George Orwell Matters! discussion

This is the thread to discuss Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, which we are reading as a group between 16th January and 31st March.

Our new moderator Jennifer will lead this read 😊

Down and Out in Paris and London is a hard-hitting factual account, although written in his characteristic witty and lucid style. You may remember that we have already read part of it as The Spike.

As a young man of 24, George Orwell made the decision to intentionally live as a vagrant in and around London. He took rooms in Portobello Road, London at the end of 1927. This was part of a social experiment which would eventually form the basis of Down and Out in Paris and London, which was his first full-length book, in 1933. The events of The Spike are also found in the second half of that book, edited and rewritten to form chapters 27 and 35.

Because it covers a longer period in different places, only a shortened version of The Spike is in Down and Out in Paris and London, but the complete essay also packs a powerful punch. If you'd like to remind youself of the complete essay, our discussion thread is LINK HERE.

So now over to Jennifer!

Welcome to the beginning of our journey through George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London!

Eric Blair (George Orwell) left a post as a policeman in Burma to come home to restore his health. After 8 months on leave, the authorities expected him to return to the police service. Instead, he decided he had had enough. He told people that the climate had ruined his health. Biographer Michael Shelden found that Blair had contracted dengue fever, which at the time was debilitating and often led to depression among patients.

In 1927, after 5 years in the service, Blair resigned. "I gave it up", he wrote later, "mainly because I could not go on any longer serving an imperialism which I had come to regard as very largely a racket".

Eric Blair walked away from a very good job that was a secure path to an easy and comfortable life and retirement. Instead, he set out to pursue a new career as a writer. He moved to rooms in London at the end of 1927, and then headed to Paris in the spring of 1928 to live cheaply and to explore artsy and intellectual Paris.

Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) was his first full-length book, a memoir but released under the name George Orwell. It got positive reviews and sold well enough that it was reprinted twice during the first month after its release.

Kirkus Reviews

"This book falls into two distinct parts, both with an underlying common theme, the revealing of poverty at close range. Not an appealing subject, you will say. But have a look at the book and catch the strange fascination of the telling. First there is Paris... the Paris of those who live a precarious existence, always on the verge of actual starvation, a hand to mouth existence, from pawn shop to pawn shop. The youth who is telling of his own experiences, and of those around him, eventually lands a job as a dishwasher behind the scenes of a smart hotel restaurant. Vivid and lurid and unappetizing, are the pictures he gives of what goes on behind the scenes, human and otherwise. The second part of the book brings him to England, and the story recalls Josiah Flynt's Tramping With Tramps, that expose of our own hobodom. Here is the English side of the picture today, exaggerated by the unemployment situation and the aftermath of war... One wonders, in reading this book whether there is not here another Thomas Burke in the making." -- Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 1933
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

Down and Out in Paris and London is a short book. Goodreads lists 570 editions, so hopefully interested people can easily find a copy. I was able to find copies used and at my public library. It's also easy to get on Amazon (Kindle, Audible, etc.).

It's in the public domain in the UK, so Project Gutenberg Australia has it available:
https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/010...

There are also copies some borrowable editions and some not, at the Internet Archive. Here's a link to the borrowable editions:
https://archive.org/search?query=Down...

The book has 38 chapters, all fairly short. Chapters 1-23 are in Paris, and 24-38 in London.

"O scathful harm, condition of poverte!"
— Geoffrey Chaucer

The opening epigraph is from "The Prologue of the Man of Law's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

A modern translation, in context:

O hateful harm, condition of poverty!
By thirst, by cold, by hunger so distressed!
To ask help thou art ashamed in thy heart;
If thou ask for none, thou art so wounded by need
That true need reveals all thy hidden wound!
Despite all you can do, thou must for indigence
Either steal, or beg, or borrow thy living expenses!

Lines 99-105 from https://chaucer.fas.harvard.edu/pages...

The book opens: "The rue du Coq d'Or, Paris, seven in the morning."

The real-life location was the Rue du Pot de Fer. Here's an image. "Assuming the numbers have not changed, the house in which Orwell lived was the bistro with the white chairs outside."


Photograph and description by Stephen Dowle, "George Orwell in Paris"
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fray_be...

Here's a 2011 BBC article about the modern location:
On the trail of George Orwell’s outcasts
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe...

