Down and Out in Paris and London

Written based upon his real-life experience as a scullery worker in a Paris hotel and a tramp in London, George Orwell's recounting of the stories of the impecunious stands alone in its authenticity of the content and veritability of the experiences The substantiality of poverty was boredom and inconvenience, according to Orwell because poverty freed people from standard s of ordinary behaviors. Nevertheless, this book is not a book of socialist manifesto that urges the impecunious to revolt against the establishment, nor a pamphlet for advocating the right s thereof. It's an investigative report on the people on the lowest and/or lower rungs of a social ladder Orwell hoped that his readers would at least change their acerbic views on the low and the lowest because their situations were created through no fault of their own or voluntarily. And I hope there will be more like this book in our time.

Orwell describes his struggle to survive in Paris during the Depression in succinct and moving language. In London he again explains the way he, along with many other homeless men, were able to keep body and soul together in difficult times. His failure to explain why a young man educated at Eton and from a well-off family would put himself through these horrors is, I think, a weakness and makes one wonder how much of his story is fiction.

Who'd have thought an author of such distinction would have spent a portion of his life in such abject poverty--and then turned the episode into such a fine little book?
This is a more direct explanation of Orwell's thoughts on class and economics than anything to be found in his fiction.

The quality of the print could be a little better, but really i dint care of how i was reading it was a question of What. And this book is fantastic, there is just something on the way Orwell writes,. Truly one of the greatest authors of twentieth century.

This is a great work of Orwell, that was essentially "Lost", until recently. I really enjoyed reading about his experience fighting for the republic in the Spanish civil war. Orwell was a Socialist who really believed in equality. He lived among the working classes of England, and unlike modern Socialist elites who live like the "one percenters" that they say they loathe, Orwell actually practiced what he preached. "The Road to Wiggan Pier" is another great book written in the early 1930's for those Orwell fans who want to know more about his time living with coal miners.

When I read tthis book the first time several years ago, I thought it was among the best I had ever read. Now, upon re-reading this quasi-journalistic account of Orwell's trysts with poverty and destitution, I still feel that it is quite up there as one of my most memorable reads, but I was slightly uncomfortable with the anti semitic messaging. Nevertheless - I am assuming that Orwell must have reflected upon this during the war that followed not long after he wrote the book - it contains some very memorable lines, such as the one noting that one has gone to the dogs and one can stand it, and that there is a relief in knowing oneself genuinely down and out.

I think the second part on tramping was a bit of a drag compared to the first. Overall, a great read.

If you think that without leaders...fascist or socialist the state will fall to anarchy and chaos, you need to read this. Written by Orwell between 1936 to 38 during the Spain's civil war while he is in the trenches, a vivid account of how people really worked together. Rather than the chaos the the propaganda spoke of, you'll start to see the the lies of the main stream media in America today.

If you think that without leaders...fascist or socialist the state will fall to anarchy and chaos, you need to read this. Written by Orwell between 1936 to 38 during the Spain's civil war while he is in the trenches, a vivid account of how people really worked together. Rather than the chaos the the propaganda spoke of, you'll start to see the the lies of the main stream media in America today.

Orwell comes in with his characteristic ability to observe and remark without grandiloquence or excess. A quick, light-hearted read that delves into larger issues of poverty -- its message remaining just as relevant today.

Working for food scraps from the kitchens of restaurants during the great depression and other lessons about "the more you pay for food, the more you are sure it has been miss-handled by disgruntled kitchen employees!"

LOVE this book, but the Kindle edition is full of scanning errors. Many French words are simply wrong. Be warned. A friend bought this for me, but frankly any ebook for sale should be copyedited and proofread. It's a crime. I still have to buy the paperback if I ever want to know the real words Orwell actually used.

Something my fellow reviewers do NOT seem to have noticed is that this is a work of FICTION. Look for the word on the binding of your copy of the book. I have no doubt that Eric Blair, who changed his name to George Orwell when he wrote this book in order not to be discovered by his parents and friends, did have some brushes with the sort of life he describes. But how much of this are we to believe actually happened?
The problem with Mr. Blair's work is that it is tendentious. There are any number of novels out there that include heart-rending accounts of the life of the poor during this era, try Somerset Maugham's Of Human bondage, for instance. But the polemic chapters at the end on word usage and societal change reveal the raison d'etre for this book. I wish Mr. Blair could have written a straightforward essay instead of this not very gripping account of slumming it around Dickens' two cities. In doing so, he exhibits the trait that he censures other writers for so severely in his later years, pretentious rot.

