Over the years the American writer Emma Larkin has spent traveling in Burma, she's come to know all too well the many ways this brutal police state can be described as "Orwellian." The life of the mind exists in a state of siege in Burma, and it long has. But Burma's connection to George Orwell is not merely metaphorical; it is much deeper and more real. Orwell's mother was born in Burma, at the height of the British raj, and Orwell was fundamentally shaped by his experiences in Burma as a young man working for the British ...
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Over the years the American writer Emma Larkin has spent traveling in Burma, she's come to know all too well the many ways this brutal police state can be described as "Orwellian." The life of the mind exists in a state of siege in Burma, and it long has. But Burma's connection to George Orwell is not merely metaphorical; it is much deeper and more real. Orwell's mother was born in Burma, at the height of the British raj, and Orwell was fundamentally shaped by his experiences in Burma as a young man working for the British Imperial Police. When Orwell died, the novel-in-progress on his desk was set in Burma. It is the place George Orwell's work holds in Burma today, however, that most struck Emma Larkin. She was frequently told by Burmese acquaintances that Orwell did not write one book about their country--his first novel, "Burmese Days"--but in fact he wrote three, the "trilogy" that included "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four." When Larkin quietly asked one Burmese intellectual if he knew the work of George Orwell, he stared blankly for a moment and then said, "Ah, you mean the prophet!" In one of the most intrepid political travelogues in recent memory, Emma Larkin tells of the year she spent traveling through Burma using the life and work of George Orwell as her compass. Going from Mandalay and Rangoon to poor delta backwaters and up to the old hill-station towns in the mountains of Burma's far north, Larkin visits the places where Orwell worked and lived, and the places his books live still. She brings to vivid life a country and a people cut off from the rest of the world, and from one another, by the ruling military junta and its vast network of spies and informers. Using Orwell enables her to show, effortlessly, the weight of the colonial experience on Burma today, the ghosts of which are invisible and everywhere. More important, she finds that the path she charts leads her to the people who have found ways to somehow resist the soul-crushing effects of life in this most cruel police state. And George Orwell's moral clarity, hatred of injustice, and keen powers of observation serve as the author's compass in another sense too: they are qualities she shares and they suffuse her book--the keenest and finest reckoning with life in this police state that has yet been written. A brave and revelatory reconnaissance of modern Burma, one of the world's grimmest and most shuttered police states, using as its compass the life and work of George Orwell, the man many in Burma call simply "the prophet"
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Very Good condition. Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.
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Good. Good condition. Good dust jacket. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains.
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Good. Hardcover This item shows wear from consistent use but remains in good readable condition. It may have marks on or in it, and may show other signs of previous use or shelf wear. May have minor creases or signs of wear on dust jacket. Packed with care, shipped promptly.
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Very Good in Unclipped, unchipped, and immacu jacket. Stated "First American Edition; " first printing; 294 p., immaculate and unmarked; binding firm; boards pristine.
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Very Good in Very Good jacket. Size: 5x1x8; Penguin, 2005; first American edition, with full number line; 294pp. Binding is tight, sturdy, and square; boards also very good; titling remains bright and bold. Ends of spine bumped. Wear to jacket is very minor. Interior is free of markings. Ships same or next day from Dinkytown, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Very Good+ Very Good+ Dust Jacket. Size: 5x1x8; Stated First American Edition published in 2005 with full number line. Very good+ hardcover with a very good+ DJ, from a personal collection (NOT ex-library). Binding is tight, sturdy, and square; very minimal wear to two tone dark blue/light blue boards; silver gilt titling on spine remains bright and bold. Text is very good throughout. Interior appears free of markings. Unclipped dust jacket ($22.95) is very good with very minimal shelfwear. Ships from Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Like New in Like New jacket. An exceptional hardcover with a crisp dust jacket, a tight binding and an unmarked text. First edition, with a full number line. From a private smoke free collection. Shipping within 24 hours, tracking number and delivery Confirmation.
