Down and out in Paris and London...

hi everyone my first post, ive been reading a few of the orwell related posts, and noticed there wasn't much about this book. has anybody else on here read it? i dont really know what it is about the book, maybe just his writing style, but i loved it. i first read 1984 when i was about 18 and thought it was good, i have read Animal Farm too, but never really rated him. then i decided to read down and out in paris and london. after reading this i think i have possibly found my favourite author even though ive not read all his works, hes brilliant! im currently reading Homage to Catalonia :) anyone else like orwell? i cant put my finger on what it is i like though, just find him very entertaining, with other novels i can switch off sometimes, but i never have that with orwell...

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Originally Posted by chris26

hi everyone my first post, ive been reading a few of the orwell related posts, and noticed there wasn't much about this book. has anybody else on here read it? i dont really know what it is about the book, maybe just his writing style, but i loved it. i first read 1984 when i was about 18 and thought it was good, i have read Animal Farm too, but never really rated him. then i decided to read down and out in paris and london. after reading this i think i have possibly found my favourite author even though ive not read all his works, hes brilliant! im currently reading Homage to Catalonia :) anyone else like orwell? i cant put my finger on what it is i like though, just find him very entertaining, with other novels i can switch off sometimes, but i never have that with orwell...

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Yes excellent book, as is Homage.

Interesting that you like the non-fiction better than Orwell's fiction. You'd probably enjoy his essays as well, as they're the same style as Homage and P&L.

Lots of Orwell fans here!

I prefer Paris and London a lot more to homage to Catalonia, even though homage to Catalonia has a lot of heart, it is more of a insider's news briefing than a novel, so many things to interrupt the main storyline (newspaper clippings, long chapters on politics).

But I understand why he compromised the general reading quality of his novel to make his book dispel all the false propaganda going on during the Spanish civil war. It was something that had to be told because no one else was going to, well not many anyways.

Orwell's novels are extremely engaging which is why they can be read without switching off. I remember I read all of his fiction stories in one summer. His essays are more difficult to get through at times because it is just the fact that everything back then seems so irrelevant. But when he talks about things on a more basic manner like totalitarianism, imperialism, propaganda, those essays ring true today in most any setting. It seems that even when he is talking about something I have no care for, I am still interested in reading it because of his imperfect human writing style

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Originally Posted by burmesedays

But I understand why he compromised the general reading quality of his novel to make his book dispel all the false propaganda going on during the Spanish civil war. It was something that had to be told because no one else was going to, well not many anyways.

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Still remains one of the few front-line, factual accounts of a very dirty little war. Because WWII started stright afterwards, I think the Spanish Civil War is largely forgotten outside of Spain.

If not for that, I think Homage would probably be regarded as Orwell's most important work.