Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
"Down and Out in Paris and London" by George Orwell is a memoir that presents a reflective and vivid account of the author's experiences living in poverty in two major European cities. Divided into two distinct sections, the first part focuses on Orwell's time in Paris, where he encounters a range of eccentric characters while working in a luxurious restaurant. This section is characterized by sharp, humorous observations that contrast the opulence of the city with the gritty reality of the underclass. The second part shifts to London, delving into the lives of tramps and the bureaucratic systems that keep them in a cycle of poverty, revealing a more muted tone.
Throughout the narrative, Orwell explores themes of social inequality and the harsh realities faced by the destitute, advocating for social reform to improve their conditions. His account serves not only as a personal exploration but also as a critique of the societal structures that perpetuate misery. While the memoir is based on true experiences, Orwell does admit to rearranging events for narrative effect. Ultimately, "Down and Out in Paris and London" offers an intimate glimpse into the struggles of the poor, encouraging readers to reflect on the broader implications of poverty and class disparity.
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
First published: 1933
Type of work: Memoir
Time of work: 1928-1929
Locale: Paris, London, and various suburbs
Principal Personages:
The Narrator , an English writer who has the character of George OrwellPaddy , a friend of the narrator, an English trampBoris , a Russian emigre working as a waiter in ParisCharlie , a Parisian sexual sadistFurex , a Limousin stonemasonBozo , a London scrivener
Form and Content
In the form of a memoir, interspersed with passages of journalistic reportage, George Orwell narrates a selective account of his actual experiences in two great European cities. The book is retrospective, reflecting upon episodes that show vivid contrasts between the lives of the very poor and the affluent. Orwell’s first published work, Down and Out in Paris and London not only shows the extent of misery inflicted by society upon its rejected and destitute underclass but also presents a socialistic formula for the reform of society’s institutions.
The book is neatly divided into two parts: the first focusing on the narrator’s experiences in Paris, the second on his experiences in London. In the first section, generally more vivid, tart, and humorous, Orwell treats a relatively large group of nearly Dickensian eccentric types. Among the more notable sketches are those of Charlie, a bland young man who reveals his psychopathic fantasies of abusing virgins; Boris, a Russian waiter, Micawber-like in his optimism that he is “getting ahead,” yet generally spiteful and cunning rather than enterprising; and Furex, who spouts Communist sentiments when sober but, drunk, becomes violently chauvinistic. Included in this section are many snapshot images of minor figures, all part of a collage of portraits, sordid and amusing, which brings the Parisian underground to life.
The narrator’s experiences center on two major areas: the Rue du Coq d’Or (captured with its clangorous noises, its smells, its conflicts) and the Hotel X (a grandiose residence for the opulent of Paris, where the narrator and many of his companions toil as dishwashers in the bowels of its fashionable restaurant). Orwell describes in sharp, plangent detail a noisy, confused atmosphere, a phantasmagoric world of contrasts between the ugly and the swank.
The second section of the book, more muted in tone, treats the lodgings of “spikes,” or tramps, in London. In order to keep the population of drifters moving, British authorities of the late 1920’s devised a method of forcing tramps to travel from one “spike” house to another, allowing the indigents barely enough time to settle in for a night’s sleep or enjoy a ration of “tea and two slices” (of bread). Just as Boris had been the narrator’s guide through the Paris underworld, Paddy is his guide to the environs of London. By the time the narrator has served his time as a down-and-outer, he is prepared to lecture to his comfortable readers about conditions of life among the truly uncomfortable, and to urge a solution of practical reform that will end the tramp’s cycle of wandering, sickness, and eventual collapse from tuberculosis or other maladies.
To provide continuity between the two sections, Orwell must account for the narrator’s escape from near starvation at the Auberge de Jehan Cottard. A former schoolmate, identified as “B,” informs the narrator that he has a job waiting for him in England. The job is to look after a “congenital imbecile.” Ironically, when the narrator crosses the English Channel, third class, he discovers that the imbecile has been traveling abroad for a month. Without money and too proud to beg, the narrator settles into the role of down-and-outer in London. He sells his clothes and sinks to the level of tramp. As a person stripped of social class, educated well enough to observe his condition dispassionately yet too powerless to effect a change, the narrator speaks from inside the “body of the whale,” as an authentic voice from the underground.
Critical Context
In the tradition of Fyodor Dostoevski’s Zapiski iz podpolya (1864; Notes from the Underground, 1918), Orwell’s hybrid book—partly true memoir, partly reportage—is an account of the down-and-out told from the viewpoint of a participant. Like Henry Miller in Tropic of Cancer (1934), Orwell assumes the role of a major character, an “insider” who describes from personal experiences the effects of poverty upon an artistic temperament. The narrator has surrendered the privileges of education and class in order to live among the poor.
As Orwell later wrote in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), “I knew nothing about working-class conditions. . . . What I profoundly wanted, at that time, was to find some way of getting out of the respectable world altogether.” The reason that Orwell desperately wanted to leave the “respectable world” is tied, ultimately, to an analysis of the psychology of masochistic guilt. Still, the literary fruits of this obsession are works of intense passion. Orwell brings to his subject a prophet’s vision of truth and a novelist’s eye for sharp detail.
To be sure, Down and Out in Paris and London does not tell the absolute truth about the writer’s actual experiences in poverty. In The Road to Wigan Pier Orwell writes: “Nearly all the incidents described [in Down and Out in Paris and London] actually happened, though they have been rearranged.” As a matter of fact, Orwell discusses no more than ten weeks of his actual eighteen months in Paris. He not only reduced the time of his action but also suppressed any mention of his “Aunt Nellie” and of Eugene Adam, both of whom had a strong impact upon his Parisian experience. Similarly, his account of his London experience must have been carefully selected from actual events. Critics are especially suspicious about the role of “B” in Orwell’s departure from Paris; according to Bernard Crick (George Orwell: A Life, 1980), the episode “sounds contrived.”
Nevertheless, the total effect of Orwell’s book is that of directness and honesty. Yet compared to Jack London’s chilling The People of the Abyss (1903), a chronicle of the East End, Orwell’s book seems measured rather than strident, reasonable rather than emotional. Orwell manages to subordinate his agenda for social change to the power of the tale itself. While London writes with grief and anger, Orwell restrains his emotions until the end.
Bibliography
Calder, Jenni. Chronicles of Conscience: A Study of George Orwell and Arthur Koestler, 1968.
Crick, Bernard. George Orwell: A Life, 1980.
Mayne, Richard. “A Note on Orwell’s Paris,” in The World of George Orwell, 1971. Edited by Miriam Gross.
Rees, Sir Richard. George Orwell: Fugitive from the Camp of Victory, 1961.
Thomas, Edward. George Orwell, 1965.
Vorhees, Richard J. The Paradox of George Orwell, 1961.