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libridinosa's review against another edition
2.0
Análiza la problemática social de inicio del siglo 20. Es una investigación rigurosa.
Pero la narrativa no fue consistente.
No pudo mantener el tono ficcional para narrar esta desgarradora realidad. Arracó muy bien con la narrativa novelada y terminó en un compendio de datos.
Pero la narrativa no fue consistente.
No pudo mantener el tono ficcional para narrar esta desgarradora realidad. Arracó muy bien con la narrativa novelada y terminó en un compendio de datos.
peebee's review against another edition
5.0
Way more ballsy than Barbara Ehrenreich, way less ballsy than George Orwell. He doesn't get caught up in this wishy-washy just-the-facts objectivity thing that's making the rounds. He gets mad, and that goes into the book. He's a socialist and that goes into the book. Of course, he also left himself an escape hatch which he uses constantly. His stories are basically, after decompressing, he goes back under for a visit to a spike, or a lodging house or a trip around town after dark and runs back to his nice place on the outskirts of the slum when it gets to be too much for him. Orwell lived it every day for a period of months, if not years, and actually starved for lack of anything to do for money. Still a great book to beat a banker over the head with.
belakovska's review against another edition
4.0
Very few people seem to have heard of Jack London these days, and I was only vaguely aware of him, which is a real shame because he stands right up there with the likes of George Orwell - who I've only just discovered was inspired by this very work to write his own 'Down and Out in Paris and London'.
Jack London was an American writer who chose to go undercover in the East End of London (much to the outrage and fear of his friends) and journalise his research. The resulting work is a fascinating, in depth and honest account of real people's lives in 1902; at the beginning of a new century and on the crest of the Industrial Revolution wave, the people of England must have appeared to have it all. A new monarch also hailed in the new era and the end of the sombre Victorian age so Jack London could not have picked a better time to hold a mirror up to the darker side of the empire's capital.
As well as pushing himself out of his comfort zone and right in to the heart of the life he is writing about, London has the added factor of being an alien abroad. With his US readership in mind, he reminds us throughout what the value of British wages would equate to in the States. He is able to compare life 'on the road' to that of the English counterpart, but his sympathy for the British poor he is mixing with never wavers.
London's writing is sharp and witty - the century that has lapsed between then and now has done nothing to dim the talent that shines through. Furthermore, like Orwell, London's understanding of the causes of poverty and his vitriol towards those who benefit from it come across with clarity and persuasion. One particularly poignant comment has been italicised by London himself, and with good reason. He describes two unemployed men, trudging the cold and rainy streets in desperate search of a bed for the night:
"From the slimy, spittle-drenched, sidewalk, they were picking up bits of orange peel, apple skin, and grape stems, and, they were eating them. The pits of greengage plums they cracked between their teeth for the kernels inside. They picked up stray bits of bread the size of peas, apple cores so black and dirty one would not take them to be apple cores, and these things these two men took into their mouths, and chewed them, and swallowed them; and this, between six and seven o’clock in the evening of August 20, year of our Lord 1902, in the heart of the greatest, wealthiest, and most powerful empire the world has ever seen."
Later on, London highlights the logical conclusion of a materialistic society: that crimes against the property (and ergo propertied) eclipse crimes against the person. Pages of court records from the length and breadth of Britain back this up, with four month jail sentences for poaching and a caution for beating one's wife in front of the children.
As a contemporary account of early twentieth century, The People of the Abyss is a classic piece of work. I don't know if it features in any syllabus for students of History (I never encountered it at school or university) but it should be a staple for those interested in this period of time.
Jack London was an American writer who chose to go undercover in the East End of London (much to the outrage and fear of his friends) and journalise his research. The resulting work is a fascinating, in depth and honest account of real people's lives in 1902; at the beginning of a new century and on the crest of the Industrial Revolution wave, the people of England must have appeared to have it all. A new monarch also hailed in the new era and the end of the sombre Victorian age so Jack London could not have picked a better time to hold a mirror up to the darker side of the empire's capital.
As well as pushing himself out of his comfort zone and right in to the heart of the life he is writing about, London has the added factor of being an alien abroad. With his US readership in mind, he reminds us throughout what the value of British wages would equate to in the States. He is able to compare life 'on the road' to that of the English counterpart, but his sympathy for the British poor he is mixing with never wavers.
London's writing is sharp and witty - the century that has lapsed between then and now has done nothing to dim the talent that shines through. Furthermore, like Orwell, London's understanding of the causes of poverty and his vitriol towards those who benefit from it come across with clarity and persuasion. One particularly poignant comment has been italicised by London himself, and with good reason. He describes two unemployed men, trudging the cold and rainy streets in desperate search of a bed for the night:
"From the slimy, spittle-drenched, sidewalk, they were picking up bits of orange peel, apple skin, and grape stems, and, they were eating them. The pits of greengage plums they cracked between their teeth for the kernels inside. They picked up stray bits of bread the size of peas, apple cores so black and dirty one would not take them to be apple cores, and these things these two men took into their mouths, and chewed them, and swallowed them; and this, between six and seven o’clock in the evening of August 20, year of our Lord 1902, in the heart of the greatest, wealthiest, and most powerful empire the world has ever seen."
Later on, London highlights the logical conclusion of a materialistic society: that crimes against the property (and ergo propertied) eclipse crimes against the person. Pages of court records from the length and breadth of Britain back this up, with four month jail sentences for poaching and a caution for beating one's wife in front of the children.
As a contemporary account of early twentieth century, The People of the Abyss is a classic piece of work. I don't know if it features in any syllabus for students of History (I never encountered it at school or university) but it should be a staple for those interested in this period of time.
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