Keep the Aspidistra Flying

About this book

In this edition of George Orwell's early novel, Gordon Comstock abandons a promising advertising career because he believes money corrupts art, affection, and freedom. Determined to live outside respectable society, he takes poorly paid work and clings to the identity of a neglected poet. Yet chosen deprivation damages his writing, humiliates his friends, and places an unfair burden on Rosemary, the woman who loves him. Orwell turns the household aspidistra into a satirical symbol of everything Gordon resists and secretly fears he needs. The result is a bitterly funny examination of class, self-deception, and the uneasy compromise between creative ambition and ordinary responsibility.