What is Work?

"Yet if one looks closely one sees that there is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people. Beggars do not work, it is said; but, then, what is work?... [Begging] is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course - but, then, many reputable trades are quite useless."

That is an excerpt from George Orwell's wryly amusing and despndantly stark "Down and out in Paris and London" which I just finished today.

I was turned onto this book from C, a former colleague and dear friend after she included the book amongst her top all-time reads.

It's amazing how many times I found myself chuckling while reading what otherwise is a documentary on the foul, detestable and heartbreaking loop-of-desperation the Parisian and London poor found themselves at the turn of the 20th century.

Despite the wry humor that is peppered throughout the work, it never takes away from the abject plight of any of the down and out characters that Orwell briefly captures in the painfully brilliant realistic vignettes that make up the work.

All in all it's an incredible work. I'm a bit ashamed to say it, but it was also my first work from Orwell that I've ever read. While I'd been reluctant to pick up "Animal Farm" or "1984" before, I am actually a bit eager to get my hands on them now.