Burmese Days by George Orwell is ranked 791st on The Greatest Books of All Time site, where you find a few of his books, from Nineteen Eighty Four, Animal Farm to The Essays which I have recently read nevertheless, the algorithm changes the places in the hierarchy, ergo you could see a different structure, I don’t know what data is used, however, if it takes into account the ‘reading public’, then the chefs d’oeuvre will descend from the top spots, and the likes of The Da Vinci Code will dominate the front rows, and they will become the “GOAT” – that notwithstanding, you have more than five thousand reviews on books from the aforementioned site and others, with notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists waiting for you on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html if you are interested, why plug this, I don’t know

 

Burmese Days by George Orwell is ranked 791^st on The Greatest Books of All Time site, where you find a few of his books, from Nineteen Eighty Four, Animal Farm to The Essays which I have recently read nevertheless, the algorithm changes the places in the hierarchy, ergo you could see a different structure, I don’t know what data is used, however, if it takes into account the ‘reading public’, then the chefs d’oeuvre will descend from the top spots, and the likes of The Da Vinci Code will dominate the front rows, and they will become the “GOAT” – that notwithstanding, you have more than five thousand reviews on books from the aforementioned site and others, with notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists waiting for you on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html if you are interested, why plug this, I don’t know

 

 

9 out of 10

 

Nineteen Eighty Four is sixth on the Greatest Books of All Time, and you see it on other lists of the best chefs d’oeuvre https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/12/nineteen-eighty-four-by-george-orwell.html George Orwell has written some of the most mesmerizing books, novels, essays, he is one of my favorites now

 

The novelist has worked in Burma, now called Myanmar, and ruled by a brutal, murderous junta of generals, who keep in jail the former leader, winner of the Peace Prize, Aung San Suu Kyi, an impressive woman, who has nonetheless made some serious blunders, she denied the mass killings of Rohingya when she was in power

Geroge Orwell has one essay https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/shooting-elephant-by-george-orwell-is.html Shooting an Elephant, which depicts some of that experience, he was very adamant that colonialism is horrible, this is one of the main points of Burmese Days, although there were some caveats, qualifications here

 

I think I remember that he mentioned India, and the fact that governing the place without the British might be a challenge, something along these lines, but I may have the wrong idea here, and to try a sardonic joke, knowing that folks do not really read these lines (and they should not) things have not improved much in Burma

I was impressed by some passages in Burmese Days: when the natives are very angry and come to punish one of the colonialists, telling the white men that they know they will not be just with one of their own, so they need to punish him themselves, they will spare the rest, but they need to hand over the culprit

 

Somehow, this narrative has reminded me of Saying on by Paul Scott https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/11/staying-on-by-paul-scott-has-won-1977.html a book I have read again recently and enjoyed very much the mixture of humor and tragedy, the Indians and the British have been an excellent company

I have some mixed feelings here, in that I obviously know that the occupiers have taken advantage of the locals, but somehow, in the case of the British, I feel that they have also brought in ‘civilization’, the benefits of the railways and so much more, they use what they have built in places in Africa, the same tracks, if I am not mistaken

 

On the other hand, they could be vile, such as in this episode in Burmese Days, where this white man is cruel, disgusting: some young locals are having fun, and the brute is aggressive, he is the authority, the ‘superior race’, and he barks at them, then he attacks and one is blinded, so the natives call for punishment

Even Elizabeth, a white woman, strikes the reader as racist, albeit she also makes me think of Maugham https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-outstation-by-somerset-maugham.html who also has a short story where this woman is married in the Far East, finds her husband has had a native lover, and she is so appalled she leaves him, she would not accept this closeness to a local

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’