Down and Out in Paris and London

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Summary: Interesting without any emotional hoops to jump through
Review: With this book George Orwell was able to take hold of my interest without forcing me to feel any emotional attachment. The characters became people that you could picture without much strain. His short sentances made reading this book easy. He was descriptive without being wordy. It was painlessly easy to enjoy reading this book.

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Summary: A Heart-filled Drama
Review: George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London is a very down to earth novel. It's about a man who describes his struggles with poverty and injustice. His life makes us think about how lucky we are to have homes and food, etc. His feelings are so open and depressing. He will put up with anything and anybody just to get some money for some food and a bed to sleep in. This novel is brilliantly written through the eyes of a poor man. It makes you think differently about yourself. It's an excellent book that is written with so much simple force.

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Summary: An Eye Opener.
Review: Orwell's account of life in the lower side of modern society probed me into first-hand experience at the living of people I wouldnt have raised a finger of thought for before.The way he relates their way of living is convincing.And he has been able to capture their gestures,movements & thoughts in a fine way as strong enough to support his statements on behalf of their plight.His insights into them are methodically accurate.Although I dont agree with a few of his arguments,I am equally convinced in his beliefs concerning attitudes towards these people & what could be done for them to a certain degree.The prose comes in a clear,narrative tone like a good lecturer,with faint tinges of humor to raise it up to a comparatively good whole.The downside of the book comes at moments when he mixes statistics & journalistic inquiries in bet. narratives.I believe it would have been better if he would have placed them in an afterword,or a separate essay.It imbalances the flow of the story.All in all,a pleasant & slightly disturbing read which would make you change your outlook on poverty & the people who inhabit it forever.

Rating:
Summary: This Book Should Be Read By Everyone
Review: The prose is clear. The prose is compelling. The author's stories are irresistable. Despite your high school teacher's raves about 1984, Orwell was a much better essayist than a novelist. This collection is superb.

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Summary: A journey to experience poverty
Review: Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell is not as good as Animal Farm or 1984 but it is an informative, realistic look at homeless life in Paris and London. The book makes some very good points about how some people's jobs are slave jobs and only exist because the rich want luxury therefore these jobs are not needed. I think this book moves slower than some of his others because it was his first book.

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Summary: An excellent insight into poverty
Review: In this autobiographical book, Orwell recounts his experiences in the slums of Paris and London. By far the Paris chapters are the best, taking an in-depth look into the life of a plongeur and his significance in the mainstream of society. The London chapters tend to focus on tramps in England, providing a relatively accurate description of poverty at the time. Although the writing is half-decent most of the time, Orwell still accomplishes his purpose: to tell the world about those who are down and out. This book may not be one of Orwell's best works, but definitely a favourite.

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Summary: This book changed my life!
Review: I was made to read this book at the age of 19 - at night school - I just loved it! Within a couple of years I was working with the down and outs of London. Now I'm 47 - not doing that work anymore - but I return to the book every few years

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Summary: Excellent discription of the life of the "Down and Out"
Review: Orwell gives us yet another quasi-biographical tale of life at its gritiest. For those of you out there who appreciated the humour and flow of Homage to Catalonia, this book will reaffirm your love of Orwells artistry. He takes two of the most mystical European cities and shows you whats behind it all, making the faceless masses of homeless and impoverished really come alive in all of their comedy, tragety, and humanity

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Summary: The roots of 1984
Review: Orwell's account of the destitute life clearly reveals both his origins as a socialist and his concise, clear writing style. In one particular chapter, he limits himself to strictly the narrative form and then in the last paragraph of two sentences, he lets loose his political analysis of the social structure with unparalleled clarity and power. I learned a few obvious truths from this book. I particularly recommend it to those on the right who have adopted Orwell as a champion of the anti-socialist cause, having read only 1984. It may open their eyes. Highly recommended

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Summary: Fascinating look at the "down and out" of the early 20th c.
Review: This book reads much more like a memoir than the novel it is, and indeed it is a largely autobiographical work. Orwell begins with an anonymous narrator describing daily life in the poorer parts of Paris during the early 1900s. He describes the din, the dirt, the bugs, and all else in vivid detail. The narrator, an Englishman by birth, is living in Paris and running low on funds. We follow him through various attempts to earn money, including work as a lowly dishwasher or "plongeur" in the city's hotels, and also in one dubious restaurant. We learn all the dirty behind-the-scenes secrets of these operations, and it's quite enough to make one's skin crawl and cause one to avoid hotels and restaurants forever.

The second half of the book follows the narrator back to his native England, where he must find a way to get by in London while awaiting a permanent job. Here we are introduced to the tramp's way of life - vagrancy, begging, and sleeping in the cheapest (and filthiest) accomodations available. But we also get to know some of the narrator's fellow tramps, and to feel for them. They are not all the worthless, lazy scum that the higher classes of the time would paint them as. Orwell concludes the book with a brief treatise on the vagrant's plight and ways in which it can be eased, as well as making the tramp a usefull part of society.

Obviously Orwell's closing call-to-action is not entirely relevant anymore, as the workings of society have changed somewhat over the last century, but the book is nevertheless fascinating. A reader may at first be a little thrown off by the lack of a central plot, but once past this it is easy to get sucked into the world Orwell has illustrated here. His imagery is so striking that you actually feel as if you are sharing the narrator's experiences. You can feel the intense heat of the hotel kitchens, feel the weakness and weariness that comes with malnutrition, smell the grease and the sweat and the dirt.

And yet, as bleak as all this sounds, the book is not depressing. The narrator never lapses into dejection or self-pity, and the reader is left with a sense of hope throughout the novel. Being poor is not presented as a dead end - there are always ways to get by, some of them quite ingenious. And the narrator is even able to find humor in some of the truly absurd situations he finds himself in.

Any fan of Orwell's works will not be disappointed with this book. Or even if you've read nothing by Orwell (in which case you absolutely must pick up "1984" at some point), and merely want a glimpse into the life of the poor and jobless at this point in history, this is the book for you. And the fact that the narrator is anonymous (although the story is largely based on Orwell's life, the narrator is not, as some reviewers have claimed, Orwell himself) helps us imagine that he could be anyone, and that even we could be living this life. It's fairly short and easy to read, but opens up a whole world - one that is rarely contemplated in much detail - with it's rich descriptions. Definitely a recommended read.