- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classic; New edition edition (Jan 1 1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140182306
- ISBN-13: 978-0140182309
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #530,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
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What was a nice Eton boy like Eric Blair doing in scummy slums instead of being upwardly mobile at Oxford or Cambridge? Living Down and Out in Paris and London, repudiating respectable imperialist society, and reinventing himself as George Orwell. His 1933 debut book (ostensibly a novel, but overwhelmingly autobiographical) was rejected by that elitist publisher T.S. Eliot, perhaps because its close-up portrait of lowlife was too pungent for comfort.
In Paris, Orwell lived in verminous rooms and washed dishes at the overpriced "Hotel X," in a remarkably filthy, 110-degree kitchen. He met "eccentric people--people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent." Though Orwell's tone is that of an outraged reformer, it's surprising how entertaining many of his adventures are: gnawing poverty only enlivens the imagination, and the wild characters he met often swindled each other and themselves. The wackiest tale involves a miser who ate cats, wore newspapers for underwear, invested 6,000 francs in cocaine, and hid it in a face-powder tin when the cops raided. They had to free him, because the apparently controlled substance turned out to be face powder instead of cocaine.
In London, Orwell studied begging with a crippled expert named Bozo, a great storyteller and philosopher. Orwell devotes a chapter to the fine points of London guttersnipe slang. Years later, he would put his lexical bent to work by inventing Newspeak, and draw on his down-and-out experience to evoke the plight of the Proles in 1984. Though marred by hints of unexamined anti-Semitism, Orwell's debut remains, as The Nation put it, "the most lucid portrait of poverty in the English language." --Tim Appelo --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
"...an excellent work of its kind... a model of the realistic approach." New York Times Book Review
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
The Rue Du Coq d'Or, Paris, seven in the morning. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The Rue Du Coq d'Or, Paris, seven in the morning. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A tale of poverty,
By
This review is from: Down and Out in Paris and London (Paperback)
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell is an incredible story about poverty. Orwell describes the experiences of being out of work, then of working as a plongeur (a dish washer - one of the lowest jobs imaginable) in Paris, and of becoming a tramp in London. Orwell writes beautifully with humour and describes each of the experiences with great details while maintaining the reader's interest. This novel is about poverty, but if you are looking for a story with a proper plot, then this in not the book for you.The novel is written in first person, yet the protagonist is never named. This story is thought to include many events from Orwell's life. Orwell's stories are magnificent and are those that I always recall because they can be related to the real world. The protagonist is an Englishman whose money is one day stolen, and as an English teacher, he is left without work because he no longer has any students. The little money he has left is getting spent too quickly, and each day he has less and less. He contacts the only man he seems to know in Paris, and finds that he is, unfortunately, in the same situation - almost penniless and without work. Work is terribly difficult to find. The lodging houses are uncomfortable to sleep in for the night. How does the Englishman deal with poverty? It is a sad tale that makes you feel grateful that you have a roof above your head; are not forced to eat bread, margarine, and tea as your only meals; and never have to starve yourself for days at a time if you are ever left penniless. It is shocking to see how far vagabonds traveled just for free tea or food. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: I believe one of the main points of this work was to emphasise that poverty is a cycle that likely will not come to an end unless the government steps in and does something productive with the tramps. The last paragraph states all that the protagonist learned throughout the tale: "I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant." (213) Even after his tale, the protagonist concludes that he feels he has merely seen the fringes of poverty.
2.0 out of 5 stars
A journey to experience poverty,
By A Customer
This review is from: Down And Out In Paris And London (Audio Cassette)
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell is not as good as Animal Farm or 1984 but it is an informative, realistic look at homeless life in Paris and London. The book makes some very good points about how some people's jobs are slave jobs and only exist because the rich want luxury therefore these jobs are not needed. I think this book moves slower than some of his others because it was his first book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
La Vache Enragée,
By
This review is from: Modern Classics Down And Out In Paris And London (Paperback)
George Orwell, whose real name is Eric Blair, was born in India in 1903. He served in Burma with the Indian Imperial Police and spent the end of the 1920s - as any self-respecting author would've done - living in Paris . Orwell later fought for the Republicans against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. He became well-known following the publication of "Animal Farm" (a satire on Soviet Russia) and died in 1950, shortly after the publication of "1984"."Down and Out in Paris and London" was first published in 1933 and is a largely autobiographical account - though there have been a few tweaks here and there. It covers Orwell's times living on the breadline : working as a plongeur in Paris, being caught out by con-artists and life as a tramp on his return to England. The book was originally called "A Scullion's Diary" and - it would appear - focused only on his days in Paris. After it was rejected a few times, Orwell tried his luck with the stories of his life on the streets in and around London added. To be honest, I find it a pity this happened, as the stories set in Paris are much more readable. While some of the characters we meet - Charlie, for example - are far from admirable, Orwell himself doesn't come out of the book entirely unscathed. His occasional foolishness is forgivable, but his apparent snobbery and insincerity can be a bit hard to take. For example, as the book closes, he comments he'd like to know people like Paddy (a fellow tramp he'd met in England) "intimately". However, on the very same page, the news of Paddy's apparent death is met with barely a shrug of the shoulders : "perhaps my informant was mixing him up with someone else". More honestly, it's clear from how he wrote about Paddy that Orwell considered himself better than his 'mate' and - rather than getting to know him intimately - just didn't care. Recommended with reservations : if you only read two books by George Orwell, make this your third pick.
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