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Jack London

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The People of the Abyss Kindle Edition

by Jack London (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 790 ratings

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First published in 1903, "The People of the Abyss" tells Jack London’s descent into London’s east end in the 1900s.
Sent to cover Edward VII’s coronation, he went in search of the real story – the stinking slums. Doffing his Yankee togs for filthy rags purchased off a barrow in Petticoat Lane, the young, vigorous, handsome, American spent seven weeks amidst foul tenements, starving children, alcoholic adults, stunted human beings and bottomless despair. London rails against the industrial machine – operating without restriction in a divided metropolis where one in every four adults died on public charity.
"The People of the Abyss" shows how far we have come, but also the dangers of a new abyss yawning as global capitalism dumps unions and enforces zero-hour contracts, and the global arms industry’s bombs drive millions from their homes.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B081TRLWSC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ E-BOOKARAMA (September 9, 2023)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 9, 2023
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1107 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 149 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B09HNGD7LC

Best Sellers Rank: #1,080,659 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #68 in Teen & Young Adult Homelessness & Poverty Issues
- #107 in Teen & Young Adult Values & Virtues eBooks
- #520 in Social Classes & Economic Disparity

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4.3 790 ratings

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Jack London

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John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone.

Some of his most famous works include The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush, as well as the short stories "To Build a Fire", "An Odyssey of the North", and "Love of Life". He also wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as "The Pearls of Parlay" and "The Heathen", and of the San Francisco Bay area in The Sea Wolf.

London was part of the radical literary group "The Crowd" in San Francisco and a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the rights of workers. He wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics, such as his dystopian novel The Iron Heel, his non-fiction exposé The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by published by L C Page and Company Boston 1903 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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4.3 out of 5

790 global ratings

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Karen L. Porter

AN INDEPTH UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN CONDITION

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2023

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Excellent book giving valuable insight into the plight of humanity. Relating the personal experiences of Jack London on the hard, poverty-stricken Streets of London. This book explains adeptly why social services are a necessity for humans and society as a whole. Great read. 👍

2 people found this helpful

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M. Pizzullo

A depressing mirror to modern times

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2011

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Jack London, known for his turn of the century survival fiction, takes a different approach this time.. Investigative journalism, detailing the real world survival challenges of the poor and hopeless in 1900's East End London. The Language may be dated, but the accounts of the hardships and coping strategies of industrial society's peasants are more than relevant...both as a STFU to those who think hardship is not being able to afford ALL the pay channels and a sobering remimder of where our own society is headed. The book offers a glimpse of pre WWI european economy (East End conditions were abounding throughout most of europe)and social heirarchy and ends with a damning indictment of civilization's "management" Ahard read, with all the archaic prose and references to British money, compounded by the fact that most readers have no way to appraise the value of a 1903 shilling in 2011 dollars, but if you bear in mind that whatever it's worth, working people of the day had significantly less of them than the wealthy, and never enough to maintain what we Americans today would even consider a "poverty level" existence, the reader can still get the two driving points of the work...that things are not as bad for us as we make them out to be, and that we in America better get our $h1t together become they get as bad as pretend they are. You would be grateful to be living on Ramen noodles if you knew what these people went through.

10 people found this helpful

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Gail S

Jack London lived among the poor in England and gives detailed account of what it was like.

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2019

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This book gave me a true understanding about how the down and out folks got by in the Victorian period. Much of the material on this subject does not go into detail. We know there were workhouses, pickpockets and prostitutes. This book talks in detail about how the poor housed and fed themselves when work was scarce even to the point of explaining the gradations of poverty. It is factual, anecdotal. London lived among the ppo to see what was really going on and the result is this excellent book. Engrossing but quick read.

2 people found this helpful

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Anaboena

Too many typos

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2016

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This was my first large print book, and I bought this as an experiment since I love to read in bed, and paperback print is difficult for me to read with dim light. The large print definitely made it easier to read. However, there were so many typos in this printing of the book that, sometimes, it was difficult to figure out the intended meaning of sentences and phrases The typos definitely interfered with the enjoyment of the book. The story itself is an excellent read and I highly recommend it, but would suggest a different publisher.

One person found this helpful

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Charles F. Rice Jr.

A Look at the Dark Side of Yesteryear London

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2012

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I've had a view of the inability of governments to help people in need despite good intentions, and particularly in England from readings of Charles Dickens and others. However, this book by one of my favorite adventure writers did more to awaken a sometimes sleeping feeling of compassion for the needy than I have come across before.

This is not a work of fiction, although maybe it is. I know that Jack London's works of fiction, for the most part, are based on personal experience. How he could do the research described in the East End of London defies the imagination.

The subject matter is quite depressing, but at the same time very interesting. Makes one happy to be living in the present-day USA even with all our problems.

