Keep the Aspidistra Flying

About this book

Gordon Comstock has declared war on the money god, but rebellion proves difficult when rent, hunger, pride, and desire all demand payment. George Orwell's novel follows the failed poet through shabby bookshops, cheap rooms, and strained relationships as he tries to preserve artistic integrity by choosing poverty. His cultivated contempt for respectability soon exposes its own vanity and cruelty, especially toward those who care for him. The aspidistra, emblem of middle-class security, becomes both enemy and mirror. Darkly comic and sharply observant, the book asks whether rejecting society's values is meaningful when the gesture becomes another prison for the self.