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: #4830 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
After reading this, nobody could ever again enter a restaurant quite blithely, describing as it does some of the less-than-pleasant habits of those who work behind the scenes. It is also a definitive portrait of the underside of life in the cruel 1930s. (Kirkus UK)

This book falls into two distinct parts, both with an underlying common theme, the revealing of poverty at close range. Not an appealing subject, you will say. But have a look at the book and catch the strange fascination of the telling. First there is Paris, not the Paris of the boulevards or the Bois, nor yet of the Latin Quarter. But Paris of the slums, the Paris of those who live a precarious existence, always on the verge of actual starvation, a hand to mouth existence, from pawn shop to pawn shop. The youth who is telling of his own experiences, and of those around him, eventually lands a job as a dishwasher behind the scenes of a smart hotel restaurant. Vivid and lurid and unappetizing, are the pictures he gives of what goes on behind the scenes, human and otherwise. The second part of the book brings him to England, and the story recalls Josiah Flint's TRAMPING WITH TRAMPS, that expose of our own hobodom. Here is the English side of the picture today, exaggerated by the unemployment situation and the aftermath of war. It is particularly timely in showing the measures in active use for dealing with the many sorts and conditions of men who have hit the trail today, and who travel in hordes from one encampment to another. One wonders, in reading this book whether there is not here another Thomas Burke in the making. (Kirkus Reviews)

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.