Down and Out in Paris and London. by ORWELL, George - 1933

London: Victor Gollancz Ltd,, 1933. Octavo. Original black cloth, title to spine in green. Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Spine a little sunned and rolled, top edge and fore-corners with small nicks, some minor marks to cloth, a little spotting to edges, endpapers, and margins. Sound and presentable, a good copy. First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author in the month of publication, "Best Wishes - Eric Blair, 29.1.33", on the front free endpaper. Down and Out in Paris and London, which was Orwell's first full length book, was published on 9 January 1933 in an edition of 1,500 copies. Signed or inscribed copies are very scarce indeed, and the two that we have handled, each inscribed to personal acquaintances, were similarly presented using his real name. It was only during the proof stages of this book's publication that Eric Blair finally settled upon the nom de plume that would see him through his career. The copy presented by Orwell, using his pseudonym, to the British Museum (now British Library) in December 1934 shows the same distinctive dating format, with the month appearing over the year as a quasi-fraction. Down and Out in Paris and London, a two part memoir of the author's life among the poor and destitute in and around the two cities, was praised by Compton Mackenzie as an "immensely interesting book [...] a genuine human document, which at the same time is written with so much artistic force that, in spite of the squalor and degradation thus unfolded, the result is curiously beautiful".