Summary 1: Chapters 1-3

Chapter 1
Our narrator describes the atmosphere as characterized by quarrels, “the desolate cries of street hawkers, children chasing orange peels, loud (drunken?) singing at night, and the smell of refuse carts... (view spoiler)[It was fascinating to hear that amidst all this poverty were also to be found “the usual respectable French shopkeepers, backer and laundresses… piling up small fortunes.” The variety of people is amazing -- “cobblers, bricklayers, stonemasons,” the Bulgarian student and shoemaker, the Russian artist supported by his mother’s darning of socks, and the dwarfish couple that sold sealed packed of regular postcards. “Poverty is what I am writing about, and I had my first contact with poverty in this slum.”

Chapter 2
This chapter starts out seeming light, like the first. “Half the hotel used to meet in the bistro in the evenings. I wish one could find a pub in London a quarter as cheery.” But then the narrator introduces Charlie, who is “pink and very young, with the fresh cheeks and soft brown hair of a nice little boy… He is, somehow, profoundly disgusting to see.” Charlie “is talking of love, his favorite subject.” Charlie’s story is one in which he gets his brother drunk, robs him of a thousand francs, and then spends the money to be "perfectly free” with a terrified girl, “some peasant girl, doubtless, whom her parents had sold into slavery.” Charlie laughed as she cried and pleas for mercy. “If it were not for that accursed law that robs us of our liberty, I would have murdered her at that moment.” Charlie concludes, “That is Love. That was the happiest day of my life.” Our narrator calls Charlie “a curious specimen,” chosen “just to show what diverse characters could be found flourishing in the Coq D’Or quarter.”

Chapter 3
In this chapter, our narrator makes plans to earn more money, as he is living on savings. His plans to become an interpreter are ruined when a fellow lodger robs his room. “This put an end to my plans of looking for work. I had now got to live at the rate of about six francs a day, and it was too difficult to leave much thought for anything else.” “You discover that a man who has gone even a week on bread and margarine is not a man any longer, only a belly with a few accessory organs.” Finally, he discovers a plus, that being down and out frees him from worry. "You have talked so often of going to the dogs—and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety." (hide spoiler)]

I found Chapter 1 colorful and oddly entertaining. The couple with the not-so-racy sealed packets of postcards reminded me of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent.

Chapter 2 was a tough read for me. Charlie is able to be the amoral person his is, because of poverty. He is for me, as the narrator warns, profoundly disgusting.

Chapter 3 was more cerebral. I think Orwell is dead right in much of what he says. I thought about this news story from a few years back:
"Study finds poverty reduces brain power"
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSB...

I'm hoping to begin this on Friday, and stick to the plan 😊

Thank you for all this fantastic info Jennifer! Apart from The Spike, it's a long time since I read it, but do remember how hard-hitting it is.

Wonderful background material, Jennifer! I'm planning on starting the book tonight.

Hello, Jean, hello, Connie,

I am so glad you can both join the read.

Jean, you are right about hard-hitting. Orwell is definitely out to put a living experience of poverty onto bookshelves with this one.

Connie, I am glad the background material was interesting. This promises to be an interesting book!

In Chapters 1 and 3, it was often bad luck, illness, mental health problems, immigration, or being born into poor versus affluent circumstances that landed people into the slums of Paris. Even Orwell found himself hungry, without enough money to eat and certainly not enough money to pay for a laundress, after most of his money was stolen.

Chapter 2 was brutal, with Charlie talking about the young girl who had been sold/kidnapped as a sex slave. It was the greatest day in his life to violently attack her. He found amazing pleasure in torturing her. He looked like a cherub, but was very strange, dangerous, and probably mentally ill.

Orwell has been an engaging author in these first few chapters.

Three chapters a week is perfect for me, Jennifer 😊 As you say, it leaves time to fit in our other reads. And in a way, I don't want to read too much of this at once 😥

Connie - Was that the time when it was a prostitute who had robbed him? I know he didn't feel able to ask anyone for help (such as his aunt) because he felt doubly ashamed.

Bionic Jean wrote: "Three chapters a week is perfect for me, Jennifer 😊 As you say time to fit in our other reads. And in a way, I don't want to read too much of this at once 😥

Connie - Was that the time when it was ..."

