Memoirs of 1920s Paris

1. “Down and Out in Paris and London”, by George Orwell, 1933,

A story in two parts, although ostensibly a novel with a narrator (Eric), this is largely autobiographical. In the first part of the story, Orwell paints a portrait of living hand-to-mouth on the breadline of Paris, and describes work as a plongeur, a laborer, in Parisian restaurant kitchens. In Paris, the narrator lives in vermin-infested rooms, washes dishes in “Hotel X” and befriends those on the edges of society. The second part describes life on the road around London from a tramp’s perspective. There, the narrator studies begging with Bozo, a cripple with many stories to tell. This novel provides a fascinating portrait of the underbelly of Paris and London in the 1920s.


2. “A Moveable Feast”, by Ernest Hemingway, 1964,

A memoir in which Hemingway writes about his years in Paris in the 1920s, when he was a young, struggling writer, and a part of the American expatriate circle. In this slim volume, Hemingway describes this time as the happiest in his life. He also provides an enormous of amount of detail about places he frequented; and a tantalizingly small but fascinating insight into his personal life. Peopling the pages are his wife, Hadley, Ford Maddox Ford, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In fact, one of the highlights of this book is Hemingway’s description of a road-trip he undertook with “Scotty”. This is also singular in that during this period, Hemingway describes how he found his own writing-style.

Commentary: “A Moveable Feast” and “Down and Out in Paris and London” are terrific bookends. While Orwell’s search was journalistic, and Hemingway’s, written years after the fact, is narrative, both describe the same time, in the same city, as viewed by two young, struggling writers who would go on to great accomplishment. Separately, they are heartbreaking and wonderful; small glimpses into the lives both of a time and of a person; together, they form a fuller, more intense snapshot of Paris (and London) in the 1920s. A minor note is that interestingly, Orwell cloaks his identity and in the preface for “A Moveable Feast”, Hemingway remarks that the reader can either take the work as fiction or non-fiction.