The People of the Abyss

The People of the Abyss is a history book written by Jack London and first published in 1903.

The book narrates the first person experience of Jack London after living several weeks in the East End to try to understand what life was like for the poorest families in London. To understand what the working class was like, London stayed in almshouses, on the street itself or in the home of a low-income family.

In this day to day life, mixing with desperate people and homeless, London lives in first person the reality of these poor people who accept their fate despite having no future. A situation in which hunger, alcoholism and lack of hygiene are normalized and with no prospects of improving in the future. We are, therefore, before an essential journalistic testimony to know the city of London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

This edition is based on MACMILLAN'S STANDARD LIBRARY edition, with many illustrations from photographs, GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS, 1903, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.