No, a new lodger at the rooming house where he was living robbed Orwell and a few other lodgers. The thief had obtained some duplicate keys. So Orwell was left with only the money in his pockets, and was living on bread and margarine. As one of Jennifer's links points out, when you are so impoverished that all you can think about is your next meal, you really can't accomplish much and your "brain power" decreases.

Oh yes ... thank you.

Hello, all,

Some think that these two accounts (robbery by a prostitute; robbery by a fellow lodger who had obtained keys) are versions of the same incident.

I am currently listening to George Orwell: A Sage for All Seasons, a Great Courses lecture series by Michael Shelden, who wrote Orwell: The Authorized Biography. As part of his research, Shelden visited Brenda Salkeld. Salkeld was a neighbor and longtime friend of Orwelll's.* Brenda Salkeld allowed Michael Shelden to look at copies of Orwell's books that he had sent to her. Her copy of Down and Out in Paris and London is a first edition, and Orwell added handwritten comments in the margins. One of these was a comment at the beginning of Chapter 3, which includes the story about the fellow lodger stealing his money. Per Shelden, that comment says, "Succeeding chapter is not actually autobiography, but drawn from what I have seen."

Biographer Jeffrey Meyers, in Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation, references a conversation Orwell had with a friend where he gave a different version of the story, one which might have embarrassed his family:

In Down and Out the thief is an Italian compositor and fellow-lodger who duplicates the keys and robs a dozen rooms. But Blair gave a friend a more convincing account of what happened. ... "he once said that of all the girls he'd known before he met his wife, the one he loved best was a little trollop he picked up in a cafe in Paris. She was beautiful and had a figure like a boy, an Eton crop and was in every way desirable. Apparently he came back to his room, and this paragon had decamped with everything he possessed. All his luggage and his money and everything." (p. 84)

* For fun, here's a little more about Brenda Salkeld and Orwell: "Brenda Salkeld and Eleanor Jacques: the lost letters of George Orwell" https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-colle...

That's it! Thanks Jennifer; I wasn't sure where I had read it. Great info generally 😊

Jennifer, I also bought the Great Course lecture series about Orwell last month, but have not had a chance to watch it. It will be something to look forward to in the spring.

Thanks for all the additional information.

What I keep coming back to in these first 3 chapters is all the bugs walking in line across the ceiling. However big must they have been, for him to see them from his bed?! 😲

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's section - sort of!

Orwell is a great stylist. He paints a picture that you want to turn away from but can't.

Connie, you are most welcome!

Jean and Bill, you are both so right about Orwell painting vivid pictures!

Speaking of pictures, I found a picture of a family living in the Rue du Pot-de-Fer in June, 1914. This is about 13 years earlier than Orwell's time there, of course, but is still of interest.


A family in the rue du Pot de fer, Paris, France. Autochrome from Albert Kahn's Archives de la planète, 24 June 1914.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:...
More about Albert Kahn's Archives de la planète project:
https://albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.fr...

I am very interested in this book, taking care of sick patients. I will be looking for a copy of this book to read and comment on. I have already read two of Orwell's books. They are not happy, but tell much about humanity and animals. Who will lead and who will follow.

Summary 2: Chapters 4-6
Chapter 3
Our narrator’s income from English lessons ceases abruptly at the start of this chapter... (view spoiler)[ One student dismisses him, and then all do, leaving him owed 12 francs. With no money to buy food or tobacco, he takes his clothes to a pawn shop. He gets only seventy francs for 10 pounds’ with of clothes. He lied to his landlady and said he had made 200 francs. When he unexpectedly received 200 francs for a newspaper article, he paid all of that as rent, so as to keep a roof over his head. He remembers a colorful friend Boris. After telling us about him, he resolves to look him up, to see about getting a job in a hotel.

Chapter 4
Orwell looks Boris up, only to find his friend starving, in worse shape than he himself is. Boris is sleeping on the floor of a Jewish mechanic who owes him money. He tells Orwell that there is a new Russian restaurant which is to open in a few days, and that he is to be Maitre’d, so things will be better soon. They try going places to look for work, but get none. In the evening, fortified by the food Orwell brings him, Boris makes plans to look up people who owe him money. Too tired to walk back to the mechanic’s room, he sleeps on Orwell’s floor.

