A curious memoir of poverty and privation. Being his first, it is far from Orwell's best -- stylistically unadorned, full of platitudes.

Still: the more I read Eric Blair, the more I am persuaded that he lived one of the most interesting lives ever known to man/woman. Born in India, serving as a civil servant in Burma, living as a tramp in Paris & London, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, etc. It's clear that he learned through experience, rather than through theoretical abstractions, which, of course, gives him a much keener insight than that of lesser, more polished, intellectuals who expound on human nature and social injustice. While a certain degree of bitterness emerges even in his earliest writings, it doesn't match the bitterness of his later writings, since it is balanced, especially herein, by a unique sense of irony, and thoroughgoing curiosity about the world in general.

Note: Down and Out should be required reading for all privileged intellectuals (like me); although, I fear, most of us won't "get" it.

Note, too, (or "two" -- both wok in this case): becoming increasingly frustrated with Harcourt/Mariner/Harvest editions: no introductions; no explanatory footnotes; and typos! Simply unacceptable!