tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518910185806021537.post372769374482882286..comments2023-09-17T21:45:39.709+10:00Comments on Classic Readers: ALIA Retirees: "The Road to Wigan Pier" by George OrwellMyleehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00192872572021046374noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518910185806021537.post-49826558178342760092012-11-27T23:01:27.043+11:002012-11-27T23:01:27.043+11:00Thanks, Faye, for a very helpful and interesting p...Thanks, Faye, for a very helpful and interesting posting. I will confess that I started very slowly on this book, and found it hard for a while to go on: the opening account of Orwell's stay in lodgings provided by the owners of a tripe shop really is stomach-turning. The description of squalor certainly is vivid! (Interestingly, although I had not read 'The road to Wigan Pier' before I recalled being regaled with an account of this part of the book by a fellow librarian on a reference desk some twenty-five years ago.)<br /><br />Grim though much that follows is, the reading becomes easier. As you indicate, Faye, the account of the miners and the conditions they endure is masterly. I had no idea that they could not stand upright, had to walk stooping large distances underground to get to their workplace, and worked almost naked because of the heat.<br /><br />As you also indicate, the second part of the book displays Orwell's ability to argue lucidly at its best. Some of what he says still holds very much true: our ALP, as has often been observed, is now arguably more a party of the middle class than of manual workers. Of course much has also changed, and the interest of this part of the book is largely as a reflection of its times. Orwell often provides often acerbic references to leading literary figures, some still well-known, others now obscure. Except in the imaginations of the more paranoid menbers of the American Tea Party, nobody with any influence now advocates socialism as a solution to society's ills. But it is impossible to read the last hundred pages of the book without being deeply impressed by Orwell's beautifully lucid prose and his ability to marshall and present arguments.John Kennedynoreply@blogger.com