Ratings44
Average rating4.1
'You have talked so often of going to the dogs – and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them.' George Orwell's vivid memoir of his time among the desperately poor and destitute in London and Paris is a moving tour of the underworld of society. Here he painstakingly documents a world of unrelenting drudgery and squalor – sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses, working as a dishwasher in the vile 'Hotel X', living alongside tramps, surviving on scraps and cigarette butts – in an unforgettable account of what being down and out is really like.
Reviews with the most likes.
I didn't really know what to expect going into this, but I enjoyed it. I liked the characters and setting of the Paris part and the information in the London part. Will want to reread, but very good.
Pretty good stuff. I liked the Paris section much better than the London section because it was more interesting to read about the behind-the-scenes of hotels and restaurants rather than the toils of tramp life.
The ‘down and out' chapters were good - sympathetic, without being rose-tinted.
The grammar, and policy chapters were strangely placed; they both broke the flow of the narrative and seemed better suited as appendices.
What do you think about when you hear the title of this book? It sounds pretty bleak, don't you think? It sounds like it would leave you feeling dark and depressed about life.
Wrong. Down and Out in Paris and London is the story of George Orwell's experiences living among the destitute in these two major cities ninety years ago. It is told with a hearty cheerfulness that belies the stark living conditions the people in this book undergo. The people Orwell meets are fresh and compelling people and the stories they tell are fascinating.
I'm adding this to my favorite reads shelf.