![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Orwell had gone to Paris in the spring of 1928 where he found lodgings in the tall and narrow rue du Pot de Fer in the fifth arrondissement (fictionalized as the rue du Coq d’Or). It enabled me to romanticize my deadly dull occupation, not least by allowing me to think of myself not as a dishwasher but as a plongeur. The book’s obvious appeal for me was that it seemed to be written by a soul mate, a letter from one unpublished writer and dishwasher to another. A tale of poverty in two cities, it is divided into two parts: in the first the author becomes a dishwasher in Paris in the second he lives the life of a tramp in London. The book was the first full-length work by George Orwell to be published. And it was during this time, morbidly attracted by the title, that I found a copy of Down and Out in Paris and London. The paper paid by the line and used so little of my copy that I was forced to find illegal work as a scullion in one of the city’s less elegant restaurants. ![]() Many years ago, when I was in my early twenties, I lived in Copenhagen where I was registered with the Foreign Ministry as correspondent for The Times. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |