Five
stars from me. I would use three words to describe this book: “somber,
side-splitting, shrewd”. “Somber” refers to the subject matter, which is about
abject poverty and hunger in urban cities, as seen through Orwell’s eyes in
Paris and London on his experimental tour. “Side-splitting” is my reaction to
the ironic and dry humor that he effortlessly displays in describing some
episodes. “Shrewd” refers to his observation of the lives of those barely
surviving in society’s lowest echelons, often down to the most trivial minutiae
and with keen insight.
The
book is a unique kind of partly fictional, semi-autobiographical, travel diary
in which Orwell tells the experiences of a British writer working alongside plongeurs (dishwashers or scullions) in
a Paris hotel kitchen, and then living with tramps (homeless people) upon his
return to England. His description of the Paris hotel kitchen will make you
think twice before stepping into a high-class hotel restaurant ever again!
These
are some trenchant passages from the book:-
When one is overworked, it is a good
cure for self-pity to think of the thousands of people in Paris restaurants who
work such hours (seventeen-hour day, seven days a week), and will go on doing
it, not for a few weeks, but for years.
I believe that this instinct to
perpetuate useless work is, at bottom, simply fear of the mob. The mob (the
thought runs) are such low animals that they would be dangerous if they had
leisure; it is safer to keep them too busy to think……But the trouble is that
intelligent, cultivated people, the very people who might be expected to have
liberal opinions, never do mix with the poor. For what do the majority of
educated people know about poverty?
Why are beggars despised? I believe it
is for the simple reason that they fail to earn a decent living…. Money has
become the grand test of virtue. By this test beggars fail, and for this they
are despised.
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