A new edition of Orwell’s end-of-tether third novel, introduced and annotated by his biographer, D.J. Taylor
First published in 1936, and drawing on Orwell’s own experiences of working in a Hampstead bookshop, Keep the Aspidistra Flying tracks the career of Gordon Comstock (‘nearly 30 and moth-eaten already’) a struggling poet who tries to rebel against the conventions of middle-class English life, only to be drawn inexorably back into the world that grinds him down.
This new edition includes an introduction and extensive end-notes, and an appendix containing original responses to the novel as well as letters and documents from the period in which it was written.
First published in 1936, and drawing on Orwell’s own experiences of working in a Hampstead bookshop, Keep the Aspidistra Flying tracks the career of Gordon Comstock (‘nearly 30 and moth-eaten already’) a struggling poet who tries to rebel against the conventions of middle-class English life, only to be drawn inexorably back into the world that grinds him down.
This new edition includes an introduction and extensive end-notes, and an appendix containing original responses to the novel as well as letters and documents from the period in which it was written.