Keep the Aspidistra Flying

by George Orwell

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674 ratings, 3.89 average rating, 77 reviews (more data...)

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2		6%
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published

1970 (first published 2004) by Penguin Books Ltd

binding

Paperback, 272 pages

isbn

0140016988 (isbn13: 9780140016987)

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Tosh rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

09/12/08

Read in September, 2008

Well first of all, Orwell is a fantastic prose writer. He can really make your feet feel tired by his descriptions of walking long distance in London, and the way he describes food, drinking, and the loose change in your pocket is right on the mark. What made me tired is the main character's total obsession about money. Not having money, the making of money, etc. I hated that and that is one of the main themes of this book. But then again I wanted to shoot the main character in the head an...more

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Patricia rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

07/25/08

Read in July, 2008

Dear George Orwell,

It's not you, it's me. It had to happen, really, this bit of faultering in the crush I've had on you. Sure, I've known you for years, but as you know, I've been completely smitten with you since last summer when I read your first published novel, Down and Out in Paris and London. I grew more smitten while reading An Age Like This, 1920- 1940, your early correspondance, reviews, and essays, and I remained so while reading your 2nd published novel, Burmese Days....more Dear George Orwell,

It's not you, it's me. It had to happen, really, this bit of faultering in the crush I've had on you. Sure, I've known you for years, but as you know, I've been completely smitten with you since last summer when I read your first published novel, Down and Out in Paris and London. I grew more smitten while reading An Age Like This, 1920- 1940, your early correspondance, reviews, and essays, and I remained so while reading your 2nd published novel, Burmese Days. But now the new car smell has faded a bit from my crush (sorry George, I know how Socialists detest it when emotions are fetishized and commodified). It's just that this latest book of yours that I've read, your 4th published novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936, GB; 1956, US) has turned me from you a bit. I know that I'm probably making a mistake; others tell me how great you are--critic Lionel Trilling is quoted on the back leaf of my Harcourt edition as saying that Keep ... is "A remarkable novel ... a summa of all the criticisms of a commercial civilization that have ever been made," and the San Francisco Chronicle calls it "Both humorous and poignant." And to an extent, I agree--especially with Trilling's "summa" statement.

The story is simple enough: Gordon Comstock, a decent poet of little success, has declared war on money. He is determined that he will live in a constant state of poverty, battling throughout the book to avoid succumbing to the ownership of what is, to him, the symbol of the drudge of middle class life: the aspidistra, a spindly-leafed member of the lily family, prized for its ability to withstand poor soil, little light, and minimal care. And I have to say that establishing this plant as Comstock's nemesis is a fabulously Orwellian statement about what it means to achieve enough "success" to land oneself in the middling rank. If it were only that to consider, George, I'd still be all about you.

So what's my problem? you ask. Why am I giving you the "it's not you, it's me" speech? My problem is that your main character annoys me tremendously. Yes, Gordon Comstock shares some similarities to John Flory, the protagonist in Burmese Days. Both men step outside their immediate social group to take an objective look at that group. Both make attempts, albeit misguided and rather unsuccessful attemps, to avoid being manipulated by those close to them. But Flory is a much more sympathetic and likable character whose main flaw, one could argue, is blind romantic optimism. Perhaps in some ways, George, you see Comstock as Flory taken to the next step, the place one goes after blind romantic optimism has failed. To me, however, Comstock comes off as a whiney, self-destructive man having a major pout. He is determined that everyone around him be as repulsed by him as he is by the system that prizes the bastion of mediocrity that is the aspidistra.

In all honesty, George, I think the problem, as is so often the case when a romance takes a downward turn, is that Comstock reminds me of a past relationship, he reminds me of a friend in my real world, the one outside of the pages, who wanted to issue a similar indictment against society. I know it's bad form to compare our situation with one past, but it's true, I've seen it before, the way Comstock relishes his smugness as he sits in his pious filth only to realize that he is the only one who understands the joke. The problem is that neither my friend in the past relationship nor Comstock seem to understand that society as a whole doesn't take much notice when one man refuses to conform to its dictates. At most that refusal may get him tossed in jail for some fairly innocuous reason, but there's no real improvement in the social soil. As with my friend, when Comstock realizes this, he becomes disenchanted with his perfect society of one and must decide which is worse, to slog though life in embittered solitude or to join the rest of the group by opening the curtains to the front window so all can see that the aspidistra is thriving.