Chapter 5
The two look for work again the next day, and fail. It is 3 weeks before their luck changes. For now, they have trouble finding work for a lame man (Boris needs a cane) and an inexperienced man. Boris writes to people who owe him money. He gets only one reply, a letter from Yvonne who remembers him fondly but has no money either. Her sister has been ill and all their money has gone to the doctor. Boris suffers from all the walking and from sleeping on the floor, but is surprisingly gay overall. They pass some of the time sitting and playing chess, using part of a packing case and buttons to make a board and pieces. (hide spoiler)]

Boris’s favourite café was the Closerie des Lilas in Montparnasse. A picture from around 1930:

Before/after pictures (1930/2018): https://www.re.photos/en/compilation/...

Boris liked this particular cafe because “the statue of Marshal Ney stands outside it.”


Ney's statue is of interest because of Boris's interest in all things military. Michel Ney was a French military commander and Marshal of the Empire who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Ney rejoined Napolleon in 1815 and commanded the Old Guard at the Battle of Waterloo. When the monarchy was again restored, Ney was charged with treason, condemned, and shot by a firing squad.

Britannica states, "Ney was a soldier’s soldier, wholly without political ambition or judgment. He was at his greatest in the campaigns for France’s natural frontiers at the beginning and end of his career, but out of his depth in Napoleon’s intricate strategy for the domination of Europe. He showed little interest in external distinctions or social success. The dignity with which he met his death effaced the memory of his political vagaries and made him, in an epic age, the most heroic figure of his time."
https://www.britannica.com/biography/...

Ney was quite the character. Here's another article about him which states that the reason why the bronze statue near the Closerie des Lilas cafe stands so high because of "the unusually large size of the ornate plinth; which is also large in order to fit in the inscription of Ney's extraordinary number of battles. The statue stands near to the site where Ney was executed by firing squad on the 7th December, 1815."
https://www.parisindepth.com/marshal-ney

Ney definitely seems like the kind of larger-than-life character that would appeal to Boris!

What fantastic background! Thank you Jennifer 😊

It looks as though those bugs are going to be a motif throughout 😨

I was interested in the petit bleu as I hadn't heard of "little blues" before. It seems likely it was an early sort of telegram exclusive to Paris, where you pay a few centimes and get a bit of blue paper, write your message and it shoots along a pneumatic tube!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_p...).

This reminds me of some department stores when I was a child, where the assistant put the money in a little cup, which was raised by pulley to the high ceiling, and shot along to a cashier in a special cubicle. If any change was needed, it came whizzing back the same way. I loved to stand and watch it all! 😁

Mr Blair seems to be very patient with his friend Boris!

This book has changed my perspective on fine dining. Where we enter a beautiful dining area with plush surroundings and refined waiters who attempt to provide the patrons with outstanding service. Yet, little do we know that below or in back is a factory that resembles a sweat shop. Orwell's brilliance shines in his description of hotel X where our narrator labors for 14 hours each day.

Jean, thank you for looking up the petit bleu! The pneumatic change system sounds fascinating!

Yes, I think we can likely look forward to many more insects. I have been thinking a lot about those bugs. On my one trip to Europe, a business trip, I happened to be in Neuchatel during a heat wave. The only way to cool my room off was to open the one window. Insects from the lake shore drifted in, and by bedtime, much of the ceiling of my room was covered. They congregated on the ceiling above the bed, since that's where the light was. I went to bed early, turned off the light, and pulled the sheet up over my head (so that any insects drifting downwards would walk on the sheet and not my face). It took a long time to fall asleep!

Also, I love Boris, so far at least!

Bill, I have washed dishes for a living. It is still demanding work! You are hot and sweaty, and - ick! - you catch diseases that people came to the restaurant with!

Jean, when you mentioned a trip to Europe it reminded me of sitting in a restaurant in Moscow. I looked up and on a ledge above the dining room was a rat. I mentioned it to the waiter, and he just shrugged his shoulders. I did not eat the meal!

Eeek! I have not been to Russia, but I do live in England of course, and on the edge of London, so a hop over to France is theoretically very easy 😊 Perhaps that's why George Orwell chose those two cities?

This book has been a treat! I keep it handy for that quiet moment when I drop off my wife at the grocery store, it helps quell the anxiety of worrying how much she will spend!
He began this work with a sad look at poverty and it was heart rendering to have to think that this kind of poverty exists. He did show mercy on us by then moving on from the misery of poverty to present an advanced course on hotels, which I found brilliant and disgusting. He points out that what he describes in the way of filth is the norm not the exception. How can I ever go out to eat again!

