Down and Out in Paris and London Characters

A friend of Orwell’s who secures him a job taking care of a “congenital imbecile” in London, B. is a prosperous gentlemen who lends Orwell a little money to help get him through his month in London without work.

A basement waiter at the Hotel X. Magyar is not a hard-worker. Orwell describes him as a hairy, uncouth brute of a man.

He is a communist who steadfastly refuses to work. Like Boris, Jules is a waiter at the Auberge. He is small, dark, talkative, and a former medical student.

She is a fan of Tolstoy and of opera and claims to have been a singer in her youth. She and Orwell bicker constantly in the Auberge kitchen over, of all things, the garbage can. She often breaks down in tears during her shifts and is very superstitious.

The wife of the Patron, who is the owner of the Auberge. She is, in Orwell’s words, “fat, French, and horrid.”

The owner of the Hotel des Trois Moineaux, Madame F is Orwell’s landlord in Paris. She is a good sort who charges reasonable rents and a “splendid Auvergnat peasant woman with the face of a strong-minded cow.”

An eccentric, dwarfish couple who live in the Hotel des Trois Moineaux, they make money selling postcards they claim are pornographic. In reality, the cards are merely photos of a chateau.

Henri is a mostly-mute sewer worker. He is a resident of the Hotel des Trois Moineaux, and was once imprisoned for stabbing his unfaithful lover.

The owner of an unnamed hotel in the Latin Quarter, she accuses her tenant of squashing insects into the wallpaper.

Azaya is a “great, clumping” peasant girl who frequents the bistro at the foot of the Hotel des Trois Moineaux on Saturday nights. She works at a glass factory.

A friend of Azaya’s , she is dark, Corsican, and stubbornly virginal.

A Spaniard who also spends his Saturday nights at the bistro.

A bricklayer who brings his bastard children to the bistro with him.

A peasant girl involved with Charlie who pretends to be pregnant in order to gain entrance to a Catholic-run maternity hospital in Paris.

An Englishman who lives half the year at the Hotel des Trois Moineaux and half the year in London. He drinks himself into a stupor nearly every night.

A rag merchant and inhabitant of the Hotel des Trois Moineaux.

A Romanian who lives at the Hotel des Trois Moineaux. He has a glass eye and won’t admit it.

A thief who robs many of the rooms in the Hotel des Trois Moineaux, including Orwell’s.

An angry man who regularly underpays the residents of the Latin Quarter for their clothes. The clothing store owner is an example of Orwell’s casual anti-Semitism. Orwell equates the store owner’s Jewish identity with his tendency to cheat his customers.

Boris’s roommate who owes Boris 300 francs and, as a form of repayment, allows Boris to sleep on the floor and gives him two francs a day for food. The mechanic, whom Orwell never meets, is a second example book’s casual anti-Semitism.

Orwell’s boss during the time he works at the hotel, the chef du personnel is pale-faced, fuzzy-headed, and Italian.

A scarlet-faced man with a big mustache, the head cook regularly hurls abuse at waiters or at anyone else working for him.

An Italian waiter at the Hotel X who threatens to knife another waiter’s face over a woman.

An ex-lover of Boris’s who disappoints him when she refuses his request for a loan.

A peasant girl who lives in Valenti’s hotel, Maria saves Valenti from starvation when she discovers an oil can in his apartment. Maria returns the can to the store and, with the deposit money, buys Valenti bread and wine.

An inhabitant of Bozo’s London lodging house who makes a living selling old cigarette ends.

Dismissed from his practice for misconduct, the doctor doles out medical advice to the other tenants of Bozo’s lodging house.

A London organ grinder.

A London lodging house man who is an alumnus of Eton, a prestigious British school. He recognizes in Orwell a man of quality, like himself, and he takes great pride in being more educated than his fellow tramps.

An old London minister who, after serving tramps free tea, gives passionate sermons about the importance of being saved. Brother Bootle is abused mercilessly by the tramps.

Hands out tea and buns to the homeless of London while lecturing them on the Christian lifestyle.

Fattish, battered, a woman of sixty who holds herself apart from the male tramps and considers herself above them.

The soldierly, forty-something manager of a London spike, he treats Orwell with respect when he discovers he’s a gentleman by birth.

A British “beggar of the old breed,” Bill is strong as Hercules and allergic to work. He gets by through mooching and drinking and is proud of it.

Scallywag tramps who, according to Orwell, give other tramps a bad name through trickery and stealing.

A hairy Scottish tramp with a Cockney/Glaswegian accent.

A young carpenter with literary tastes whom Orwell meets in a London spike. He considers tramps “scum.”

A young prostitute who is raped by Charlie.