I should have checked the reviews. The Harcourt version, selling for USD 8.03 had a review by D. Escott, I should have read it. Unfortunately, I did not.
Here is my review that supports his:
Orwell is a great writer and Down and Out is very interesting.
Unfortunately, this edition is ruined by replacing every 'bad' word with -- -- two hyphens. If I had known this I would not have bought this edition. There is a chapter where Orwell is talking about profanity and the reader has no idea what words he is talking about. I just finished the book and today was in a bookstore and looked at a Penguin edition. The 'bad' words were in the book.
So I would recommend that anyone looking for Down and Out in London and Paris check that the book has not been sanitized.
I'm going to write to the publisher about this. I think it is deceptive to be selling a book without clear upfront warnings that it has been 'cleaned up'.
Sorry, at this point I can't recommend another edition since the 'samples' are all at the beginning of the book and the expunged parts are toward the back of the book.

I want to thank the store, they very graciously gave me a refund which I will use to buy a different version of the book. Orwell is certainly worth a re-read.
-chas.t

This was a surprisingly rich read, for me.

The book is, first, well written and easy to read, with a straightforward, intelligent narrative that fits the quasi-fictional material. It doesn't come off as dated, or with obsolete language, either; even Mr. Orwell's sly wit remains intact for the modern reader. That said, this is not your typical work of fiction, neither in nature nor in style, for much of the text is dictated in an explanatory, lecturing manner, with the narrator's story taking a backseat to the none-too-subtle accounts of the author's real-world experiences. But, know how to read it, and the book is rich and enjoyable, all the same.

As for content, 'Down' has much going for it, however irregular its presentation. The overt, literary story is satisfying enough (if a bit perfunctory and one-dimensional), but the real substance lies in the book's value as a human study. Through its depictions of various "down and out" niches of early-20th-century urban life, the book explores a broad expanse of the human experience, from keen sociological- and psychological observations, to trademark Orwellian metaphysical musings, to a biographical diorama of timelessly unique individuals, all posed in the gentle tones of quasi-fiction (and with no small amount of humor, too). If nothing else, the text stands as an excellent, informed inquiry into the very phenomenon of vagrancy and its motives, as seen through the prism of two cities in the grip of post-Victorian residue. In short, there is much true, practical knowledge to be found here, even if its anecdotal nature falls short of academic standards (or, perhaps _because_ of this very fact; subjective viewpoint can be the difference between actual wisdom and mere data, as it were).

My sincere, posthumous thanks goes out to this book's author and publisher. I am grateful for, and have benefited from, your work and service.

* * *
Some notable quotes from 'Down and Out in Paris and London':

"The Paris slums are a gathering-place for eccentric people -- people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent. Poverty frees them from ordinary standards of behaviour, just as money frees people from work." -- p.7

"And there is another feeling that is a great consolation in poverty. [...] It is a feeling of relief, almost pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs -- and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety." -- p.20-21

"Roughly speaking, the more one pays for food, the more sweat and spittle one is obliged to eat with it. [...] The hotel employee is too busy getting food ready to remember that it is meant to be eaten." -- p.80

"Work in the hotel taught me the true value of sleep, just as being hungry had taught me the true value of food. Sleep had ceased to be a mere physical necessity; it was something voluptuous, a debauch more than a relief." -- p.92

"'It seems to me that when you take a man's money away he's fit for nothing from that moment.' 'No, not necessarily. [...] You just got to say to yourself, "I'm a free man in _here_"' -- he tapped his forehead -- 'and you're all right.'" -- p.165

"It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level." -- p.181

Obviously more famous for his two seminal works, so well-known they need not be identified here, Orwell’s other work remained a bit of a mystery to me. I approached DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON with some trepidation. Was Orwell a two-hit wonder, or were there signs of brilliance right from the get go?

I need not have worried. DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON was an excellent read, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. His first book, Orwell takes us into the world of poverty in the two cities, in the back alleys, the rooms rented for a pittance, and the restaurant jobs that barely kept him going.

The most striking thing about the book is the unbelievably blunt harshness of poverty in the day and age it was written. Here in the States at the beginning of 2018, in which large numbers of those classified as poor have cars, microwave ovens, and television sets, the book jars the reader over and over again with its descriptions of people truly on the edge of survival, literally on the brink of starvation. This is paralleled with sleeping accommodations consistently unwashed and filled with bugs, bathing facilities of dirty water, food of the most meager and non-nutritious. The entire world of these poor souls is almost filled with nothing but misery.

Also striking for its inconsistency with present times is the extraordinary lengths people will go to get any job, no matter how lowly or demeaning. The mere possibility of working on the lowest rung of the ladder at a vermin infested hotel is enough to fill Orwell, and we may presume others in his position, with the happiness of hope. This happiness is tightened by the fragility of such jobs, which may disappear in a moment, with no Plan B for back up.

The one thing that prevents Orwell’s book from devolving into a psychologically hopeless ruin is the companionship of others. Yes, they had to watch their belongings at every moment for the companion who turns out to be a thief. But other than that, there is much to be said of the companionship of one’s fellow man (though, as Orwell noted near the end, not of a woman) to make it through hard times.

