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Review: Down and Out in Paris and London
Sep. 25th, 2011 12:55 pmI've just re-read George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London to see if I want to keep the book. I think I will for a while.
This is a novel meant to show you what it's like to be poor in Paris (as a dishwasher) and London (as a tramp) in 1933.
One of the most fascinating parts of it was how most people still bought luxuries (usually tobacco) even when they didn't have enough to eat. What would my luxury be? If I were starving, would I occasionally get a donut instead of a sandwich?
And many people had something they would not stoop to, no matter how low. One guy would never steal. One guy would never take handouts from a church. One guy would keep sewing the braid back on his fancy ragged pants whenever it started coming off.
Orwell is not subtle or sneaky about what he wants you to learn here. He lets you see what it's like to live a certain way for a while, then he'll give you a summary of his thoughts.
"It is altogether curious, your first contact with poverty. You have thought so much about poverty--it is the thing you have feared all your life, the thing you knew would happen sooner or later; and it is all so utterly and prosaically different. You thought it would be quite simple; it is extraordinarily complicated. You thought it would be terrible; it is merely squalid and boring."
One of the worst parts is that you try to keep secret your lack of means for as long as possible, which actually makes your condition worse. He says it's worse for the uneducated because they don't have as many resources for occupying your mind.
The main character feels he has not learned much during the time he was hard up, but he did learn a few things: "I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant."
Read this book if you want to know how he could think those things. Or if you're feeling poor and want to remind yourself that you're actually doing quite well. And since it is no longer 1933, we can think that some of the things are no longer true, so it's not so hard to read as it could be. (Though probably more things are still true than we would like.)
This is a novel meant to show you what it's like to be poor in Paris (as a dishwasher) and London (as a tramp) in 1933.
One of the most fascinating parts of it was how most people still bought luxuries (usually tobacco) even when they didn't have enough to eat. What would my luxury be? If I were starving, would I occasionally get a donut instead of a sandwich?
And many people had something they would not stoop to, no matter how low. One guy would never steal. One guy would never take handouts from a church. One guy would keep sewing the braid back on his fancy ragged pants whenever it started coming off.
Orwell is not subtle or sneaky about what he wants you to learn here. He lets you see what it's like to live a certain way for a while, then he'll give you a summary of his thoughts.
"It is altogether curious, your first contact with poverty. You have thought so much about poverty--it is the thing you have feared all your life, the thing you knew would happen sooner or later; and it is all so utterly and prosaically different. You thought it would be quite simple; it is extraordinarily complicated. You thought it would be terrible; it is merely squalid and boring."
One of the worst parts is that you try to keep secret your lack of means for as long as possible, which actually makes your condition worse. He says it's worse for the uneducated because they don't have as many resources for occupying your mind.
The main character feels he has not learned much during the time he was hard up, but he did learn a few things: "I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant."
Read this book if you want to know how he could think those things. Or if you're feeling poor and want to remind yourself that you're actually doing quite well. And since it is no longer 1933, we can think that some of the things are no longer true, so it's not so hard to read as it could be. (Though probably more things are still true than we would like.)