Down and Out in Paris and London

<p><b>Volume 1 of <i>The Complete Works of George Orwell</i></b><br><br>Few authors can have striven so hard to make themselves professional writers as did George Orwell. As a child he talked of becoming a writer; he wrote for student publications at Eton; whilst serving in the Imperial Police in Burma he sketched out ideas for <i>Burmese Days</i>; on returning to Europe, he spent two years in Paris struggling to write.<br><br><i>Down and Out in Paris</i> <i>and London</i> was the outcome of those years in Paris and of months tramping south-east England. Whilst not quite autobiography, it does give a vivid picture of the kind of life he led 'in the lower depths', and exemplifies his belief that 'The greatest of evils and the worst of crimes is poverty. ' Orwell thought of calling this first book 'Confessions of a Dishwasher', and he hesitated for some time over the pseudonym under which it was published, the name by which, in due time, he was to achieve worldwide fame: George Orwell.<br><br>This edition of <i>Down and Out in Paris</i> <i>and London</i> differs in many ways from all earlier editions and retores material censored by its original publisher in 1933.</p>