Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell

[Janet]

 

Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell

 

The ‘blurb’

Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a ‘good job’ in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-faithful Rosemary, has the strength to challenge his commitment to his chosen way of life. Through the character of Gordon Comstock, Orwell reveals his own disaffection with the society he himself once renounced.

 

First published in 1936, Orwell disliked this novel and, together with A Clergyman’s Daughter, requested that it wasn’t reprinted again in his lifetime, although he did not object to them being reprinted after his death so that his heirs might receive “a few pounds”.

 

Semi-autobiographical, it deals with the awkwardness and embarrassment caused by lack of money. In Gordon Comstock’s case, this poverty is entirely self-inflicted. His sister occasionally, and thanklessly, helps him out financially, but only Rosemary and his friend and sometimes-publisher Ravelston stand faithfully by him. But can Gordon sustain this lifestyle of disinterest in money, or will he inevitably succumb to a conventional way of life?

 

Orwell’s interest in class-awareness and class-distinctions feature heavily and show that even the so-called lower classes have their own snobbery as highlighted by Gordon and Rosemary’s enforced stop at a ‘posh’ restaurant in Berkshire and their treatment by the staff there.

 

There is a surprising amount of sex in this novel compared to his other similar novels (A Clergyman’s Daughter, Coming Up For Air…) but this it is all implied. The novel contains both sadness and humour but it is, as is often the way in Orwell’s novels, the air of sadness that the reader is left with.

 

This isn’t my favourite Orwell novel, but I enjoyed it, although I wouldn’t go far as to recommend it unless you have read and enjoyed other of his, perhaps lesser-known, novels before.

[ian]

I've read three of Orwell's book before, 1984, Animal Farm & The road to Wigan Pier. Both 1984 & Wigan pier had much the same affect on me. While both are excellent, they are both exceptionally depressing and, in my opinion, tend to go off a little at the end. Animal farm is excellent. This sounds interesting - how do you think it compares to any of these, if you've read them?

 

 

Ian

[Janet]

This sounds interesting - how do you think it compares to any of these, if you've read them?

I have read them and I suppose it is closest in feel to The Road to Wigan Pier as it deals with the theme of poverty, albeit that this is fiction and the protagonist's poverty is self-induced.

[ian]

Thank you, Janet - another book added to my TBR pile! Sigh.

 

Ian