Physical description

Hard cover book. The People of The Abyss
Author: Jack London
Publisher: Thomas Nelson & Sons
Date: 1903
Further Information: A plain volume bound in pale blue cloth, with a stuck-on library classification label ("PAT FIC LON") on the spine and no visible date, edition statement, or printer's imprint on the pages shown the copyright/date page. There's no gilt decoration, no illustrated boards, and no dust jacket.

Publication type

fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on spine with typed text PAT FIC LON
Paste down front end paper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library covered by a sticker from Corangamite Regional Library Service
Front loose end paper has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service

Summary

In the summer of 1902, Jack London disguised himself as a stranded American sailor and spent about six to seven weeks living among the poor of London's East End, sleeping in workhouses, doss-houses and on the street, and living for a time with a poor family in Whitechapel. These conditions were shared by roughly five hundred thousand working-class people at the time. The resulting book, published in 1903, is an immersive, first-person exposé of poverty, hunger, homelessness and the failures of social and government institutions in the world's wealthiest city at the height of the British Empire. In the book's conclusion, London blamed the deprivation on the incompetence of the governing institutions, calling out 'the political machine' managing the country. It combines reportage, statistics and personal narrative, and was illustrated with photographic plates documenting the conditions he witnessed.