The Road to Wigan Pier

Author Name: George Orwell

Commissioned by the Left Book Club, Orwell took up his pen and papers and went to the north of England, where there were many factories and coal mines, and settled in the town of Wigan. He lived in a rented house with four workers and the landlords.
He descended into the depths of the mines to write honestly and from experience about the hardships and dangers workers endure in a hellish scene with its heat, darkness, and polluted air, in addition to the danger of collapses and gas explosions. He also describes the misery of the houses inhabited by the working class, which offer no protection from winter rain and cold, and are infested with insects and flies in summer, and speaks of the worker's meager income which is barely enough to keep body and soul together.
In the second part of the novel, Orwell exposes the realities of industrial capitalism that exploit workers' blood and attacks machines that will one day replace humans. He sheds light on the socialist movement in Britain and how socialists misused it, and senses the danger of fascism and Nazism, calling for a democratic alliance of workers, teachers, journalists, and employees to confront the coming destruction.