- Paperback: 264 pages
- Publisher: Mariner Books (19 Mar 1969)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0156468999
- ISBN-13: 978-0156468992
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.8 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 969,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Penguin Modern Classics)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A novel about a copywriter who embarks on a new life as a poetry writing bookseller, an action that has disastrous consequences. Determined to rebel against dull respectability he sets off on a voyage of discovery, accompanied by a faithful female companion.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
George Orwell's brilliant reporting and political conscience formed an impassioned picture of his life and times. Orwell was born in India and educated at Eton. He served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. He returned to England where he lived for several years in poverty. Among Orwell's books are DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON, BURMESE DAYS and THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER. He is best known for the allegorical fable ANIMAL FARM and in the novel NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR.
--This text refers to an alternate
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First Sentence
THE CLOCK struck half past two. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
THE CLOCK struck half past two. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This story can be hard work at times. As Gordon's grubby life gradually slides further downhill, you feel yourself being dragged with him. Although the story is set in a time and place alien to those born after the Second World War, the descriptions and profiles of life between the wars are vivid and heartbreaking.
But, like many a good novel, the journey is worth it. Without the knowledge of what has gone before, of life at the bottom rung of the ladder, of the self imposed hardship in the name of higher ideals, the pure simple joy of the destination reached at the end of the journey cannot be understood or appreciated for what it really is. Personal, unbridled, warmth and contentment. Stick with it... You won't regret it.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Keep the Aspidistra Flying is an unforgiving account of poverty and is at times extremely funny and satirical. It is a book that requires a great deal of patience from the reader as Gordon stubbornly struggles with his ideals and the resulting hardships.
Although Gordon declares that he has waged war on the 'money god' you get the impression that his self induced poverty gives him justification for acting on principle. Certainly to an extent this is true but he does seem to be protecting himself from realities. He is content to find a place where he is comfortable. Shielded from faliure, expectation and the challanges and difficulties of simply living - money, ambition and hope are all obsolete. His final descent is harrowing but Gordon always has an air of listlessness as well as a perverse contentment.
It is only after Rosemary yields to 'the only thing that matters' does Gordon's chosen way of life alter and this is what Keep the Aspidistra Flying is about. It is about being alive or in Orwell's words being born, being, married, begetting, working and dying. It is with a real sense of delight that you leave the book with the knowledge that finally something has happened to the Comstock family.
Throughly recommended.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Keep The Aspidistra Flying' is a tragi-comic exploration into the central character's attempt to stay true to his beliefs. However, he soon discovers that abandoning his promising career as an advertising copywriter in a bid to become an impoverished, garret-dwelling poet is not quite as romantic as he first thought.
Any reader who shares Gordon's political views will no doubt sympathise with him but at the same time, will want to take him by the shoulders and shake the idealism and naivete out of him before he wrecks his relationship with his long-suffering girlfriend and sets himself on a path to self-destruction. Satirical, moving, funny and ultimately positive as Gordon learns the importance of compromise - the Orwell of 'Keep The Aspidistra Flying' is not the bleak, visonary Orwell of 'Animal Farm' and '1984'.
However, the descriptions of Gordon's seedy bedsit will make you want to go and have a bath straight away.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An unlikely species!
This is a squalid and grimy little book, although the author would have agreed with me wholeheartedly. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. Thomas Graham
Intentionally frustrating
When I began reading I expected a heroic socialist protagonist who was truly out of his luck. I curse this expectation now considering that I am quite a fan of Orwell. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Kindle Billy
Semi-autobiography
Orwell did not like 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying'; he believed it and 'A Clergyman's Daughter' were awful. I agree with him on the latter, but not the former. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Teach
Underrated
It's not one of Orwell's most highly rated efforts but Comstock's travails really resonated with me and evoked genuine empathy and frustration with how his life unfolds and the way... Read more
Published 9 months ago by The Tyrant
Excellent Early Orwell
Gordon Comstock is the archetypal drop out who has self consciously rebelled against the 'money god' and his own bourgeois background. Read more
Published 17 months ago by FlyingAspidistra
Satirical wit
Gordon is a poet in his thirties, he detests capitalism and everything is stands for, and therefore decides to oppose it in all its forms. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Vickie
An anti-hero's delight
One of my favourite George Orwell novels, principally because I identify so strongly with it's anti-hero, the downtrodden dreamer, Gordon Comstock. Read more
Published 22 months ago by John Moseley
Very irritating central character
Probably my least favourite Orwell novel, as I found the central character Gordon Comstock very irritating with his constant moans about having no money and his stubborn resistance... Read more
Published on 8 April 2009 by John Hopper
Ouch - depressing!
I "like" Orwell's novels - can't say that I "enjoy" them as such but they all have a certain something. Read more
Published on 21 Oct 2008 by uncle barbar
Chin up
The dogged pursuit of a life outside the capitalist system by the central character can begin to get frustrating. Read more
Published on 15 May 2008 by J. P. Dickins
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