The odd thing I that I do not usually like such grim accounts, but George Orwell has such a direct, captivating way of writing that I have to carry on!

Bionic Jean wrote: "The odd thing I that I do not usually like such grim accounts, but George Orwell has such a direct, captivating way of writing that I have to carry on!"

I agree BJ and that is what separates the great writers from the rest of us!

Indeed!

I've been reading today's chapters, and (not to say any spoilers) have just realised George Orwell's skill here, at making a truly awful situation absurd. We laugh, despite ourselves!

Bj, I am not sure whether I am ahead or behind of the group in my reading of this wonderful book. I recently read a chapter where he clearly states his views on the job of a plongeur, the common man, the person Orwell champions. I know this group's rules preclude politics and other nasty things. Yet, in reviewing this book we have his humor as you so astutely reported on; but so much more. Things like his socialism, his views on race, his antisemitism and yes, the p word - politics. How do we not go into these mine fields in the context of George Orwell's and the rules of the group.

Jennifer said 3 chapters a week, and posted on Mondays, so I'm expecting chs 7-9 today. It's latish evening here so I decided to post though I'm probably before most of the USA and well behind the Antipodes.

There are summaries at beginning of each section so far, so it should be easy to keep track from now on, as I'm sure Jennifer will title it with the chapter numbers.

Bill wrote: "in this book we have ... Things like his socialism, his views on race, his antisemitism and yes, the p word - politics. How do we not go into these mine fields in the context of George Orwell's and the rules of the group..."

Ah you are thinking of rule 3. Here it is in full:

3. No party politics! We are here to discuss George Orwell's works, not party politics. Please keep your comments to the remit of the group. Keep it relevant: only use specific examples when they form part of a discussion of a particular group read of a work by George Orwell. Do not proselytise; political campaigning is not allowed. Please discuss issues in broad terms, and be objective. This is an international group, so try not to be insular; do not talk exclusively about your own country, or assume that everyone has your viewpoint. Any mention of current political figures or parties is likely to be deleted from the group.

***

It's a fair question, and a fine line to tread. I've underlined the bits which might help.

Of course we can discuss the politics of the time and place, and how that relates to the book; the social conditions at the time and so on. Sadly though I have found that online discussions including politics often rapidly deteriorate into slanging matches 🙄 with people stating their political affiliations and naming-and-blaming current party politicians in their own country.

We have already read part of the book as The Spike and it has not happened in this group. 😊 It would contravene rule 1 as well: to remain respectful. So Jennifer and I will have our radars up for that.

I hope this helps, Bill.

I've enjoyed reading about Boris in today's stories. He's the eternal optimist, so sure he's going to be rich tomorrow while he doesn't have enough money for a loaf of bread.

Hello, all!
I apologize! I am running late on getting my summaries of Chapters 7, 8 and 9 posted. I have those below. Life intervened with a funeral to go to, and I got a bit behind.

Bill, thanks for checking on regarding political discussions in the group. Orwell is a challenge to discuss in that way! Our hope is to have a book discussion and avoid a political discussion! I think Jean is right, that if we focus on the book, we can get a lot out of reading and discussing Orwell, without finding ourselves talking about our own particular politics.

I would add that my experience is that if I keep my writing and discussion focused on the text, it forces me to keep coming back to what the book I am reading is actually saying, so hopefully I will learn more about the book, by doing that.

I will also add that I have stated following mentions of Orwell in online publications, and that I see that people at all points in the political map seem to invoke Orwell at various times.

Connie, I so agree with you about the appeal of Boris! I can see why Orwell enjoyed keeping company with him!

I am a little bit reminded of the character Wilkins Micawber from Charles Dickens's David Copperfield. He's always in debt, but also, like Boris, an eternal optimist. We do know that George Orwell appreciated Dickens. There's an essay he wrote on Dickens where Orwell refers to Micawber as closer to real life than some other characters:
" Of course [that recurrent Dickens figure, the good rich man] is a pure dream figure, much further from real life than, say, Squeers or Micawber. "
https://www.george-orwell.org/Charles...

