to find.
"… and then you have the damned impertinence to tell them how they are to spend their money." (pg. 92)
The second part of the book is where the controversy is. Orwell moves from his documentary focus to provide a commentary on class politics. In one respect, this is brilliant and useful: Orwell is incredibly perceptive on class, and he is withering in his analysis of the Socialists, particularly what we would nowadays call the 'champagne socialists' and their "sniffish middle-class superiority" (pg. 162). He notes the near-fatal "prevalence of cranks" in an ideology that seems to draw "with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist and feminist in England" (pg. 161). The book could have been written this year, except that nobody is this fearless now, and if you cannot see the modern analogues then you've not been paying close enough attention to the news.
But rather than just railing against proto-SJWs (as gleeful as that is to read), Orwell's scorn for this sort of 'socialist' is justified by his earlier documentary focus on the miners. These fine people are really, truly, heavily suffering, and the prevalence of these Socialist puritans not only does nothing to help, but actively hinders the alleviation of the plight of the working class, because they hog the soapbox and misdirect the social impetus.
In light of this, it is strange that part two of the book also engages in a somewhat quixotic defence of Socialism. Orwell assumes a distinction between Socialism and Socialists – that is, between the ideology and its adherents – that is not at all clear, and launches a plea for 'liberty and dignity' to return to the Socialist 'movement'. Given he had earlier cautioned against "scoutmasterish bellows of good will" (pg. 149), it is strange that Orwell so keenly falls into this trap himself. He assumes that Socialism is being cast in a "misleading light" (pg. 197), rather than considering that there might be something in the ideology itself that attracts such petty malevolents, and will continue to do so, and that even if Orwell could attain his Socialist purity, the weeds would inevitably return to the garden again. The only reason this does not sink the book is that, a) Orwell actually paid his dues in living among the working class, in a clearly genuine attempt to understand, and b) it is a view he rectified in his later (and more prominent) work, particularly Animal Farm, which makes the very point that the ideology is inherently compromised.
So all's well that ends well, and if Orwell did not reach the right conclusion in Wigan Pier, he at least reached it in his writing career. (A career that was far too short; one yearns to know what he would have made of MAD or the Winter of Discontent, let alone the reigning modern SJW malignancy.) He writes fearlessly and with wit, making some great and enduring points, and the book flows easily in the way that only a great polemic can.
Orwell is perceptive and humane and he practiced what he preached. And he's got their number, these Communists who "will be Fascists five years hence" (pg. 169). It's just a shame he wasn't yet ready to break from Socialist ideology, because if he had banished his political angst sooner, he might have recognized the importance of one of his earlier observations: "when you are underfed, harassed, bored and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'." (pg. 88). Men are not piano keys, as Dostoevsky wrote, and if all was perfect and orderly, man would choose to disrupt it, just for the mortal sake of it. We don't want utopia. We want to be free to spout heresy. We want to get drunk and fear God. show less
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 show more 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.
Mr. Orwell laments the dichotomy of an all-for-one society made up of humans whom are interested in "selfish" goals. He is trying to win over the populace, the majority he realizes cares more about a local cricket team than the growing threat of Hitler and Fascism. His consternation comes from commandeering by "elites" and professorial types in a uninspired Marxism. He also knows from history, a top down Socialism leads to a dictatorship rather than a utopian, classless equality. show less
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 show more 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.
Mr. Orwell laments the dichotomy of an all-for-one society made up of humans whom are interested in "selfish" goals. He is trying to win over the populace, the majority he realizes cares more about a local cricket team than the growing threat of Hitler and Fascism. His consternation comes from commandeering by "elites" and professorial types in a uninspired Marxism. He also knows from history, a top down Socialism leads to a dictatorship rather than a utopian, classless equality. show less
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 show more 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. show less
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 show more resist.) but Orwell's book did serve as a pleasurable counterpoint to my own holiday experiences. show less
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 show more resist.) but Orwell's book did serve as a pleasurable counterpoint to my own holiday experiences. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
(Retracing...)
Orwell said he would find little to interest him in Barnsley, which was a kindness compared to his verdict on Sheffield: "It seems to me, by daylight, one of the most appalling places I have ever seen." From his two months in the north, one image stayed with him above all others; a pale young woman "with the usual draggled, exhausted look … I thought how dreadful a destiny it show more was to be kneeling in the gutter in a back alley in Wigan, in the bitter cold, prodding a stick up a blocked drain. At that moment she looked up and caught my eye, and her expression was as desolate as I have ever seen; it struck me that she was thinking just the same as I was."
