Keep The Aspidistra Flying

by George Orwell

Overview

A pre-cursor to his more famous works of Animal Farm and 1984, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is Orwell’s social commentary on capitalism’s constraints. Orwell captures the struggles of an aspiring writer with almost pitch-perfect attention to psychological detail, exploring the gulf between art and life.
Gordon Comstock is a poor young man who works in a grubby London bookstore and spends his evenings shivering in a rented room, trying to write. He is determined to stay free of the “money world” of lucrative jobs, family responsibilities, and the kind of security symbolized by the homely aspidistra plant that sits in every middle-class British window.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780156468992
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/19/1969
Series:	Harvest Book Series
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.88(h) x 0.64(d)
Lexile:	790L (what's this?)

About the Author

George Orwell (1903–1950), the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, was an English novelist, essayist, and critic. He was born in India and educated at Eton. After service with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, he returned to Europe to earn his living by writing. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of 1984 (1949), which brought him worldwide fame. 

What People are Saying About This

Lionel Trilling

A remarkable novel...A summa of all the criticisms of a commercial civilization that have ever been made.

Editorial Reviews

If 'peerless prose' could apply to one writer alone, I'd accord it to Orwell.

The Guardian