Reviews with content warning for Antisemitism - Down and Out in Paris and London

I didn't quite know how to review this book. I was given it to read by a member of my partner's family, who said it was very readable and an insightful account of poverty in London and Paris in the 1930s. I do feel as though I learned a lot about poverty during this period and I will credit Orwell's exposition of his living conditions for being explicit so that we could understand his experience. I did find it generally quite readable, although through periods of the book, I found it hard to be drawn to and did not always feel motivated to read it.

Of course, this is a product of its time and does have open anti-Semitic, homophobic and xenophobic language, especially towards the French and Irish. Despite Orwell being a democratic socialist, that doesn't always mean that he had liberal views of everyone. Furthermore, he also had an arrogant style of writing, especially making clear that he was never as low as those who were embedded in the lower-class world. He was always careful to evoke sympathy from the reader for himself, but not that of others.

Undoubtedly, this does offer an interesting and insightful perspective of Orwell's life, but not a book I am eager to return to.

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larajuliette_c's review

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3.75

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noosayag's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective relaxing slow-paced

3.25

Very interesting read totally unlike Orwell’s other works. If I had one word to describe this, it would be long. This book is more a series of short memoirs than it is a book. It serves to introduce a multitude of interesting characters in relatively quick succession and create a strong atmosphere.

I strongly recommend this for casual readers who have long breaks between reading than I do for people who love a good story.

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ashsparrow's review

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adventurous challenging informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.5

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alex2teeuw's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

4.0

Informative and insightful. A worthwhile read to understand proletarians and exploitation past and present. Sometimes offensive, anachronistic language.

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vickeyreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

2.5

I found it’s ideas on class to be interesting although this book though the book is admittedly extremely antisemetic,racist, and sexist. I found it boring at a lot of parts but there were some parts that were interesting such as Boris starting a restaurant and you see Orwell and others work hard in their hotels and I thought that was interesting and funner to read. Those are my thoughts lol

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