In his own words, this is more of a travel diary than anything else.
As such, it is interesting, informative, and inspires curiosity, but it does not flow or leave you with anything more than a collection of short experiences pieced together.
Despite months down and out in Paris and London, Orwell still finishes saying he barely knows the life of someone destitute. He says he wants to know people like those he has met tramping around England or working 17 hour days in Paris intimately. He says he has only seen the ‘fringe of poverty’. This empathy is deeply touching.
‘Still, I can point to one or two things I have definitely learned by being hard up. I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning.’