The Reading Group Reads...
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
We all know about Animal Farm and New-Speaking-Room 101-ing 1984, but for many
book clubbers, this was the first time they had read Orwell's first novel
documenting the years in his late twenties when he really hit the skids in
Paris and London.
Orwell's graphic description of the actualities of late 1920s' poverty and the striking characters that inhabited this on-the-edge world gripped most of us, although some did think he was being a bit patronising and could perfectly well have rejoined the ranks of the well-heeled if he'd really wanted to! But this was not clear, and in the first half of the book, set in Paris, his life most certainly devolved to "where is my next mouthful of food coming from?". Not from a Paris restaurant, book-clubbers chorus, having read with mounting horror the story of George's employment as "plongeur" (washer-up) in a top Paris Hotel. But funnily enough, both George and his readers look back with some nostalgia to those heady Paris days of crazy Russian emigres and prancing "maitre'd"s as he winds up in dreary old Britain where true, he will eat - "tea and two slices" being the order of the day in British "spikes", and extras might always be obtained by due attention to hymning and singing - but poverty, although slightly more secure, seems so much more isolating and joyless.
One difficulty was that although Orwell was quite happy to simply record what
he saw in Paris, so creating vivid mind's eye pictures few will forget,
when it came to Britain, his evident moral indignation - this was, after-all,
his country - could not be suppressed, and his closing chapters are maybe
overly dominated by his own views on how things might be better managed. But an
excellent "classic" novel, and greatly enjoyed by all.
This month's book will be Under the Eye of the Clock, and we will meet at 5 Pound Close Burwell, Wednesday 8pm on 2nd November. Next month will be our Christmas party.