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The Road to Wigan Pier

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The Road to Wigan Pier

By: George Orwell
Narrated by: Jeremy Northam
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About this listen

A graphic and biting polemic that still holds a fierce political relevance and impact despite being written over half a century ago. First published in 1937 it charts George Orwell's observations of working-class life during the 1930s in the industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire. His depictions of social injustice and rising unemployment, the dangerous working conditions in the mines amid general squalor and hunger also bring together many of the ideas explored in his later works and novels.

©2012 Canongate Books (P)2012 George Orwell Essays Politics & Government Poverty & Homelessness Social Classes & Economic Disparity Social Sciences Sociology Nonfiction Thought-Provoking

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Please note, from memory so called swear words were 'bleeped out' in the original book.

Thus you read 'b_____' and were left to fill in the 'bleep' yourself.

The narrator is then being true to the book and the reviews criticising the decision to bleep are faulty.

NB I am an adult also and do not like censorship or bleeping.

But in this case a decision was made to be true to the text and the time.

Faulty reviews - warning

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It's simply egregious the lives these miners had to endure. it's a shame attitudes to the working class and those on benefits still haven't changed a great deal.

shockingly relevant even today.

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George Orwell’s most comprehensive and articulate homage to the proletariat, Wigan Pier begins with a harrowing and often bleak chronicle of working class colliery life in Northern England, giving a no holds barred examination of the perils of mine work, and the effects it brings upon one’s health. Orwell also provides something of an ethnography of working class life in the north of England, from the perils of the mines themselves, to the rather squalid living conditions experienced firsthand by Orwell himself, to the class distinctive behaviours.
The latter part of the book Orwell outlines his case for socialism and his strident critique of many of socialisms practitioners. Orwell outlines that much of socialism’s failures lies in the socialist themselves, with their convoluted messages and inability to communicate to the people socialism is supposed to benefit. Orwell provides an analysis of the nature and origins of Fascism, and how Fascism’s rise is a product of the fear that can be instilled by the disrespect of tradition by Socialists, and the imagery Socialism can create.
Orwell stands firmly on the side of Socialism, but his criticisms of Socialism’s practitioners is entirely relevant for both then and now. Many socialists or proponents of socialism made the same mistakes in the 1940s when this was written as they are making in the present day.
Another relevant part of Road to Wigan Pier is a critique of socialist approaches to art and literature, which is ironic as this book in itself became a true classic in socialist or proletarian literature, deserved of a place on anyone’s bookshelf, regardless of ideology.
Additionally, Jeremy Northam (who I best remember as Thomas More on The Tudors) provides a narration that is entirely apt and captures the mood and atmosphere.

Tineless proletarian literature

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Wonderful narrative journalism, scarily relevant today as it was then. I will be listening to this one again. Orwell takes his place with Dickens and Shakespeare when it comes to England's great writers.

Wonderful narrative journalism, scarily relevant

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I love this book. This is the second time I have read it and this time it seemed better. A great, and at times hilarious description of working class life in the north of England in the 1930's. Ahd Orwell's view of socialism and socialists. Very well read by Jeremy Northam. A must read.

Wonderful book by a great writer.

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Orwells description of poverty during the 1930's is simply brilliant. His look at the life of coal miners in particular is worth purchasing this book. The only weakness to this book is Orwells opinion on socialism which hasn't aged well, although this is understandable due to his concerns of fascism during that era and that socialism at the time wasn't fully understood.

Brilliant insight into the poor of the 1930's

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This classic should be a compulsory read for all teenages. Millennials have no idea about how difficult life was for the generations who struggled before them

Must read for kids

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Wonderfully descriptive visions of life in poverty. A call to arms for armchair socialists.

Delivered with a steady rhythm and poise that kept me hooked. At times I could feel the rage that boiled inside the author while he worked on this, which often spilled over into rants that made me laugh out loud.

Brilliant, hilarious, poetic, venomous

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This is a brutal insight into what working class people in england had to face and it is shocking. It is beautifully written too.

amazing insight into 1930s england

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Was a little concerned that I'd struggle with this but found the first half absolutely absorbing and second half immensely interesting. Even if you tend to stick to modern literature... give this a go.

Had Reservations About Buying This But No Regrets.

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