Down and Out in Paris and London (Paperback)

from Lord_Boris

An investigation into the what and the why of the poor based on Orwell's own experiences in Paris and London during the 1920s / early 30s. How much is memoir and how much is fiction is hard to tell, but I expect a lot of the detail is based on fact. The first section deals with Paris. Here Orwell...

from getupkid10

A story that follows a poor brit journalist through his time working at various restaurants in Paris as a grunt laboring kitchen hand, and through his tramp days in London. In both places, the character is penniless, barely surviving for dinner, and sharing the stories of the people that surround...

from brenzi

"You discover what it is like to be hungry. With bread and margarine in your belly, you go out and look into the shop windows. Everywhere there is food insulting you in huge, wasteful piles; whole dead pigs, baskets of hot loaves, great yellow blocks of butter, strings of sausages, mountains of p...

from souloftherose

A brief and alternately amusing and horrifying account of George Orwell's time almost penniless and almost always hungry in Paris and London in the 1920s**. In Paris he manages to pay for his apartment up front but has no money for food until he manages to get a job working incredibly long hours ...

from Coobeastie

The details of poverty may change, but the broad picture remains the same. This is notable not just for its social commentary, but for its readability - you feel that you know the people he meets and the places he goes from simple short descriptions.