Done in Paris and London

Done in Paris and London (Originally Down and Out in Paris and London ) is a novel by Eric Blair based on his own experiences, which was published as his first work under the pseudonym George Orwell in 1933 .

content

After Blair returned from Burma as a police officer , he stayed for some time as an English teacher in Paris . When he lost his job there, he voluntarily went into poverty and first got to know the slums , then hunger . He works as a dishwasher with a Russian friend. When this becomes too much for him, he has a friend in London organize a job for him, but - after he has arrived in London - he can only start two months later. As a result, he ends up on the street again and lives - moving from unemployment asylum to unemployment asylum - as a tramp in England .

The stories try not to evaluate the lives of people in poverty, but rather to present them neutrally. In addition to the many different individual fates of the lower class, Erledigt in Paris and London also provides an insight into the hygienic conditions in the gastronomy of the time. Separated from these descriptions of experiences, Orwell makes a social analysis of poverty.

Quotes

“I will never again think that all tramps are drunken villains, nor will I believe that a beggar is grateful when he is given a penny, nor be surprised when the unemployed lack energy, nor support the Salvation Army with contributions, nor my clothes pledge, refuse leaflets, still enjoy a meal in a posh restaurant. That is a beginning."

"The other great evil in the vagabond's life is the forced, imposed inaction."

expenditure

The book was published in 1933 by Victor Gollancz and in a French translation in 1935 with a foreword by Panait Istrati and an introduction by Orwell to Gallimard under the title La Vache Enragée .

Down and Out in Paris and London . London: Victor Gollancz, 1933
- Done in Paris and London . From d. Engl. By Helga u. Alexander Schmitz. Zurich: Diogenes, 1978.