Product Description

Orwell's record of a period in the late Twenties when he lived among the tramps, dregs and plongeurs of London and Paris. 'It is the white-hot reaction of a sensitive observant, compassionate young man to poverty, injustice and the callousness ofthe rich ... It offers insights rather than solutions; but always insights have to precded solutions .... No one has ever claimed Down and Out is its author's best book, yet many of his admirers describe it as their favourite Orwell. Its flaws are numerous, but oddly endearing.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6628 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
George Orwell, real name Eric Blair, was born in 1903 in Bengal but educated at Eton. He served with the Indian Impreial Poice, and later came to Europe, doing a series of ill-paid jobs which led to his writing DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON. He fought in the Spanish Civl War the the Republicans, but in later years became disillusioned with the aims of Communism, which lead to the writing of his two magnificent political satires Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four. He died in 1950.

Customer Reviews

Poverty and dirt in the 1920�s
One word to describe this book would be "grimy" although that does not convey the wonderful writing style of Orwell- perhaps "almost glamorous grime" would be better. Never have I read such a good book that describes the poverty, dirt and atmosphere of the early twentieth century. The café/hotel culture of Paris and sharing tiny rooms with an assortment of characters in Paris seems to come alive with wit and verve. Similarly the boarding houses and homeless hostels "spikes" in London are gloomier but no less interesting.
Orwell introduces us to many eccentric people without the sexual overstatement that flawed Miller's Tropic Of Cancer- also set in Paris. The detail of the work washing pots and cooking food in the bowels of hotels in France is an eye opener as is the treatment of the homeless in London. Among the day-to-day living Orwell gives us some fascinating facts such as the (lack of) hygiene in the most expensive Parisian restaurants and that there were almost no homeless females in the 1920's.
Orwell's style is always gripping and we can see the beginnings of what he was later to refine further into 1984 and Animal Farm among other works. This is an excellent read that I would recommend to all- it has a wonderful mix of character, style, atmosphere and fact that is irresistible.

Downright outstanding!
My copy of this book is now a sorry, ragged mess.
Thanks to the tireless work of the British comprehensive system, I lacked the prerequisite sociolagy smarts to properly dissect and analyse the dated bi-partisan frictions of Communism and Fascism that so underpin most of Orwell's blah blah blah...
I always hated those dry academic prefaces at the beginning of every Orwell book. Thay always stood - like a pompous party bore - between me and another one of Mr Orwell's frank and funny guide books to that long vanished world of his.
And by God, what a bloody awful place it was!
Desperate poverty, grinding unemployment, a gloomy pecking order of class riddled britons - many of them hoping for a war - just to relieve the monotony and stagnation of their society.
Hardly your average Dean Koontz.
But the thing that always had me wanting to barge past that pedagogic party bore and hurry away into that poor, battered book - was Orwell's voice. How simply and beautifully he brought to life those long-gone people who populated that prosperity-free period - Boris the crippled waiter, Bozo the street screever (pavement artist to you and I) even Paddy - the self pitying Irishman, too cowardly with hunger to steal a bottle of milk from a step.
It wasn't long before I too could feel the rock-hard convex mattress that Orwell clung onto in some flea-pit Doss House.
And surely I could almost hear the drunken murmur of a Parisian bar, as Orwell and his fellow denizen dishwashers settled in for another night's conference - courtesy of the coarse African wine.
But I've rattled on long enough.
The upshot is: that the myriad of Orwell snobs out there will tell you that this is: 'a technically flawed piece' or: ' a work full of oddly endearing flaws'.
Flaws? What bloody flaws? Where? Show them to me!
Don't listen to that tosh. Buy this book. Be transported through time. Laugh with shocked disbelief - yes laugh - at the horror of it all - safe in the comfort of your 21st century - because none of these blokes tell you how funny Orwell is!
Not many of those literary Larrys ever bother to describe the wonderful way that Orwell brings such comic irony and razor-sharp observation to those people and the abominable social situations that he and his tramping companions had to gamely and bravely struggle through.
I guarantee that if you fall sway to my rantings and buy this book, you will soon possess a sorry, ragged mess of your own.
Or you could always buy the latest Dean Koontz...

Orwell at his best
An amazing book, in that it is essentially about nothing; no goals, no life changing discoveries, just a depiction of the daily grind for those who have nothing to do but survive. But Orwell's simplistic, captivating, affecting prose never fails to draw a wry smile, and I guarantee that you will be entranced by this powerful book.

It left me feeling like I knew myself better, and while London has changed a fair bit in the past 70 years, whilst sat on the tube I couldn't help but observe how little *people* have really changed since then. And, if nothing else, it made me realise that even in those moments of student squalor when I afford myself the most self-pity, I really do have *nothing* to complain about.

You simply won't be able to put it down.