In my first year of University I had to read Down And Out In Paris and London by George Orwell. Previously, I knew Orwell for his thought-provoking novels such as, Animal Farm and 1984. After reading Down and Out in Paris and London, which was published in 1933, I wondered why this was not a better-known piece of work.

Semi-autobiographical, this novel describes Orwell’s experiences living in these two cities in almost poverty. After giving up a government job, Orwell decided that he wanted to be a writer much to his family’s horror. Deciding not to take handouts from them, he lived in poverty and worked random jobs to make ends meet. From bed-bugs to debating whether or not to eat some food he had prepared that a bug had fallen into, this novel gives a phenomenal look into the lives of those living on the edges of society, with barely enough money to get by but not totally destitute. Orwell works as a “plongeur” in a fancy restaurant, sometimes more than 17 hours a day and his depiction of the life of these hotel workers gives keen insight into the hardships faced by workers similar to himself. Working themselves to exhaustion, they are unable to contemplate fighting for better working conditions because gaining a few hours of sleep is a more realistic  option.

This book demonstrates some of Orwell’s political leanings and emphasizes much of what inspired him to write the works that would give him prominence as a writer of importance for the twentieth century. There is a free copy of Down And Out In Paris London and review online.
 
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4074157481455007235 
 
Henri Cartier-Bresson, was a French photographer who revolutionalized photography during his career. His fascination with painting, and specifically surrealism paintings influenced his unique documentary vision that has influenced generations of photographers. He developed documentary photos from around the world, many of which captured Parisienne streetscapes in and around where Orwell would have haunted. Above is an in-depth interview between Charlie Rose and Bresson-Cartier and below are some of his photos.

Tags: bresson-cartier, charlie rose, documentary photography, down and out in paris and london, free copy, george, henri, orwell, review, surrealism

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 13:42 and is filed under ART and DESIGN, CULTURE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.