There is a sentence in the essay of Geoge Orwell, Such Such Joy, which I don't know. If anyone who knows, please tell me, thank you! The sentence is 'There never was, I suppose, in the history of the world a time when the sheer vulgar fatness of wealth, without any kind of aristocratic elegance to redeem it, was so obtrusive as in those years before 1914. ' What I don't understand is what does 'the sheer vulgar fatness of wealth' means? Dit the writer means an attitude towards weath wich is sheer vulgar? What does this 'fatness' means?

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Orwell, a brilliant writer, used "the sheer vulgar fatness of wealth" as metonymy to represent an aspect of wealth that was very unattractive and indulgent during a period of time before 1914.  The time period that he referenced was the one before the start of WWI which, I am convinced, has significance therein.

In context, he mentions that the absence of aristocratic elegance, meaning the absence of the elements of refined behavior associated with nobility, was so "obtrusive" (intrusive in an unwelcomed way) and prevalent during those aforementioned years.

Orwell's intent was to highlight an ugly aspect of overindulgent wealth.  Historically,  "fatness" or "obesity" has often been used as a biased description for extreme wealth.  Caricaturas have depicted this bias of $$$.

Answer

"The sheer vulgar fatness of wealth"

Meaning the  absolute or the total of wealth, which is vulgar, meaning disgusting or offensive

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