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I didn't care for The Road To Wigan Pier when I read it a couple of years ago, I found the writing style almost condescending or patronising to the people it's focusing on. I think it's probably just a result of the time when it was written rather than an intentional thing, knowing Orwell's politics. Maybe the style just hasn't aged that well, I found Down And Out In Paris And London to have similar issues.
ltc-
I would imagine most people pick up on some of his glaring contradictions and sometimes snobbish hypocrisy. He does address it on a couple of occasions though to be fair to him. I found his writing style pretty maniacal in places, darting off on long winded tirades about the pitfalls of class structure despite being one of the ‘bourgeois’ himself and seemingly proud of it. I found some of his predictions interesting, especially about the rise of Hitler and the prospect of a Second World War in relation to the job crisis and given it was written in 38/39 a very accurate prediction. I think many of his critiques of socialism still hold true today though, especially the damage created to the movement from it being so closely linked and compared to communism. He comes across as a genuinely virtuous and honest character but pained that Britain is too broken to allow Socialism to save the day before the Fascists move on in. Having recently read A Brave New World proved to be timely too, given his numerous comments on it.
LeChef
Absolutely, it really drives it home. It's probably a result of the translation from Russian but the whole book is incredibly cut and dry, and subtlety ruthless, it really gripped me.
@EB Thanks for the recommendation, i'll check it out. I'm plannning on tackling Solzhenitsyn's Gulag archipelago at some point too.
I read The Road To Wigan Pier this week and i thought it was very good. The second part of the book was particularly interesting. It's essentially Orwell's views on why socialism isn't going to work in the UK and why it will ultimately push people into fascism unless the class divides are overcome. There is a great chapter on the socialists obsession with machines and automation, with some eery predictions for future. I would definitely recommend it.
Next up is Greed Is Dead by Paul Collier and John Kay. So far so good.