Book People of the Abyss

Jack London, author of White Fang and The Call of the Wild gets it into his head to immerse himself in the underbelly of London at the turn of the century. With a coin sewed into the lining of his coat, he embarks on one of the original journeys of investigative nonfiction. His reaction as an American to the misery taken for granted by the English is lucid and sometimes quite funny. His influence on George Orwell is palpable. " I thought it was cigar and cigarette stumps they were collecting, and for some time took no notice. Then I did notice. From the slimy, spittle-drenched, sidewalk, they were picking up bits of orange peel, apple skin, and grape stems, and, they were eating them. The pits of greengage plums they cracked between their teeth for the kernels inside. They picked up stray bits of bread the size of peas, apple cores so black and dirty one would not take them to be apple cores, and these things these two men took into their mouths, and chewed them, and swallowed them; and this, between six and seven o’clock in the evening of August 20, year of our Lord 1902, in the heart of the greatest, wealthiest, and most powerful empire the world has ever seen. "