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The People of the Abyss

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The People of the Abyss

By: Jack London
Narrated by: David McCran
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About this listen

The People of the Abyss (1903) is a book by Jack London about life in the East End of London in 1902. He wrote this first-hand account after living in the East End (including the Whitechapel District) for several weeks, sometimes staying in workhouses or sleeping on the streets. In his attempt to understand the working-class of this deprived area of London the author stayed as a lodger with a poor family. The conditions he experienced and wrote about were the same as those endured by an estimated 500,000 of the contemporary London poor. London also used the expression "the people of the abyss" in his later dystopian novel The Iron Heel (1907).

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Really struggling with this because of the awful narration, feels like a wasted credit 😤

Terrible narrator, spoils it...

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A very vivid insight into the grim hardship of life at the turn of the last century in the Whitechapel area of London.

A book everyone should read

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This book is an eye opening exposure of the overwhelming poverty in the East End of London at the beginning of the 20th century. Well worth reading. Jack London's personal experience of living there incognito and his writing skills make this a fascinating though deeply troubling book. In spite of all its faults, the Welfare state has eliminated most of the extreme poverty depicted in this book. We are so fortunate to be living now and not then.

Shocking.

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