Information
First published in 1936.
My copy has 230 pages and is published by Penguin.
The premise
A memoir of the author's time among the desperately poor and destitute in London and Paris. It documents a world of unrelenting drudgery and squalor - sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses, working as a dishwasher in the vile 'Hotel X', living alongside tramps, surviving on scraps and cigarette butts.
My review
This is the second George Orwell book I've read. Animal Farm was the first one. This was also the second book he wrote and I think you notice that. It's less in depth in my opinion. That said I really liked this book.
It is kind of written like a travel journal. He tells about the people he meets and their stories, and his day to day life being poor in Paris and London. You are introduced to all kinds of different people and you see how the author adepts and changes to way he lives. The Paris and London parts were very different and that was fun to read about.
This was not a "heavy" book to read. It was quick and easy. From time to time the author gives his opinion about things that are happening around him. And they really make you think.