Title: Keep the Aspidistra Flying
Description: Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time 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 once himself renounced.
Subjects: Literature, Fiction, Authors, Young men, Booksellers and bookselling, Alternative lifestyles, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, general, English literature, Social life and customs, Fathers and daughters, Children of clergy, Poverty, Amnesia, Clergy, Middle class, Young women, Belief and doubt
Places: London (England), England, London, Suffolk
Time periods: 1930's, 20th century