The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

First published: 1937

Type of work: History/essays

Time of work: The 1930’s

Form and Content

For most countries the Great Depression began following the New York stock market crash of 1929. In Great Britain, the Depression merely worsened an already depressed economy that had been hard hit by the consequences of World War I. Between mid-1922 and 1929, the British economy had lurched from one crisis to another, with almost one-fifth of the adult male working force being on welfare (the dole) by 1929. Following the American stock market crash, the situation worsened, especially in northern England, the heart of British heavy industrial strength, where unemployment soon reached the one-third mark. Faced with an economic catastrophe of unparalleled magnitude, British politicians were unable to adopt measures which might have dealt humanely with the misery. Many intellectuals of the period, having lost faith in the political parties of the day, turned to socialism or to Marxism for cures to their country’s economic maladies.

One group, the Left Book Club, provided its forty thousand subscribers with a monthly book whose aim was “to help in the terribly urgent struggle for World Peace & a better social & economic order & against Fascism, by giving . . . such knowledge as will immensely increase their efficiency.” Coeditors Victor Gollancz, Harold Laski, and John Strachey commissioned authors to write works suitable to this task. One of the authors selected was George Orwell, then considered to be a developing voice for socialism. What the editors envisioned was a work in the tradition of Friedrich Engels’ Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England (1845; The Condition of the Working Classes in England in 1844, 1887) or Charles Booth’s Life and Labour of the People in London (1891-1903). What the editors received was not quite what they had anticipated.

Orwell was asked in January of 1936 to make a study of the unemployed in depressed areas of northern England. Over the following two months, he visited Coventry, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Wigan, Sheffield, and Leeds, among others. Living with the people about whom he was to write, Orwell kept an extensive diary of observations. Upon his return, he transformed these observations into an intimate and illuminating account of the poverty, squalor, and hunger that he had witnessed. Yet his work transcended simple reportage. J.R. Hammond described it as “a social document of enduring worth . . . which is now acknowledged as a classic of the genre and as one of the seminal works of the inter-war years.”

In part 1 of The Road to Wigan Pier, the literary genius which served Orwell well in later works such as Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) is amply demonstrated. In seven essays, Orwell describes his reactions to working-class life in northern England. Through Orwell, the reader can live and feel the pain, the suffering, and the hopelessness that the working class was enduring. Victor Gollancz wrote in his introduction to the work, “For myself, it is a long time since I have read so living a book, or one so full of a burning indignation against poverty and oppression.” What Gollancz and his colleagues did not enjoy was Orwell’s part 2, which is of a length equal to that of part 1. The six essays of this section are a passionate appeal for a less theoretical and a more human form of socialism than that espoused by many intellectual socialists.

To the credit of the Left Book Club, the book was published, although Gollancz did include a foreword which noted that he would like to argue with “over a hundred minor passages” in part 2. Since its initial publication, the book, in full or abridged form, has rarely been out of print. Despite its unevenness, the book is recognized as one of the most significant social documents of the Depression era in Great Britain. Its call for a humane solution to human misery is one that affects every generation.

Critical Context

The Road to Wigan Pier is a graphic, compelling account of George Orwell’s visit to Lancashire and Yorkshire during the depths of the Great Depression in England. In it he also attempts to sketch a solution to the misery that he both witnessed and felt. The book itself was a pivotal work for him as many of the ideas and ideals which he had been developing in earlier works such as Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) and Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) emerged clearly and powerfully in The Road to Wigan Pier. Moreover, despite some flaws, its style is far superior to that of his earlier efforts, and the work adumbrates the classics which he was later to write.

Orwell’s political maturation is evident in The Road to Wigan Pier. From his autobiographical sketch in chapter 9 and from other biographies it is evident that Orwell, from a very early age, resented the class and caste barriers of his society. He was a deeply caring and idealistic humanitarian who viewed socialism as the only cure for a malaise-ridden industrial society. He greatly feared totalitarianism and believed that only socialism provided an alternative. The Road to Wigan Pier was clearly a watershed work for him, for it states clearly and forcefully that which he had only hinted in earlier works. Following it, he was a writer with a mission. The themes of dozens of essays, plays, and novels during the remaining years of his writing career reflect the conclusions reached in this seminal work.

While The Road to Wigan Pier is an example of political maturity which eventually resulted in modern classics such as Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four, it was also a crucial work in the development of Orwell’s writing style. Had he been content merely to cite and document his travels, the book would hardly have been memorable. His greatest ambition was to become a successful writer, and his earlier works demonstrate his efforts to discover a writing style which best suited him. With The Road to Wigan Pier he found his style. It was to be honest and straightforward, yet feeling and interpretive. His word pictures do not mask the appalling, nor do his polemics fail for lack of force. Orwell vented his passion on the printed page, and he continued to do so throughout the rest of his all too brief lifetime.

Bibliography

Atkins, John. George Orwell: A Literary and Biographical Study, 1971 (revised edition).

Crick, Bernard. George Orwell: A Life, 1980.

Hammond, J.R. A George Orwell Companion: A Guide to the Novels, Documentaries, and Essays, 1982.

Hoggart, Richard. “George Orwell and The Road to Wigan Pier,” in Critical Quarterly. VII (1965), pp. 72-85.

Meyers, Jeffrey. A Reader’s Guide to George Orwell, 1975.

Stansky, Peter, and William Abrahams. Orwell: The Transformation, 1979.

Woodcock, George. The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell, 1966.

Zwerdling, Alex. Orwell and the Left, 1974.