The tramp who fought communism

Down and out in Paris and London

George Orwell

Penguin Classics £7.99 pp.215

 

Devotee of George Orwell? You must meet Eric Blair.

For the pseudonymous writer who made a satire of communism in Animal Farm and the world a dark place to live in 1984, was made from a (real) starving dish-washer and a tramp roamer.

This making of of Orwell is in Down and out in Paris and London, a plotless travellogue diary of Orwell’s, by the time Eric, adventures as a voluntary poor in Paris and London.

Like a prince eager to mix with his people, the Eton boy, self proclaimed writer by shaving age, decided to dress in poor clothes to fell the meaning of poverty.

The scene is set in the Rue du Coq D’Or in Paris of the 30s ravaged by the economic crisis. In the name of dramatism, it all starts when Orwell finds himself out of money and unemployed.

After feeling the taste of starvation he finds a job as a dishwasher (en français, plongeur) and meets the hard life of the mob of Paris.

Eventually, he moves to London (why: not that he couldn’t stand it anymore in Paris, more than he was done) after a job offer which ends up to be delayed.

Turning down the help of a friend, Orwell becomes a roaming tramp sleeper of scummy spikes, again.

This all is a blending of fiction and reality. Through the cover of unavoidable poverty Orwell anticipates what will be of Norman Mailer and New Journalism. Feel and experience to write.

But more than the dull sociology of the book, the best is to see the roaming of Orwell’s mind. How Eric becomes George. How Mr Blair is made Mr Orwell.

That is when reflection takes over description.

Orwell learns, he claims, that tramps are not a dangerous mob ready to take over power. Rather they lack the strength to think in empty stomachs. Poverty makes men not to follow nor to thinking but to starve and roam.

That is how Down and Out in Paris and London turns out to be the road that took Orwell to 1984.

Ernest