George, I guess what I'm saying is that I just need a little time and space. I know we've spent some amazing time together, and I'm sure that in time, I'll come to my senses and be back in touch. Until then, I wish you well and hope someone new finds you for the amazing guy you are.

All my best,

Patricia
...less

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Martine rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

03/18/08

bookshelves: british, early-twentieth-century, film, modern-fiction, psychological-drama

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: budding writers and closet socialists

I haven't yet read Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, a supposedly excellent autobiographical account of a middle-class man's descent into abject poverty, but I would imagine that some of the experiences Orwell describes in that book must have served him equally well in writing Keep the Aspidistra Flying, which must rank among the bleakest novels about self-induced poverty ever written in the English language.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying centres on Gordon Comstock...more I haven't yet read Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London, a supposedly excellent autobiographical account of a middle-class man's descent into abject poverty, but I would imagine that some of the experiences Orwell describes in that book must have served him equally well in writing Keep the Aspidistra Flying, which must rank among the bleakest novels about self-induced poverty ever written in the English language.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying centres on Gordon Comstock, a talented twenty-nine-year-old writer who has renounced a successful career in advertising -- not just to get some serious writing done, but on general principle. Gordon, you see, hates money. More specifically, he hates the English middle class's slavish devotion to money and all the things it stands for. Refusing to serve the money god any longer, Gordon steps out of the rat race, only steadily to sink into poverty. In his good moments he feels morally superior to the people surrounding him, whose petit-bourgeois gentility he despises; in his bad moments he realises that he himself is despicable and that his new-found 'freedom' will never make him a successful author, as poverty (which Orwell calls 'a spiritual sewer' and 'spiritual halitosis') leads not to creativity but rather to moral deadness, which is unconducive to being either creatively or socially successful. Needless to say, the increasingly squalid and unproductive Gordon soon begins to pity and loathe himself, to the point where his self-hatred threatens to poison his relationships with the few people with whom he is still in touch. The question is: can his loved ones get him to give up his dream of a money-independent existence before it's too late?

Keep the Aspidistra Flying features some black comedy and social satire, but even so the book is fairly depressing. Orwell expertly dissects the poor man's pride and paranoia, his nagging obsessions and insecurities, and his constant struggle between hope, optimism, envy, despair and self-loathing. No doubt many readers will find Gordon a frustrating and pig-headed protagonist (he is!), but being a slightly frustrated aspiring writer myself, I could sort of relate to him -- enough to acknowledge that he's a powerful creation. I also really appreciated the urgency of Orwell's writing. Many of his ideas on capitalism and poverty are repeated with great insistence throughout the novel, meaning Keep the Aspidistra Flying is hardly a very subtle read, but definitely a compelling one. Finally, I greatly enjoyed the colourful picture Orwell paints of 1930s England, where class is everything and where splendour and squalour go hand in hand. I didn't really care for Gordon's sudden change of heart in the final chapters, which seemed a bit pat to me, but even so, Keep the Aspidistra Flying struck me as an excellent book, full of powerful observations about writing and life in general that I wish I had come up with myself.

Talk about being a frustrated writer. :-)...less

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Ian rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

09/20/07

Read in January, 1990

recommends it for: Anyone

Faith, hope and criticism.

My favourite novel of all time chronicles Gordon Comstock’s war against money and British society. That Gordon chose to live outside the system and stay true to his art tempers the optimism of most follow your dreams type aspirational story with Gordon sinking further and further into poverty much to the shame of his family. It was always my intention to buy an aspidistra and display it in the bay window on getting married in homage to this book. As it happened my...more

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Michele rated it:

(review of isbn 0156468999)

04/03/07

Read in May, 2001

recommends it for: Fresh college graduates, anyone working in an entry-level media position in New York City

I think it was brave of Orwell to make Gordon Comstock so annoying. You want to take him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him half the time.