Like a photograph from a bygone era, DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON is useful, it would seem, more for historical understanding than to glean any insight into our modern day and age. Still, for that photograph, or better yet, travelogue, into yesteryear, it is an exceptional work of art.

Barbara Ehrenreich wrote the subject titled classic, with the subtitle of “Not getting by in America.” For a year, she attempted to join the subclass of working Americans, mainly women, who are the waitresses and maids that are barely scratching out an existence in America. She admitted though, that she truly did not join the class, maintaining, for example, health insurance in case the need arose; something the subclass did not have as a backup. George Orwell, of 1984 (Signet Classics),[ [ASIN:0451526341 Animal Farm: Anniversary Edition]], ,Burmese Days: A Novel) fame, as well as others, truly was in the ranks of an even lower class, who would routinely go without food for periods of time, living on the very fringes of society, in the early 1930’s. He never mentions the phrase “The Great Depression.” It was simply the life of the time. He provides a graphic, realistic portrait of that existence, without any backup “safety nets.”

The first half relates his time in Paris. He links up with Russian exiles, like Boris, who were obviously on the “White” side in the Russian civil war, which followed the Revolution. Orwell must pawn most of his clothes, as well as all other items of any value, always hoping to score some sort of menial job. Boris and he do succeed in becoming “plongeurs” (literally dishwashers, but also including all the other lowly duties of a “bus boy.”) It is a scathing portrait of life in the cellars of the “grand” hotels, and should make anyone who plunks down the big francs to stay there take pause at the descriptions of the filth out of which those fancy meals arrive at their tables. It is a life of constant work, 18 or so hours a day. The hotel staff is extremely hierarchical, with rituals and demarcations that define one’s “level.” Orwell also describes their “recreation,” the getting drunk on Saturday nights. Without any economic clot, they are the “prey” of virtually all others, being cheated this way and that, in the fashion of the “Pay Day” loan sharks of today.

The author provides an excellent final chapter on his Parisian section which compares the “plongeurs” life with slavery. A couple incisive observations: “Essentially, a ‘smart’ hotel is a place where a hundred people toil like devils in order that two hundred may pay through the nose for things they do not really want. If the nonsense were cut out of hotels and restaurants, and the work done with simple efficiency, “plongeurs” might work six to eight hours a day instead of ten or fifteen.” And: “I believe that this instinct to perpetuate useless work is, at bottom, simply fear of the mob.”

Orwell decides to go back to England, and obtains a “patient caregiver” job… but it turns out it is 30 days in the future. He must survive that month, and adopts the life of a “tramp,” moving from “spike” to “spike” which are homeless shelters, each with its unique rules and “character,” but generally only offering one night accommodation, which cannot be repeated… thus, enforcing constant movement on the destitute class, hence “tramp.” Many tramps are scouring the pavements for cigarette butts, and subsist on a diet of bread and margarine. Tens of thousands are in constant movement. Orwell provides sketches of a few fellow tramps, who are all men, and without any “prospects” for female companionship.
As he did with his Paris section, he provides an objective, analytical summation of the overall meaning of having such a class of people in society, and how they are regulated. The most haunting assessment, after reading two hundred pages on the life of the down and out, is: “At present I do not feel I have seen more than the fringe of poverty.” For those summation sections, Orwell deserves a “plus” onto the 5-stars.

This book makes for spectacular reading, and it provides both entertainment and insight about what it was like for a young writer-to be to live at the bottom of society in 1920s Paris and London. Orwell wrote this book when he was still undiscovered country, publishing wise; he was legally still Eric Blair, and his byline for personal identification on the title page of the book was "X". Yet his narrative of what it was like to labor in Paris kitchens as a plongeur (dishwasher) and his reminiscences of what it was like to spend nights in a doss house outside London and beg for sustenance on the cold streets are indeed memorable. Read this book once and you will never forget its characters. You will never again turn your back on a homeless man or woman, camping out on a hot air vent. You will become human again. You will remember what and who you are, and your connection to the much-less fortunate around you.

I agree with Corinna; the proofreading is slapdash and repetitive, depending on the intended words. Example: "Us" is substituted for either "his" or "the," take your pick. I admit I've seen worse proofreading of other editions of different titles. Still, it is annoying. Fortunately the copy I read was purchased by our local library so it only cost me time and patience.
It's a shame that Will Jonson makes reading 'Down and Out in Paris and London' so frustrating, as it is an important and engaging work by Orwell, and anyone who wants to learn intimate details of Orwell's earlier, desperate years in the man's own words should read 'Down and Out n Paris and London,' only treat yourself to a different edition! You will be glad you did.
DO NOT WASTE MONEY ON WILL JONSON's EDITION.