Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Orwell, George [Eric Blair]. BURMESE DAYS. Harper and Brothers, 1934.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Early work by Orwell bound in fine orange cloth with black lettering on front board. This is a fair only copy of this scarce stated first edition that has seen better days; it is ex private school library with stamp sheet and pocket in rear along with bookplate and blind stamps, boards edged are rubbed through, spine is reinforced in black tape with shelf number and title in whit ink. Though quite "tatty" and read, still holding together and functioning as a case and block. Appears to be complete with 371pp plus 1/2 title, title and blanks.
Seller: Charles Thomas Bookseller, Stratham, NH, U.S.A.
Orwell, George. Burmese Days. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1934.
Price: US$895.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 371 pages. First issue of Orwell's first novel. Cloth soiled and rubbed; spine sunned; edges darkened. Ownership inscription to front pastedown; inked number, and careless erasure resulting in a hole to front free endpaper. Light soil to floral endpapers. Front and rear hinges split to mull: boards a touch loose but binding remains sound. Occasional marginal soil; slight tear top right of p. 203; a third of the first rear endpaper has been torn away. A good (only) unrestored example.
Seller: The Odd Book (ABAC, ILAB), Wolfville, NS, Canada
Orwell, George. Burmese Days. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1934.
Price: US$1350.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Authors first book and exceedinly difficult to find. First printing. Unmarked with faint yellow floral design on endpapers. Orange boards with black lettering. Soiling near bottom of spine stretching slightly onto rear board. Wear at both spine ends but not that bad. Hinge pretty strong but rear hinge starting to separate at rear pasteboard but still webbed and not in danger of separating. Text still supple. Top page edges show dusting and faint dampstain. Jacket is a professionally made facsimile with no flaws that is protected in transparent mylar. Scarce. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Seller: Timothy Norlen Bookseller, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.
Orwell, George. Burmese Days. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1934.
Price: US$3600.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First American edition, first printing. Bound in publisher's original cloth binding with titles printed in black, lacking the dust jacket. Very Good with soiling and foxing to cloth, fading to spine and a small hole at the front spine joint. Light foxing, soiling and wear to textblock edge, pages toned. Orwell's first published novel.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
George Orwell. Burmese Days. John murray, London UK, 1934.
Price: US$11549.39 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First American edition, preceding the British edition by one year of Orwell’s first novel Burmese Days. Ex Libris scarce with dust jacket. Original red orange boards with dust jacket. Minimal wear and bumped corners to the boards. Toned pages with a few marks. The unclipped dust jacket has crude repairs with loss to extremities. Set in Burma during the waning years of the British Empire. 8vo 371pp.
Seller: Rare And Antique Books PBFA, Exeter, DEVON, United Kingdom
Orwell, George. Burmese Days: A Novel by George Orwell.. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1934.
Price: US$35000.00 + shipping
Description: First American edition, preceding the English edition by one year of Orwellâs first novel. Octavo, original publisher's cloth. Signed by the author opposite the title page, "George Orwell." In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box by the Harcourt Bindery. Rare and desirable signed. Burmese Days was first published "further afield," in the United States, because of concerns that it might be potentially libelous; that the real provincial town of Katha had been described too realistically; and that some of its fictional characters were based too closely on identifiable people. After Orwell's agent approached several other publishers, it was released by Harper & Brothers in 1934 in an edition of 2,000 copies. An English edition, with altered names, appeared a year later. Nonetheless, Orwell's harsh portrayal of colonial society was felt by "some old Burma hands" to have "rather let the side down." In a letter from 1946, Orwell wrote, "I dare say it's unfair in some ways and inaccurate in some details, but much of it is simply reporting what I have seen." In 2013, the Burmese Ministry of Information named the new translation of Burmese Days the winner of the 2012 Burma National Literature Award's "informative literature" (translation) category. The National Literary Awards are the highest literary awards in Burma.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.