You've got a zillion books dealing with famine and being dirt-poor on the farm, but there aren't so many that deal with the sort of respectable poverty where you're educated and culturally "middle-class" in some ways but in terms of disposable income you might as well be the worst kind of working class. Orwell deals with the shame an...more

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Stephanie rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

02/11/08

bookshelves: favourites, post-1900s

Read in February, 2008

I found Keep The Aspidistra Flying to be an extremely pessimistic and frustrating novel, yet beautifully written and a useful insight into the lower-middle classes of the 1930s. In comparison to Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust which I had read previously, the contrast between the novels has portrayed two different views on certain social backgrounds, as well as some striking similarities. Both Waugh and Orwell focus on the theme of loss and struggles, and especially on the need for faith and be...more

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Ethan rated it:

(review of isbn 0156468999)

07/14/07

Orwell's catalogue is done a great disservice by the public school system that offers Animal Farm and 1984 as fictional evidence of the poverty of Soviet Communism. This ignores two important qualities in their author: he was a committed British Socialist, and he was a prolific novelist.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying is a novel of characters first and a social critique second. Orwell gives his poet-unhero a confessional inner dialogue that makes his 1984 counterpart feel like a campaign poster...more

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Danielle rated it:

(review of isbn 0156468999)

07/10/07

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: those needing a happiness reduction

Ok, I see the literary value of this book; however, I am frustrated with the 'intent.' When I read Morrison or hooks, although dense, I feel that each word chosen by the author has emotional weight. Words feel like they are chosen without emotion to increase the literary value...but they don't make me feel anything. Although, I do admit that I did feel an emotional attachment to Gordon (due to good writing and not emotional investment).

I also found the black and white nature of the plot f...more

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Drew rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

03/03/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in February, 2008

I still think Orwell is one of my favorite authors. I picked this book up on the shelf here at the Belmont Library because I was still waiting for Kerouac to come through inter-library loan.

The book was depressing to me because the main character (Gordon Comstock) is such a frustrating individual. And at times I could see myself in his actions. He declares his war on money from a young age and is so driven by this decision that he hurts himself and those closest to him. What he doesn't...more

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Reesies rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

07/20/07

Read in January, 1999

Another of my very favourite books ever- and probably the only book I ever read in middle or high school that I enjoyed. We read it as a counterpoint to Virginia Woolf's essay 'A Room of One's Own' which made for interesting discussions. Like much of Orwell's work, the focus is on poverty and artistic individualism, and there's a strong thread of biting satire relating to the so-called parlor socialism, the advertising field, and middle class values. A lot of the commentary holds up today, an...more

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Rahul rated it:

(review of isbn 0156468999)

07/07/07

Read in July, 2007

Gordon Comstock would certainly rank in the top five of "Characters you love to hate and hate to love" list.
Not as polished as '1984' or 'Animal Farm' and thankfully so, this one's a great read simply because of its rawness.
Orwell takes a satirical take on the role money plays in our lives and how hard it is to escape its influence.

"Somebody or other had said that the modern world is only habitable by saints and scoundrels."

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Joe rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

08/29/07

Read in March, 2007

recommends it for: Die hard capitalists

I read this earlier this year. I don't remember it too well already because it's an unassuming sort of book. The hero is a grumpy ideologue who doesn't really want anything to do. He's poor and pissed off and is finding it hard to decide whether he is willing to be a cog in the machine or would rather freeze to death whilst eating his ideologies. I know how he feels. A nice read.

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Andy rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

07/02/08

bookshelves: kool-imports

Read in February, 2004

recommends it for: Richard E. Grant fans

My favorite Orwell, screw the farm book. A pretentious ad writer chucks it in to write the great British prose collection, settling for a tiny flat in the craggiest village in England. A very funny satire on artistic integrity and the decision not "to sell out". Filmed 10 years ago as "A Merry War" starring Richard E. Grant and Helena Bonham-Carter.

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Richard rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

11/27/08

Read in January, 2004

recommended to Richard by: Norman Mailer
recommends it for: all dreamers, poets, artists, writers

Norman Mailer told me to read this book after he endorsed my war novel. I thought I was on my way to Best Sellerdom and the Big Five New York publishers. Well, I read the book and I see why Norman asked me to read it. It's about a middle-class Englishman who wants to be a poet. So he quits his good job and lives like a bum, refusing to work, sleeping on an old mattress in a friends back pantry. He's determined to write an epic poem. It takes him years! But he finally finishes and actually...more

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Miriam rated it:

(review of isbn 0140182330)

08/04/07

bookshelves: read-it

I enjoyed this book - main character is a down and out writer, who has published one book, which no-one ever reads. I think I can relate to this. haha. But seriously Orwell portrays him well, counting out his last shillings, trying to afford a girlfriend, I like it, very beat.

