The People of the Abyss (Unabridged)

Written by Jack London

Narrated by David McCran

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).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookstream Audiobooks
• Release date: Jan 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9783990869932

Jack London

Jack London was born in San Francisco on January 12th 1876, the unwanted child of a spiritualist mother and astrologer father. He was raised by Virginia Prentiss, a former slave, before rejoining his mother and her new husband, John London. Largely self-educated, the teenage Jack made money stealing oysters and working on a schooner before briefly studying at the University of Berkeley in 1896. He left to join the Klondike Gold Rush a year later, a phenomenon that would go on to form the background of his literary masterpieces, The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906). Alongside his novel writing London dabbled in war reportage, agriculture and politics. He was married twice and had two daughters from his first marriage. London died in 1916 from complications of numerous chronic illnesses.

Reviews for The People of the Abyss (Unabridged)

[Dawn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the most mind-blowing books I've ever read. So well written and descriptive detailing the life of the poor in Victorian London. Hats off to Jack London that he persevered (for the most part) and left this legacy reminding us of attitudes from an era we must never return to. Absolutely horrific. Thank goodness for the unions!