Summary 3: Chapters 7-9
Chapter 7
Our narrator's money "oozes away," down to just enough to buy a newspaper.... (view spoiler)[ They go several days on just dry bread, and then two and a half days on nothing. He says he is "too inert for work," a reminder that hunger makes it hard to earn money. When he wakes on the third day feeling better, he goes to Boris to ask to share his two francs, only to find that the mechanic took back his most recent payment and now plans to "shoot the moon" (leave while owing rent). Boris's plan, his ruse de guerre, is to leave with his overcoat, abandoning his suitcase. Our narrator leaves and comes back with his coat, so that he can smuggle Boris's coat out, so that they can then pawn both coats. They go to the pawn shop and are told that the coats need to be in a container. Boris reads an article about bicycling so as to be able to distract the patron at the boarding house while Orwell takes the suitcase out. They go back to the pawn shop, and are again refused, this time for not having sufficient papers of identification. Our narrator heads back to his room to get his papers and heads to the pawn shop. It is now closed. Then, at last, luck changes. He finds a five-sou piece on the street, enough to buy a pound of potatoes. They have enough alcohol in the stove only to parboil them, but it is food.

At four, he goes back to the pawnshop, and is shocked to be given fifty francs for the two coats. The two get bread, wine, and alcohol for the stove, and gorge. Boris, feeling better, remembers a friend that owes him four thousand francs, and who might be persuaded to pay some of what he owes if approaches late in the day, when he is drunk. The two argue for two hours, during which time all of Boris's money is spend on dinner and drink. Boris goes to sleep with a fellow Russian refugee. Orwell ends the day well fed, and with cigarettes and eight francs left in his pocket.

Chapter 8
At the start of this chapter, they have 28 francs in hand, as Boris has managed to borrow 20 francs from a Russian friend. Boris comes up with the idea of getting a Russian secret society to give them money. They want articles on English politics for their Moscow paper. The Paris police are hard on Communists, but this is a chance at hundreds of francs. At the rendezvous, they are asked for a password, which they do not have, but Boris's friend appears and gives it. Thet are upbraided for not having brought a bundle of washing so as to look like customers of the washerwoman downstairs. The Russians demand twenty francs as an entrance fee. Boris pays five on account, as he and Orwell are down to seventeen francs. They tell Orwell that they will pay 150 francs an article, and say to await a letter. After three days, there is still no letter, so they are simply out the five francs. Ten days later, they take a bundle of washing and go to visit the secret society again. The Russian gentlemen have vanished, having had trouble about the rent. Orwell includes they were swindlers, and that the touch of demanding that they bring a parcel of washing next time, was genius.

Chapter 9
Boris and Orwell spend three more days looking for work. Boris has two possibilities -- a possible job at Hotel X, and a place at the new restaurant, whose owner has come back. Boris makes sure to slap his cheeks before going to speak to the owner, so as to avoid looking too hungry. The patron is an ex-colonel of the Russian army. Orwell is prepared to look servile and tell lies about having experience as a dishwasher. When the Russian comes to speak to him, he expresses delight at meeting an Englishman and wants to hear about golf. At the end of the conversation, Boris is hired as maitre'd, and Orwell as plongeur, with a chance at rising to lavatory assistant of trade is good. Orwell is unimpressed. He thinks the owner looks like a cheat. Boris is undiscouraged, and looks forward to everything being better in just a fortnight.
Two bad days follow, when the two occupy themselves by talking about the grand meals they will eventually eat. Their money comes to an end, and Orwell spends another day without food. That night, Boris awakes him by shouting from the street. Before speaking, he hands Orwell a loaf of bread, then tells him that the Hotel X job came through. he just spent all day working, and so has been able to eat. Orwell notes that after ten to twelve hours of work, and with a game leg, Boris's first thought had been to walk 3 kilometers to come tell Orwell the good news! They make an appointment to meet the next day. Boris comes, bringing food he has smuggled out. He explains that he is working in the cafeterie, the lowest post in the hotel. It's a come-down for a waiter, but means food and money until the restaurant opens. He plans to keep smuggling food to Orwell, but then a dishwasher at the hotel quits, bringing their money troubles to an end. (hide spoiler)]

I would not have predicted that one could write a page-turner about the two men dealing with poverty, but I was riveted by these chapters!

I thought it very realistic that the amount of money they have is such a key part of these chapters. It's like a drumbeat.