We cannot know if he was right, but it seems a rare moment, in a book about human sympathy, of connection between the man raised to be an officer of the empire and the proletariat that, however much he wished to embrace, repelled him still. Jack Hilton, the man who set him on the road to Wigan, hated the book, judging it a failure and falling out with the author. "So George went to Wigan and he might have stayed at home. He wasted money, energy and wrote piffle," was his damning verdict. Victor Gollancz disagreed, but with strong reservations. He finally published it as part of the Left Book Club series, but included a foreword in which he rebutted Orwell's colourful views on the "fruit-drinkers" of the middle-class liberal elite, fearful that his readership might take offence. In a later edition, against the author's wishes, he deleted the polemical second section altogether. show less
Orwell said he would find little to interest him in Barnsley, which was a kindness compared to his verdict on Sheffield: "It seems to me, by daylight, one of the most appalling places I have ever seen." From his two months in the north, one image stayed with him above all others; a pale young woman "with the usual draggled, exhausted look … I thought how dreadful a destiny it show more was to be kneeling in the gutter in a back alley in Wigan, in the bitter cold, prodding a stick up a blocked drain. At that moment she looked up and caught my eye, and her expression was as desolate as I have ever seen; it struck me that she was thinking just the same as I was."
We cannot know if he was right, but it seems a rare moment, in a book about human sympathy, of connection between the man raised to be an officer of the empire and the proletariat that, however much he wished to embrace, repelled him still. Jack Hilton, the man who set him on the road to Wigan, hated the book, judging it a failure and falling out with the author. "So George went to Wigan and he might have stayed at home. He wasted money, energy and wrote piffle," was his damning verdict. Victor Gollancz disagreed, but with strong reservations. He finally published it as part of the Left Book Club series, but included a foreword in which he rebutted Orwell's colourful views on the "fruit-drinkers" of the middle-class liberal elite, fearful that his readership might take offence. In a later edition, against the author's wishes, he deleted the polemical second section altogether. show less
added by John_Vaughan
Lists
Best of Travel Narratives
142 works; 28 members
Top Five Books of 2013
1,564 works; 722 members
20th Century Literature
1,161 works; 55 members
Jordan B. Peterson's Recommended Books
104 works; 5 members
1930s
262 works; 5 members
Well-Educated Mind
150 works; 3 members
The Well-Educated Mind, Susan Wise Bauer, 2016
179 works; 3 members
Reading LIst
648 works; 1 member
Novels with a city or town in the title
61 works; 1 member
LT picks: Blue Books
197 works; 44 members
Author Information
378+ Works 220,365 Members
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903 in Motihari in Bengal, India and later studied at Eton College for four years. He was an assistant superintendent with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. He left that position after five years and moved to Paris, where he wrote his first two books: Burmese Days and Down and Out in Paris show more and London. He then moved to Spain to write but decided to join the United Workers Marxist Party Militia. After being decidedly opposed to communism, he served in the British Home Guard and with the Indian Service of the BBC during World War II. After the war, he wrote for the Observer and was literary editor for the Tribune. His best known works are Animal Farm and 1984. His other works include A Clergyman's Daughter, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, The Road to Wigan Pier, Homage to Catalonia, and Coming Up for Air. He died on January 21, 1950 at the age of 46. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
George Orwell has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Road to Wigan Pier
- Original title
- The road to Wigan Pier
- Original publication date
- 1937
- People/Characters
- George Orwell
- Important places
- England, UK
- First words
- The first sound in the mornings was the clumping of the mill-girls' clogs down the cobbled street.
Foreword: This Foreword is addressed to members of the Left book Club (to whom The Road to Wigan Pier is being sent as the March Choice), and to them alone: members of the general public are asked to ignore ... (show all)it. - Quotations
- [those who live in Letchworth] every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal wearer, sex maniac, escaped Quaker, "Nature Cure" quack, pacifist and feminist in England,
If only the sandals and the pistachio-coloured shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaller, and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his yoga exercise quietly. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And then perhaps this misery of class-prejudice will fade away, and we of the sinking middle class - the private schoolmaster, the half-starved free-lance journalist, the colonel's spinster daughter with £75 a year, the jobless Cambridge graduate, the ship's officer without a ship, the clerks, the civil servants, the commercial travellers, and the thrice-bankrupt drapers in the country towns - may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose but our aitches.
- Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 305.56209428 — Society, Government, and Culture Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Groups of people People by social and economic levels Lower, alienated, excluded classes Working class History, geographic treatment, biography Europe England and Wales
- LCC
- HD8390 .O7 — Social sciences Industries. Land use. Labor Industries. Land use. Labor Labor. Work. Working class By region or country
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 3,964
- Popularity
- 3,929
- Reviews
- 54
- Rating
- (3.82)
- Languages
- 17 — Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian (Bokmål), Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 101
- ASINs
- 70