Orwell and the Dispossessed

by George Orwell, Peter Davison (Editor)

This volume brings together Orwell's powerful writings of his personal exepriences of poverty and life outside mainstream society. The complete texts of DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON is included.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Politics, Ebooks

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.

Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.

Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.

Reviews

[Chris Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with all the Orwell books I was fascinated by this collection of essays, reviews and letters together with the full text of Down and Out in Paris and London. The theme of the dispossessed is a powerful one that Orwell comes at from many surprising angles. The novel (DAOIPAL)itself is I think both shocking and hilarious in the (not quite) autobiographical detail of what it was like to live on no or little money in the two great cities of Europe. I love the character of Boris, ever optimistic and such a friend. The description of the life of tramps in England is stunning - the Casual Ward descriptions are amazing. Orwell illustrates poverty and inter-war society through some surprising lenses - Boys’ comics (as we would now call them), Bawdy seaside postcards, detective stories (some real treats to be had in following up the works he refers to by Ernest Bramah and R Austin Freeman - the characters of Max Carrados and Dr Thorndyke respectively), Comparisons of the story of Raffles with American crime novels and their sadistic brutality, The defence of PG Wodehouse against the charge of being a traitor and analysis of his attitude to society (the three phases of PGW’s work - school stories 1902-1913, American stories 1913-1920 and posh country house stories 1920 onwards - really made sense to me), The analysis of Kipling’s work both derogatory and positive (I never knew so many phrases in common use are due to Kipling), Observations on death in a French public hospital and comments on how doctors relate to patients.
This collection will live long in the memory and give much cause for thought.

[E. G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introduction
Editorial Note
Acknowledgements

--Foreword to The End of the 'Old School Tie' by T. C. Worsley
--From Burma to Paris
--'Unemployment', Le Progrès Civique, 29 December 1928
--'A Farthing Newspaper', G.K.'s Weekly, 29 December 1928
--Review: Lionel Britton, Hunger and Love; F. O. Mann, Albert Grope
--Letter to Dennis Collings, 27 August 1931
--Hop-Picking Diary, 25 August to 8 October 1931
--Unpublished essay, 'Clink', August 1932
--'Common Lodging Houses', New Statesman & Nation, 3 September 1932
--Letter to Leonard Moore, 19 November 1932
--Publication of Down and Out in Paris and London, 9 January 1933
--Down and Out in Paris and London
--Introduction to French edition of Down and Out in Paris and London, 15 October 1934
--Letter to the Editor of The Times, 11 February 1933
--Poem: 'A dressed man and a naked man', The Adelphi, October 1933
--Review: Jack Hilton, Caliban Shrieks, March 1935
--Poem: 'St Andrew's Day, 1935', The Adelphi, November 1935
--'Poverty in Marrakech', extract from Orwell's Morocco Diary, 27 September 1938
--Review: Martin Block, Gypsies, December 1938
--'Democracy in the British Army', Left Forum, September 1939
--'Boys' Weeklies', Horizon, 11 March 1940
--'Notes on the Way', Time and Tide, 30 March 1940
--Letter to Humphry House, 11 April 1940
--Review: Jack Hilton, English Ways, July 1940
--Review: A. J. Jenkinson, What Do Boys and Girls Read?, July 1940
--Review: T. C. Worsley, Barbarians and Philistines: Democracy and the Public Schools, 14 September 1940
--Discussion: 'The Proletarian Writer', with Desmond Hawkins, The Listener, 19 December 1940
--'The Home Guard and You: George Orwell puts a personal question to "make-believe democrats" - and real ones', Tribune, 20 December 1940
--'A Roadman's Day', Picture Post, 15 March 1941
--'The Art of Donald McGill', Horizon, September 1941
--'Rudyard Kipling', Horizon, February 1942
--'Answering You', BBC, London and MBS, New York, 18 October 1942
--'Not Enough Money: A Sketch of George Gissing', Tribune, 2 April 1943
--'The Detective Story', translated from French, Fontaine, 1944
--Extracts from London Letter to Partisan Review, 17 April 1944
--Review: Hilda Martindale, CBE, From One Generation to Another, 29 June 1944
--Extracts from 'As I Please', 35, Tribune, 28 July 1944
--Review: Marie Paneth, Branch Street, 13 August 1944
--'Raffles and Miss Blandish', Horizon, October 1944
--'In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse', The Windmill, July 1945
--'The Sporting Spirit', Tribune, 14 December 1945
--Review: Robert Tressall, The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, 25 April 1946
--'How the Poor Die', Now, November 1946

Further Reading
Index

[Victor Bevz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hope I get the chance to read this collection again. Highlights were "Down and Out in Paris and London" (1934) and "How the Poor Die" (1946). The shorter articles are mostly about literature aimed at the cusp of the lower and middle classes - the private school cartoon mags that run across decades in a total political vacuum, the 'proletarian literature' that was hardly ever came from members of the working class and the detective genre that evolved from centring on a range of petty crimes to almost only murders. "Rudyard Kipling" was also a good read for Orwell's concept of 'good bad poetry'.

[Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is some book I read in the UK, when visiting my cousin Alan, in the Penguin edition... I always, and perhaps still wonder what the collected works in 20 volumes looks like... IIRC I might have met a young Andrew Ng (the professor), on this trip...

[Georgia Hansard · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5