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Down and Out in Paris and London

by George Orwell
Down and Out in Paris and London

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780156262248
ISBN10: 015626224X
Condition: Standard


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Staff Pick

Long before Animal Farm and 1984, George Orwell wrote about a time in his life when he was alternately barely scraping by and penniless. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting a book about poverty to be so enjoyable to read, but the author’s animated writing style had me racing through his (mostly true) memoir. From 1929 to 1931, Orwell ventured deep into the squalor of two very glamorous cities, revealing the appalling working conditions of a dishwasher in Paris and the realities of life as a tramp in London. Serving as both a relic of its time and an enduring reminder of the trappings of class systems, Down and Out interweaves scathing social commentary with candid firsthand accounts of what hunger and poverty can do to a person. Recommended By Renee P., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

In this highly regarded work, famous for its realistic and unsentimental description of poverty, Orwell narrates the adventures of a penniless British writer who finds himself rapidly descending into the seedy heart of two great European capitals. As a dishwasher in Paris, he describes in vivid detail the horrors of what goes on behind the scenes in the kitchens of posh French restaurants. In London, he encounters the disturbing world of street people and charitable shelters. His adventures conning landlords and negotiating with pawnshops as he searches for work, food, and lodging are told with occasional humor and a clarity that teaches some sobering Orwellian truths about poverty and society.

Review

"In Paris Orwell was trying to write fiction, but what survived is a marvellous, hallucinated essay on the life of a dishwasher. [An] engrossing, cheerful, steely look at the edge of starvation — Orwell's own starvation..." Andrew Moss, Hungry Mind Review

Review

"An excellent work." The New York Times Book Review

Review

"While he experienced fully the sordid realities of his time, [Orwell] remained miraculously uncontaminated....The book is a very graphic piece of reportage and wryly amusing." The Atlantic Monthly

Synopsis

This unusual fictional account, in good part autobiographical, narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-out of two great cities. In the tales of both cities we learn some sobering Orwellian truths about poverty and society.

About the Author

George Orwell was born Eric Blair in 1903 in India. He served with the Imperial Police in Burma and worked variously as a dishwasher, teacher, and bookseller before joining the Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. A member of the Home Guard during World War II as well as a writer for the BBC, he later became a correspondent for the London Observer. Orwell was the author of six novels as well as numerous essays and nonfiction works. He died in 1950.

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Average customer rating 4.3 (4 comments)

`
seanh78 , May 08, 2013 (view all comments by seanh78)
I'd assumed this was a roman a clef about Orwell's lean college years where he took some humorously terrible jobs. In fact, this is a rather harrowing account of restaurant life(in Paris) before labor laws, health inspections or social safety nets, and (in London) the life of beggars and transients in the early days of workhouses and bare bones shelters. The first half of the book will be a terrible revelation to anyone shocked by "Kitchen Confidential" or "Waiter Rant," as you won't find restaurants in the civilized world operating in any way similar to what Orwell describes (one hopes). No restaurant job anybody reading this has had in the free world could be worse. It might put an end to any lofty Lost Generation fantasies you might have about fine dining with Stein and Hemingway in 1920s Paris. Orwell's account of homelessness and observations of the perceptions of the homeless are startingly modern. I can't think of much that has changed for the better in the 80 years since he wrote about it: not in the way homeless people actually live nor in the way they are perceived. Though I'm giving the book a great rating, it's not without its flaws. It lacks a narrative voice or structure, and consequently it often reads like a laundry list of experiences rather than a cohesive story. Orwell also shares the early 20th Century writer's fascination with race and ethnicity. This is a great read for anyone who has worked in the margins or found themselves at the bottom of the totem pole.

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egogrif , February 21, 2011 (view all comments by egogrif)
I started reading a battered little copy of this book when I couldn't find anything else lying around to read. Once I picked it up, I couldn't stop. It's very real and gritty, the sort of story you don't think you want to hear but can't stop listening to, the same way you might ogle in fascination at a train wreck. The author, quasi-autobiographically, plunges deeper and deeper into the ruined fringes of the civilized world, barely scraping together a living, describing every dreck and dive in intimate detail until you feel like you need to go take a shower. (It helped that my own copy was so dusty.) Yet no matter how pathetic his plight becomes, there is always the slightest tinge of humor, the hope that rock bottom has been hit at last. A memorable story; I don't think I will easily eat in a Parisian restaurant after reading this book!

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megcampbell3 , February 23, 2008 (view all comments by megcampbell3)
Read the first half (down and out in Paris) of "Down and Out in Paris and London" in your favorite café or restaurant, and you might lose your appetite. Read the second half (down and out in London) on an empty stomach, and you might be better able to relate to the day in, day out hunger chronicled therein. This short read is labeled a novel, though it truly seems more an accounting, a diary—or a memoir of a time of extreme poverty in Orwell's own life. I would not call his portrait of those times "Orwellian", as its publisher, Harvest, does. Rather, as an avid reader and thrice-read student of "1984" ("'Oranges and lemons,' say the bells of St. Clemens…"), I was pleasantly surprised by the comme ci, comme ca position of the book's narrator, which comes through both in its obvious resentment of poverty's conditions and in its powerfully retained joy for living. It is this very mixture that allows the novel to read as if Orwell has laid his head on the pillow next to yours and is telling you, just you, this (unfortunately) timeless story. A mellow, marvelous piece of writing.

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Jeane , January 26, 2008 (view all comments by Jeane)
This is a detailed account of living in poverty in Paris and London. The narrator, an impoverished writer, describes his experiences living in Paris as a dishwasher for a posh French restaurant, and wandering the streets of London usually homeless, searching for lodging and food, consorting with pawnshops, sleeping in charity shelters, rubbing shoulders with bag ladies and tramps. His descriptions of what goes on in the bowels of the French hotel where the restaurant food is prepared are nauseating. The attitudes of British law towards vagrants was appalling. Mostly the book described pure misery and frustration trying to live without stable income and thus, a proper roof over one's head. In spite of how depressing it is, this remains one of my favorites of Orwell's books. It's a very engaging read.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780156262248
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
03/15/1972
Publisher:
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT
Pages:
224
Height:
.60IN
Width:
5.34IN
Thickness:
.50
Age Range:
14 and up
Grade Range:
9 and up
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
1972
UPC Code:
2800156262240
Author:
George Orwell
Subject:
Poor
Subject:
British and irish
Subject:
Tramps
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Subject:
London
Subject:
Tramps - France - Paris
Subject:
British and irish fiction (fictional works by
Subject:
England
Subject:
Tramps -- England -- London.
Subject:
Paris
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Autobiographical fiction
Subject:
Authors
Subject:
Unemployed

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