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Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
Down and Out in Paris and London
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4.50 15
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... show more
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
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Format: paperback
Pages no: 155
Edition language: English
Category:
Classics
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Community Reviews
Hol
Hol rated it
3.5 Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
I recently decided that I’m going to read all of George Orwell’s works this year. I’ve already read 1984 and Animal Farm (which I loved) and decided this would be the first book of his I tackled this year. Down and Out in Paris and London is semi-autobiographical. It’s about the time Orwell spent ...
Gatta ci cova
Gatta ci cova rated it
5.0
Quando l’agente dell’Indian Imperial Police Eric Arthur Blair, nel gennaio del 1928, torna in patria in licenza, decide di prendere congedo. Nei cinque anni trascorsi al soldo dell’imperialismo britannico ha conosciuto da vicino il mondo dalla parte dell’oppressore. Gli ha dato il voltastomaco. Per ...
Philosophical Musings of a Book Nerd
Philosophical Musings of a Book Nerd rated it
5.0 Life Below the Poverty Line
There is so much in this book and it is actually really hard to know where to start, however I will start off by saying that it is not strictly an autobiography. Sure, Orwell did land up in a situation in Paris when all of his money had been stolen and had to work as a plounger, which is basically a...
philoSophie
philoSophie rated it
3.0 Down and Out in Paris and London
Full of wretchedness and uncomfortable descriptions of trying to make ends meet. Really enjoyed the down to earth, realistic narrative, that lacked exaggeration, concerning poverty and dreadful living conditions.
shell pebble
shell pebble rated it
5.0 Youthful outrage
Orwell's first published work, giving a slightly fictionalised account of his experiences of poverty in Paris and London.His time in London is made into an extraordinary and vital social document, preserving and bearing witness to the painful and shocking history of the tramps. I never realised that...
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