That led me to be curious about how much money is involved, so I went looking for a currency converter. If I am doing the calculations right, the 50 Fr Boris and Orwell got when pawning their coats translates, in 2024 buying power, to:
GB£ 31.50
US$ 35.05

At the start of chapter 7, Orwell goes to ask Boris to share in his 2 francs, which would translate today to GB£1.26 or US$1.40. In practical terms, for me, that's enough for 4 packages of ramen noodles.

A sou was 1/20 of a franc, so the coin that Orwell found that let him buy some potatoes and that was the beginning of luck turning, was 1/10 of those amounts.

Calculations (view spoiler)[
50 Fr (1928) x [ 1£ (1928) / 124.9564 Fr (1928)] x [£78.73 (2024) / £1 (1928)] = 2024 £31.50

50 Fr (1928) x [ 1US$ (1928) / 25.5951 Fr (1928)] x [$17.94 (2024) / US$1 (1928)] = 2024 US$35.05

Archival Currency Converter 1916–1940: https://canvasresources-prod.le.unime...

Inflation Calculator
https://www.in2013dollars.com/UK-infl...
(hide spoiler)]

JenniferAustin wrote: "I would not have predicted that one could write a page-turner about the two men dealing with poverty, but I was riveted by these chapters!"

Oh yes, me too! I thought I'd eke them out, but didn't want to! 😁

"shoot the moon" (leave while owing rent) was new to me. I'd have expected the expression "do a moonlight flit" which originated in the Victorian era and is still used today to mean essentially the same thing. I wonder if George Orwell used "shoot the moon" instead, as a translation from the French?

Thanks for converting the money Jennifer! Working fulltime in a shop in England exactly 40 years later, earned me the princely sum of £5.50, which was exactly half of my £11 weekly rent. For this I got one tiny room and the use of a (mould-infested, basement) bathroom and toilet - but it did not include heating anywhere, or hot water, which was all done by coin-in-the-slot meter 😥 I suspect this was similar to conditions in Paris, and proportionally similar (i.e. allowing for the later time and difference in cost of living) too.

I can't imagine what I could have done without that pathetic paypacket though! My fingers are crossed for George Orwell's dishwasing work ... but imagine being promoted from that to cleaning toilets 😲 How bad must it be?

It was the section where he and Boris took bundles of "washing" to the fake Communist magazine that made me fall about, and realise that this is such an absurd farce. And how George Orwell succeeded in getting his job by reciting the rules of golf - which of course he must know because he was English! 😂

(Golf is a Scottish game ... https://www.history.com/news/who-inve... )

Great observation about how Boris is like Micawber from David Copperfield!

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”

.. the trouble was that he always forgot his own wise words when he had a bit of luck!

(Yes, George Orwell admired Charles Dickens's skill as an author, and his concerns a lot, but found him essentially bourgeois.)

I'm loving this read, thanks Jennifer!

Bionic Jean wrote: "shoot the moon" (leave while owing rent) was new to me. I'd have expected the expression "do a moonlight flit" which originated in the Victorian era and is still used today to mean essentially the same thing. I wonder if George Orwell used "shoot the moon" instead, as a translation from the French?"

Jean, I am so glad you are enjoying this, too!

"Shoot the moon" as in "skip rent in the middle of the night" puzzled me, too. (I do use this phrase when playing hearts, with a very different meaning!)

I did a little more digging and found this:
SHOOT THE MOON, to remove furniture from a house in the night, without paying the landlord.
-- A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words: Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London... (2nd ed., 1860)

The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests that this is an example of the usage:
" O, 'tis cash makes such crowds to the gin shops roam,
And 'tis cash often causes a rumpus at home ;
'Tis when short of cash people oft shoot the moon ;
And 'tis cash always keeps our pipes in tune.
Cash! cash! &c."
-- Melodist, and mirthful olio; an elegant collection of the most popular songs... ," vol. IV, London, 1829

Oh, it is English then? And sounds like a synonym in originally in use at the same time ... well I never 😮 What does it mean in card games?

Bionic Jean wrote: "Oh, it is English then? And sounds like a synonym in originally in use at the same time ... well I never 😮 What does it mean in card games?"

