Down and Out in Paris and London, autobiographical work by George Orwell, published in 1933. Orwell’s first published book, it contains essays in which actual events are recounted in a fictionalized form. This fictional memoir narrates often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-outs of two great cities and, reflects the author’s preoccupation with social inequality and the conditions that create homelessness. The book begins by describing the protagonist’s stay in Paris, where he works as a dishwasher, before he moves back to England to explore life on the margins in London.