microrobert
12-05-2014, 04:54 PM
George Orwell’s jail time confirmed by unseen court records
Author’s wilful arrest for drunkenness in order to experience prison while researching Down and Out in Paris and London had been questioned, but research confirms truth
The balance between fact and fiction in George Orwell’s investigations of poverty has been questioned ever since an anonymous reviewer of his 1933 memoir, Down and Out in Paris and London, wondered “if the author was really down and out”. But now an academic has dug up court records which put one of Orwell’s experiments on firmer ground: the author’s arrest for being “drunk and incapable” in the East End of London while posing as a fish porter named Edward Burton.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/04/george-orwell-jail-time-unseen-court-records
Author’s wilful arrest for drunkenness in order to experience prison while researching Down and Out in Paris and London had been questioned, but research confirms truth
The balance between fact and fiction in George Orwell’s investigations of poverty has been questioned ever since an anonymous reviewer of his 1933 memoir, Down and Out in Paris and London, wondered “if the author was really down and out”. But now an academic has dug up court records which put one of Orwell’s experiments on firmer ground: the author’s arrest for being “drunk and incapable” in the East End of London while posing as a fish porter named Edward Burton.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/04/george-orwell-jail-time-unseen-court-records