Here are the dogs, and you have reached them

Just finished reading George Orwell's, "Down and Out in Paris and London".

I've read his "Animal Farm" and about half of "1984", but I didn't know that Orwell had done non-political work.

Essentially this book follows Orwell throughout his poverty years during the 1930's first in Paris and then in London.

Slaving away for two years in Paris as a plongeur, he came to know what poverty is really like; that certain destiny that the educated and middleclass are forever fearful of. To fall from social grace and be despised by your peers.

The next phase of Orwell's life finds him in London awaiting employment and so he again finds himself trying to cheat hunger and cold for a month before his job is ready for him. During that time Orwell meets all sorts of beggars and such while he slept in charity houses and wandered the roads in search of bread and pennies.

There comes a point in the book where he meets a fellow rascal by the name of Bozo, who earns a living as a street artist; scratching works of art into the pavement for coins until eventually meeting his end in the workhouses.

"If you set yourself to it, you can live the same life, rich or poor. You can still keep on with your books and your ideas. You just got to say to yourself, "I'm a free man in here"' - tapped his forehead - 'and you're all right.'

Reading this passage was familiar to me. So many times in the last few months of my life when I was feeling down and out, friends and strangers far worse off than I, reached out to give me the same advice.

How humbling when someone who really has a right to complain, comes along to warmly remind you that everything will be fine.

Great literature is not about the style and poetry of the words. It is about expressing the sentiments of life and the aspirations of the human spirit. It's also great to pad your shelves with so people think you are smart!