Honest and evocative, George Orwell's first novel is an examination of the debasing effect of empire on occupied and occupier. Burmese Days focuses on a handful of Englishmen who meet at the European Club to drink whisky and to alleviate the acute and unspoken loneliness of life in 1920s Burma where Orwell himself served as an imperial policeman during the waning days of British imperialism. One of the men, James Flory, a timber merchant, has grown...

Ashley and Trevor's families own rival lumber mills, so they try to deny their forbidden attraction as the years pass, but when Trevor enters a senatorial race, her family vows to bring him down, and their passion may meet a tragic end.