3 people found this helpful

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Zann

East End of London in 1902

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2017

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Very interesting telling of the situation of the poor in the East End of London in the early 1900s. It's really an interesting point of view on the lower classes of England who move to London to find work and are met with unemployment and poverty. The results of this poverty are shown in the health and social issues of the day. I really recommend this book. It's not long and to be honest the audio book is much easier to get through but get it. It's an eye opener.

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L. N. Howe

People of the Abyss: a book about the deplorable conditions in London's East End in 1902

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2014

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Years ago, having read only "White Fang" and "Call of the Wild," I thought of Jack London as a writer of fiction about the Yukon, Alaska and the Klondike. I have learned since that he was far more than this. His "Tales of the Fish Patrol" are true stories about when he worked for the government patrolling a part of the Pacific coast trying to keep rogue fishermen in line. His "The Road" is about his years as a young man riding the rails as a hobo across the US and Canada, including a 30-day stay in jail for supposed vagrancy in Niagara Falls. His "The Sea Wolf" is about a brutal ship's captain, Wolf Larsen.

"The People of the Abyss" is about the poor people who lived in the East End of London, England in 1902. Jack London made a study of them, even to the point of dressing like them and living for a time in the same squalid conditions. He sometimes slept on the streets; he tried and failed (as so many of them did) to get work. He compares life for American Indians and the Inuit (with which he was well acquainted) with these unfortunate East Enders, showing how it was far worse for the latter.

I was reminded, of course, of Charles Dickens' books in which he describes the poor of England in the 19th Century during England's Industrial Revolution. "People of the Abyss" is different, though. The good done for England's poor through Dickens' books and personal efforts probably cannot be overestimated. "People of the Abyss" is more focused on the plight of the East Enders, going into great detail over and over. And that is my only criticism, that the book goes on and on with the same drumbeat. But that drumbeat does drive the fact of the wretched lives of these people into you. More than even Dickens' books do, I would say, because with Dickens's novels, there is a lot that is amusing and touching, and there are some happy (some miraculous) endings for the main characters. "People of the Abyss" is a very worthwhile read, in my opinion.

9 people found this helpful

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rebecca addy

Call of the wild author's account of London

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2024

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Fascinating historical document of The East end of London during 1902, the year of Edward VII's coronation, as witnessed first hand by the Author.

Sibylle H.

Not much has changed in 2023

Reviewed in Germany on August 28, 2023

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This is a gem of a book. Going back to mid19th century, it describes in a detailed yet gripping fashion what life was like for the poor of London. The problems, as now, were high rents, poor building standards, poor nutrition and a lack of material safety following illness or an accident. Equally pertinent is advice quoted from the middle classes, who advocate working harder or cooking cheaper meals. Then as now, childhood mortality depends on income and then as now, schools discuss the inability of hungry children to learn. In summary: poor political management. The last chapter is particularly telling. So up to date!

Sue B

It was a devastating picture of society in the early ...

Reviewed in Canada on June 23, 2017

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It was a devastating picture of society in the early 1900's. We have come a long way since then but it begs the question as to how people could be so uncaring, oblivious and downright cruel to a significant portion of the population during those early years.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Didn't want to put the book down.

Reviewed in Australia on October 9, 2022

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A first hand account of life in the slums of London. A very graphic and confronting account of the residents of the Eastern end of London and how they survived, or, in some instances, didn't. I felt guilty sitting in the comfort of my home reading this book.

One person found this helpful

Client d'Amazon

5 étoiles pour l'oeuvre de London et 1 étoile pour le format du livre

Reviewed in France on December 23, 2016

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Amazon, merci de ne plus envoyer à vos clients des livres aussi mal formatés, à la limite du lisible qui gâche, à la fois l’œuvre et le plaisir du lecteur. Sans parler de la piètre qualité du papier utilisé pour la couverture pour un livre dit broché. Le livre gondole comme une toile ondulée.
Ce manque de professionnalisme nuit à l'image d'amazon et met à mal, pour ma part, la confiance que je peux avoir dans les produits vendus par amazon.
D'autant que cela n'est pas un acte isolé (cf.Unto this Last and Other Essays on Political - John Ruskin) Livre acheté mais non lu jusqu'à ce jour car pour le coup complétement illisible.
C'est bien de vouloir rendre financièrement accessible la lecture au plus grand nombre en proposant des œuvres à des prix très attractifs, mais attention à ce que cela ne se fasse pas, au final, au détriment de vos clients.
Amis lecteurs, the people of the Abyss, mille fois oui pour la qualité de l'ouvrage mais surtout achetez le dans une autre édition.
Merci Amazon de prendre de bonnes résolutions pour 2017 ;) de façon à continuer à satisfaire votre clientèle.

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