PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS by JACK LONDON

1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales

Jon Hagadorn

Fiction, Arts

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Todays story actually consists of the preface and first two chapters of jack London's book "People of the Abyss". which gives his first-hand account of the devastating poverty which was being suffered in London during the rise of the industrial age. At this time there were 300,000 people in London living in one room tenements, King Edward VII had just been coronated, and never had there been a greater division in society between the haves and the have nots. You can find the rest of the book, which is free at Gutenberg.org, here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1688/1688-h/1688-h.htm#chap02 Get all of our shows at one website: https://.1001storiespodcast.com REVIEWS NEEDED . My email works as well for comments: [email protected] SUPPORT OUR SHOW BY BECOMING A PATRON! https://.patreon.com/1001storiesnetwork. Its time I started asking for support! Thank you. Its a few dollars a month OR a one time. (Any amount is appreciated). YOUR REVIEWS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS AT APPLE/ITUNES AND ALL ANDROID HOSTS ARE NEEDED AND APPRECIATED! LINKS BELOW... Open these links to enjoy our shows! APPLE USERS Catch 1001 Heroes on any Apple Device here (Free): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-heroes-legends-histories-mysteries-podcast/id956154836?mt=2 Catch 1001 CLASSIC SHORT STORIES at Apple Podcast App Now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-classic-short-stories-tales/id1078098622 Catch 1001 Stories for the Road at Apple Podcast now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-stories-for-the-road/id1227478901 NEW Enjoy 1001 Greatest Love Stories on Apple Devices here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-greatest-love-stories/id1485751552 Catch 1001 RADIO DAYS now at Apple iTunes! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-radio-days/id1405045413?mt=2 NEW 1001 Ghost Stories & Tales of the Macabre is now playing at Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-ghost-stories-tales-of-the-macabre/id1516332327 NEW Enjoy 1001 History's Best Storytellers (Interviews) on Apple Devices here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-historys-best-storytellers/id1483649026 NEW Enjoy 1001 Sherlock Holmes Stories and The Best of Arthur Conan Doyle https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-sherlock-holmes-stories-best-sir-arthur-conan/id1534427618 ANDROID USERS- 1001 Radio Days right here at Player.fm FREE: https://player.fm/series/1001-radio-days 1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales at Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6rzDb5uFdOhfw5X6P5lkWn 1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries: https://castbox.fm/channel/1001-Heroes%2C-Legends%2C-Histories-%26-Mysteries-Podcast-id1323418?country=us 1001 Stories for the Road on Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/show/1001-stories-for-the-road Enjoy 1001 Greatest Love Stories on Stitcher here: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=479022&refid=stpr. 1001 Ghost Stories & Tales of the Macabre on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5P4hV28LgpG89dRNMfSDKJ 1001 Sherlock Holmes Stories (& Tales from Arthur Conan Doyle) https://open.spotify.com/show/4dIgYvBwZVTN5ewF0JPaTK 1001 History's Best Storytellers: (interviews) on Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/show/1001-historys-best-storytellers Catch ALL of our shows at one place by going to https://1001storiespodcast.com- our home website with Megaphone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Yeah, Welcome back everyone to 1001 Classic Short Stories and tales. This is your host John
0:34.7	Hagenorn. Today an unusual story from Jack London called The People of the
0:39.4	Abyss. It's a collection of stories from a visit he made to London in 1992, and I'll let him explain the rest to you in the forward.
0:47.0	We'll be doing chapters 1 and 2.
0:50.0	For those of you who want more, go to Gutenberg.org, search for Jack London, People of the
0:55.6	Avis. Hope you enjoy it.
0:59.3	The experiences related in this volume fell to me in the summer of 1902. I went down into the underworld of London with an attitude of
1:06.5	mine which I may best liken to that of the Explorer. I was open to be
1:10.7	convinced by the evidence of my eyes rather than by the teachings of those who had not seen, or by the words of those who had seen and gone before.
1:19.0	Further, I took with me certain simple criteria with which to measure the life of the
1:23.6	underworld. That which made for more life for physical and spiritual health was good.
1:28.6	That which made for less life which hurt and dwarfed and distorted life, was bad.
1:35.0	It will be readily apparent to the reader that I saw much that was bad.
1:38.8	Yet it must not be forgotten that the time of which I write was considered good times in England. The starvation and
1:45.3	lack of shelter I encountered constituted a chronic condition of misery which is
1:49.0	never wiped out even in the periods of greatest prosperity.
1:53.0	Following the summer in question came a hard winter.
1:56.0	Great numbers of the unemployed formed into processions,
1:59.0	as many as a dozen at a time,
2:01.0	and daily marched to the streets of London crying for bread.
2:04.0	Mr Justin McCarthy writing in the month of January
2:07.4	1903 to the New York Independent briefly epitomizes this situation as
	...

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