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Kurtis rated it:

(review of isbn 0156468999)

03/31/07

This is a good companion volume to Coming Up For Air, since it rings a little bit too true and is surprisingly funny, given its dark mood. It's a satire about a young, somewhat self-absorbed man trying to make it as a poet, find love (or at least, you know, get laid).

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Anna rated it:

07/25/07

Read in July, 2007

A beloved favorite from my early twenties, just as enjoyable as I remembered... Comfort and consolation for the failed fiction writer and foredoomed academic, etc.
Jude the Obscure, but with a less likeable hero and a MUCH happier ending.

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Kate added it (review of isbn 0156468999)

11/24/08

bookshelves: 2008

Read in November, 2008

Not the most meticulously-constructed or most well-written book out there, or even one of Orwell's better books, but the message is provocative, particularly if you're young and like to write and have only a few years of experience right out of school in a media-related job.

The protagonist of this novel, Gordon Comstock, has never felt at home in his advertising job. He feels that he has been pushed into it by friends and relatives expecting him to "make good" and get a respecta...more Not the most meticulously-constructed or most well-written book out there, or even one of Orwell's better books, but the message is provocative, particularly if you're young and like to write and have only a few years of experience right out of school in a media-related job.

The protagonist of this novel, Gordon Comstock, has never felt at home in his advertising job. He feels that he has been pushed into it by friends and relatives expecting him to "make good" and get a respectable job which will allow him to assume a respectable middle-class lifestyle. So, just as he begins to achieve some success as a copywriter, he "opts out"--he quits his job, takes a low-paying one at a lending library/bookstore, and, with his measly salary, attempts to devote his life to his art without the hindrance of a "good job" to eat away at his conscience.

Orwell charts Gordon's descent into poverty-induced insanity with accuracy, complete with often-repeated phrases (the line about "the lord sayeth, circumcise ye foreskins" or whatever it was) and thoughts (Gordon lovingly details the number of coins in his pocket many times throughout this novel), which capably approximate the circling vultures of money-related obsession. When I first looked at the reviews for this book, I noted a lot of criticism about the unrealistic nature of Gordon's obsessive griping, but speaking as someone who once lived on $50 a week in New York City (without a stove or refrigerator), I feel like I understood the man.

Orwell makes a number of excellent points through Gordon Comstock, such as "you can't expect to be uncorrupt in a corrupt society," "you can't devote any energy to your art if you can't provide basic necessities for yourself," and (perhaps most troublingly) "if you aren't actually all that talented, it doesn't matter how much you suffer for your art--you're never going to break out as the next great poet if you can't actually write poetry that's anything but mediocre." That last one is sort of arguable, but I think Orwell makes the point over and over again that Gordon isn't actually all that great of a writer (although I actually liked the finished bit of "London Pleasures" that is included in the text).

At the beginning of the book, Orwell mentions that Gordon adheres to a poetic form that is somewhat outdated (stubbornly), and he also clings to certain middle-class ideas, which made me think at the beginning of the book that he would never be able to hack it as a starving artist. He's resistant to the idea of people paying for him (although he'll borrow money from his down-on-their-luck family members), he wants desperately to maintain an air of education and a certain "moth-eaten" refinement (even if he has little actual income), and in that he has a certain pride that you could say becomes his downfall.

Anyway, this is a book that will make you think, particularly if you sometimes struggle with the question of art vs. income. This would be a great book to give to high school or college students. ...less

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Mike rated it:

(review of isbn 0141183721)

08/21/07

Read in May, 2005

recommends it for: lovers of George Orwell

Although this is a well written story of an angry young man and fight against the system, I found his constant, self imposed failures just too depressing.

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Schaden rated it:

04/16/07

Read in July, 1998

I really thought that this was Orwell's greatest work with the whole idea of the War on Money and the main character really struck a chord with me.

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"He slowed his pace a little. He was thirty and there was grey in his hair, yet he had a queer feeling that he had only just grown up. It occured to him that he was merely repeating the destiny of every human being. Everyone rebels against the money-code, and everyone sooner or later surrenders. He had kept up his rebellion a little longer than most, that was all. And he had made such a wretched failure of it!" More quotes...

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Keep the Aspidistra Flying

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