Keep the Aspidistra Flying

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Keep the Aspidistra Flying, first published in 1936, is a socially critical novel by George Orwell. It is set in 1930s London. The main theme is Gordon Comstock's romantic ambition to defy worship of the money-god and status, and the dismal life that results.

First edition

Book cover of a Penguin Books edition.

Two aspidistra plants – "The types he saw all round him, especially the older men, made him squirm. That was what it meant to worship the money-god! To settle down, to Make Good, to sell your soul for a villa and an aspidistra! To turn into the typical bowler-hatted sneak – Strube's 'little man' [–] What a fate!" (Ch. III)

George Orwell

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Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.

Press card portrait, 1943

Orwell's birthplace in Motihari, Bihar, India

Blair family home at Shiplake, Oxfordshire

Blair's time at St. Cyprian's inspired his essay "Such, Such Were the Joys".