I was surprised, too! I am thinking that it may have been floating around, but that it was fairly obscure. A few more examples: (view spoiler)[
"To "shoot the moon," as the English say, is to decamp from a house without paying the rent."
--- The Proverbs of Scotland 1868 (1868)

"By "shooting the moon," my grandpapa explained that he employed a well-known technicality which meant leaving Chislehurst at night, in an abrupt manner, without letting our departure be known beforehand or advertising our new address in the local newspapers, or even mentioning it at the post-office."
-- A deal with the devil / Eden Phillpotts. -- 1895 Leather Bound (1895)

"The stars shoot in the sky—nay, I've heard say,
Folks sometimes shoot the moon on quarter-day."
-- A Book of Burlesque Sketches (1891)

"Quarter day
rent to pay
afraid to stay
bolt away...
cash affairs
are out of tune
shoot the moon
we fly by night.."
-- The Comic Almanack 1st Series 1835-1843
(hide spoiler)]

In the card game "hearts," it means that you set out to stick it to the other players. If you succeed, you get zero points and the other players get 26 (in a game where you are aiming for minimal points, and the game is over when someone reaches 100).

Orwell was definitely fond of language, and I recall reading an essay where he decried changes in language, so he may have tended to pick up and use some older phrasings?

You are thinking of the excellent Politics and the English Language Jennifer, which we discussed a while ago, before you were with us I think LINK HERE. He was criticising misusing language to distort and manipulate, and analysed in detail how this was achieved, giving examples from all political persuasions.

And how ironic that, as you said, people of all political leanings now quote George Orwell's own words, and interpret them to mean whatever they like.

Do read the thread and add your thoughts when you are able 😊

Bionic Jean wrote: "You are thinking of the excellent Politics and the English Language Jennifer, which we discussed a while ago, before you were with us I think LINK HERE. He was criticising misusing l... Do read the thread and add your thoughts when you are able 😊"
I will do that, Jean. Thank you!

Summary 4: Chapters 10-12
Chapter 10
The personnel manager at the Hotel X interviews the narrator. Though he sees that he is lying about having dishwashing experience...(view spoiler)[, he hires him because he can help staff practice and improve their English. He takes him through a labyrinth of underground passages, mostly stiflingly hot. People rush by, including one carrying a large, unwrapped slab of veal on one shoulder. He is taken to a roon another level down, where he can’t stand up straight (Orwell was 6’2” / 1.88 m) and where the temperature is about 110F, and starts a long day of work. At the end of the day, despite being cursed at all day, the Italian waiter he has been working with shares a good meal (leftovers from higher up employees) and wine (he stole an extra bottle) with him. Our narrator is offered a permanent job, and asked to sign on for a month. Thinking of Boris’s job coming up in two weeks, he asks to commit for just a fortnight, and evidently loses the chance at a job, as Hotel X wants a one-month commitment. On hearing about this, Boris is furious and tells him he can always leave later, contract or no. Our narrator hurries back, and signs on for a month.

Chapter 11
Our narrator works six days a week at Hotel X, for between 11 and 14 hours a day, depending on his duties that day -- exceptionally short hours for a plongeur. The only hardship os the heat and stuffiness in the basement. The cafeterie is between 110 and 130F, though the walk-on ice cupboard for milk and butter is 100 degrees colder. The work comes in burss of two hours at a time, and it takes a year to become a reliable cafetier. The work is physically demanding, and even more than that, mentally taxing. A benefit is that he is fed, though the food is “only eatable,” and provided with two liters of wine a day, plus heeltaps. After six days, he is very ready for his day off, and goes out drinking. He is awakened the next day by the night watchman from the hotel, saying he must go in as the hotel is short. He goes in, still hung over, and soon feels better, as the basement acts like a turkish bath. It is a benefit of being a plongeur.

Chapter 12
One of our narrator’s regular work days consists of helping a waiter, Valenti, on the fourth floor, and this is an exceptionally humane and pleasant day. Valenti shares many colorful stories from his life. He began working at age 12, and has worked his way up from the gutter. One appalling story involves his making love to a rich old woman who gave him a ring and afterwards accused Valenti of stealing it. The day when Orwell washes up for the dining room is unpleasant, as the waiters are insolent (he mentions using his fists to get some respect). Our narrator remarks on how different people are with customers, acting like aristocrats, and behind the door into the dining room. One waiter he describes as yelling an insult in the same manner as Squire Western in Tom Jones. (hide spoiler)]