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| Plot Summary of Down and Out in Paris and London |
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"George Orwell, from a respectable family and Eton educated, served in the British Imperial Police. In the late 1920's he gave it up to do a sort of deep cover investigative journalism, documenting life at the bottom of the heap in Paris and London. To seem poor he had to become genuinely poor, and so this adventure turned into one of the more unusual literary autobiographies that we have.
The characters he meets are captured very vividly, genuine down-and-outs and ordinary crooks, and everything in between. The descriptions of his work as a plongeur and what really went on in the kitchens of Paris restaurants read like a horror story but are clearly the sober truth, and are worth reading on their own. He returns to London and lives the life of a hobo, doing the rounds of the night shelters and soup kitchens, taking in the rhyming slang, talking to pavement artists, and analysing the psychology of the tramp. After this his elegant slumming he goes back to his more comfortable life to write the books he became famous for."
Michael JR Jose, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Down and Out in Paris and London |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Job/profession/poverty story
Yes
Kind of living:
- general poverty story
Period of greatest activity?
- 1900+
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- unemployed
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental
Yes
Eccentric:
- eccentric
Biography of famous person?
Yes
Ethnicity
- White
Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this person?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other people
Physique
- average physique
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
- France
City?
Yes
City:
- London
- dirty, grimy (like New York)
Misc setting
- resort/hotel
- sewers/subways
Century:
- 1900-1920's
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Book makes you feel?
- concerned
Is book humorous?
Yes
If humorous, kind of humor
- eccentric personalities
- satire
- sarcastic/sardonic
Lot of foul language?
Yes
Commentary on society?
Yes
Commentary on
- selfishness
- wicked rich people
Writer's slant towards subject:
- favorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of set of events during life
Autobiography?
Yes
Pictures/Illustrations?
- None
How much dialogue in bio?
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 0-25% of book
How much is philosophy rather than life story?
- 0-25% of book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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