Down and Out in Paris and London

The narrators poverty brings him into contact with strange incidents and characters, which he manages to chronicle with sensitivity and graphic power. The latter half of the book takes the English narrator to his home city, London, where the world of poverty is different in externals only.A socialist who believed that the lower classes were the wellspring of world reform, Orwell actually went to live among them in England and on the continent. His novel draws on his experiences of this world, from the bottom of the echelon in the kitchens of posh French restaurants to the free lodging houses, tramps, and street peop

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. 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. 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

Corinna said Horribly proofread. Obviously, Orwell is a great writer. I gave this book one star because of the terrible editing. There were tons of really easy to correct typos, like i's and n's blurring into m's. Come on, it's not like Orwell is a new indie author. You guys couldn't find a better edition? Ridiculous. Amazon should take this one out of circulation.. "An unflinching chronicle of day-to-day realities and hardships at society's lowest levels, not easily forgotten" according to Eric Almeida. Orwell offers an unflinching chronicle of day-to-day realities and hardships at society's lowest levels, written in his usual precise, unsentimental prose. At the baseline he performs an act of reportage---intended to expose and inform, to shake the reading public of the 19An unflinching chronicle of day-to-day realities and hardships at society's lowest levels, not easily forgotten Orwell offers an unflinching chronicle of day-to-day realities and hardships at society's lowest levels, written in his usual precise, unsentimental prose. At the baseline he performs an act of reportage---intended to expose and inform, to shake the reading public of the 1930s out of blithe assumptions about the origin and nature of poverty, of both working and destitute varieties. In this he suc. 0s out of blithe assumptions about the origin and nature of poverty, of both working and destitute varieties. In this he suc. "Great book, bad edition." according to MamaBear. This is an amazing story that I would definitely recommend reading.Unfortunately for Orwell and me, the errors in the Kindle version were quite distracting. For one thing, words that are considered improper have been ---- out. This is a major problem considering the book includes a section specifically about the improper language used in London during the time. Quite a bit of this section is ----