Modern Classics Down And Out In Paris And London - Softcover

9780141187365: Modern Classics Down And Out In Paris And London
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
Written when Orwell was a struggling writer in his twenties, the book documents his 'first contact with poverty': sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses, working as a dishwasher in Paris, surviving on scraps and cigarette butts, living alongside tramps, a star-gazing pavement artist and a starving Russian ex-army captain. Exposing a shocking, previously hidden world to readers, Orwell gave a human face to poverty, and in doing so, found his voice as a great writer.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
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

From the Publisher:
7 1-hour cassettes

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherPenguin Classic
  • Publication date2003
  • ISBN 10 0141187360
  • ISBN 13 9780141187365
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages240
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780156262248: Down and Out in Paris and London

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780156262248
Publisher: Mariner Books Classics, 1972
Softcover

  • 9780141184388: Down and Out in Paris and London

    Penguin, 2009
    Softcover

  • 9780141393032: Penguin Classics Down and Out in Paris and London (Penguin Modern Classics)

    Pengui..., 2013
    Softcover

  • 9780141042701: Down and Out in Paris and London

    Viking, 2013
    Softcover

  • 9780436350238: The Complete Works of George Orwell: Volume 1: Down and Out in Paris and London: Vol 1

    Martin..., 1986
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Orwell, George
Published by Penguin Classic (2003)
ISBN 10: 0141187360 ISBN 13: 9780141187365
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Books Unplugged
(Amherst, NY, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition. Seller Inventory # bk0141187360xvz189zvxnew

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 36.27
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Orwell, George
Published by Penguin Classic (2003)
ISBN 10: 0141187360 ISBN 13: 9780141187365
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
dsmbooks
(Liverpool, United Kingdom)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. New. book. Seller Inventory # D7S9-1-M-0141187360-6

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 124.97
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 31.56
From United Kingdom to U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds