Keep The Aspidistra Flying

By George Orwell

Waging a losing war with the Money God, Gordon Comstock lives in a small bed-sit and works in a bookstore. A deeply dark yet compassionate satire about the role of money in the mid-20th century western world, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is at turns tragic and comic as Gordon struggles to reconcile his disdain for the entitled world in which he was raised with his own need to build a future for himself and his girlfriend Rosemary.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781443417075

George Orwell

George Orwell (1903–1950), the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, was an English novelist, essayist, and critic. He was born in India and educated at Eton. After service with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, he returned to Europe to earn his living by writing. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of 1984 (1949), which brought him worldwide fame. 

Reviews for Keep The Aspidistra Flying

[kaitanya64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is probably one of the most readable of Orwell's novels. Gordon Comstock, the only child of middle class parents, has decided to refuse to "worship the money god." He leaves his promising career as an advertising copywriter to work in a seedy bookshop and write poetry. He despises the compromises and struggles of the middle class, symbolized by the aspidistra plants found in every middle class home. However, Gordon discovers that poverty, cold, and loneliness do not lead to artistic production. In fact, he can scarcely write at all as he worries over money. Worse still, his impoverished lifestyle makes it impossible to spend pleasurable time with the woman he loves. While Gordon is a bit ridiculous, he is also likeable in his sincerity. I found myself hoping he and his lover would find a way to happiness. A bit cheesy, but still some thoughtful commentary on the way our economic situation determines so much of our relationships and mental state.

[reneepaule · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"The mistake you make, don't you see, is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself. After all, what do you achieve by refusing to make money? You're trying to behave as though one could stand right outside our economic system. But one can't. One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing."

I thoroughly enjoyed this little book. If you like Orwell you will love Keep the Aspidistra Flying.

[yarb_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A one (or at most two)-dimensional novel by Orwell, about the tyranny of capital and the ghastly existence of the downwardly mobile middle class. Apart from a few mordant jabs at the booksellers and the reading public, this doesn't have much to recommend it.

[histreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Just when I grew tired of Gordon Comstock's stream of consciousness tirade against money, the dead horse topic wove one experience with the next remarkable experience for the main character of Keep the Aspidistra Flying.I am sure I have said it before, if it wasn't for my first encounter with Orwell's writing being 1984, I probably wouldn't care for his conflicted, but pro-Socialist views. Embracing my "inner Gordon Comstock" at an earlier age than he, I chose a fiscally minimalist track at eighteen-years-old. Working just enough for a month's rent and two weeks of sparse meals, unlike Gordon, I panhandled for supplemental income. I too had a war on money of sorts, but my campaign lasted a few years longer than Gordon's.Now embracing a better appreciation for currency, I can easily see the folly in Gordon's lament. I read with disdain his immature and futile goal of purposeful pauperism. I hoped he failed... or is it, succeeded? I was rooting for him to be successful in alienating everyone concerned for him and for him to sink into the mud. I have come to lack sympathy for those like Gordon, too mired in self-pity. Especially in Gordon's case, his war against a society writ large was unaware or affected by his personal battle. His selfishness, not clearly due to mental defect, was causing strife in others.Overall, the story was of one man's downward spiral. A Sisyphean task to be sure. With Orwell's fiction comes truth and wisdom. For he concludes it often takes more effort to descend into privation than to stay out of it.

[booklove2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"You can be rich or you can deliberately refuse to be rich. You can possess money, or you can despise money; the one fatal thing is to worship money and fail to get it." - page 44 Here's one from the 1001 list. Good ol Orwell. This one is very nicely written, even if the protagonist, Gordon Comstock is and is an unlikeable character. Who wouldn't be a little cynical if they were broke? Though in Gordon's case, he has had chances to "make good" as he likes to say and has deliberately sabotaged himself, quit his job, because of his dislike of money. Which is the theme of the book, really: money. Instead of advancing in a career, he would rather work in bookstore barely making any money at all. In a way, I can see where he is coming from and I'll admit I'm a little like Gordon in a few ways. Even through the cynicism, I think the book says many truths. No matter how unlikeable Orwell's characters, you have to love Orwell's writing. I loved that Gordon's favorite book is Sherlock. This one is a little like Melville's 'Bartleby' with Toole's 'A Confederacy of Dunces'.

[vivl_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hmm. That's two Orwells and neither has appealed to me. I would generally call that decisive, although I feel I ought to... not exactly enjoy but at least be intellectually stimulated by his writing. Unfortunately, I just find it dragging and flat. This is touted on the cover as his most warm and sympathetic novel. If that's the case, I can safely say he's one of the coldest fish I've ever come across.

[albertgoldfain · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A masterpiece and one of Orwell's finest. The monotonous fight against the money-god becomes less about principles and more absurd as the novel unfolds. Great specificity and humor in treating life just above abject poverty. I enjoyed this one even more than 'Down and out in Paris and London'.

[mamzel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gordon Comstock is raging his own private war against money. He turns down a decent job writing copy for an ad agency and takes a job working in a used book store. His goal is to suffer for his art which is poetry. However, poverty isn't everything it's cracked up to be. He has a sister that deprives herself so that she can loan him money on the rare occasions that he contacts her. He has a friend that publishes a magazine and who has no problem treating Gordon to a beer or dinner if he would swallow his pride enough to accept it. Gordon also has a long-suffering girl friend who seems to remain single since he can't believe she can love him as poor as he is. It was a challenge to stay with this book, as full of self-loathing and selfishness as it is. I just had to see if anything could possibly wake up this man and make him accept life as a capitalist like the rest of us.

[yooperprof · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Warning - if you are one of those people who can't stand novels without "sympathetic" central characters, "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" is not for you.Gordon Comstock is one of the most pathetic figures in twentieth century novels. He's one of those annoying artistic-type people who inflict unhappiness upon themselves and those around them because they regard themselves as too pure for the corrupt world we all live in. Gordon is self-pitying, he whinges about his life, and he constantly sponges off his friends and family. Orwell generally succeeds in making him interesting, however, and you keep reading in order to see how and where he will receive his comeuppance.Orwell's descriptions of the seedy side of working class London in the 1930s are wonderful. In my mind, Gordon's decadent and degrading night out in Soho is one of the great "drunk" scenes in literature.

[jamesmscott-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gordon Comstock is fed up with the money-grubbing world of 1930s London. His ad agency job is gone, and as he bides his time as a bookstore clerk, his cynicism grows and resists constant imploring from his concerned girl Rosemary and generous friend Ravelston. They sympathize with his socialistic leanings "in principle", if not practically, and watch helplessly as he hits murky bottom. A fortuitous event sparks a turnaround in his outlook, and brings an insistently pessimistic story to a hopeful close. The very capable writing of Orwell makes this a curiously appealing tale. A greatly overlooked work. Equal opportunity digs at both capitalism and socialism.

[aliceap-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Since it's been awhile since I read a classic, I thought I'd give Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell a shot. It kept cropping up on my radar and the name alone had me quite intrigued. I went into this blind...even to the extent that I didn't look to see what the heck an Aspidistra was. (I know now though and saw it mentioned fleetingly in Harry Potter so it's definitely super British-y.) For someone who is a huge fan of 1984, this book fell pretty flat. The book follows a man by the name of Gordon Comstock who fancies himself a poet but in reality is little more than a poor bookshop assistant. Right off the bat, I felt that Gordon had 0% likability and his actions made no sense to me whatsoever. At one point, I decided to look up what other people thought of this book because it has a decent rating on Goodreads. Everyone seemed to think that this was a profound story about the struggle against commercialism and "the Man". What I see is the story of a man who is self-destructive, self-absorbed, and annoying. He is constantly picking apart everyone and everything around him in terms of its inherent value to society (there's a really long bit about advertising on different food products which was bizarre). Bottom line: this one wasn't a winner for me. I won't completely discount Mr. Orwell though. I'm sure I'll give him another shot in the future. :-) Also, I'm sorry that this is the second negative review in a row. Sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles. 1/10

[bsima_7 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was left with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. While the protagonist bemoans the money driven society he sees himself surrounded by throughout the entire novel, in the end he happily abondons his principles and bows down to the "money gods". This is imparted with the general tone of a happy ending. The rather depressing conclusion one is left with is that if you can't beat them, join them. I found the protagonist petulant and irritatingly childish at times. The biting social commentary is the principle attraction of the novel.

[ts5_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was not particularly enjoyable, but it is still a book that I wish everyone to have read.It is important because of its topic - modern society that we live in, uncontesting and blind to its faults and alternatives - the commercialization of our lives and the capitalist religion to which we sell our souls, for he who owns your time owns your life, as they say.In everyone at some point a mad flame of rebellious hope may flicker and spark a daydream or fantasy of a successful rebellion against our money-faith, along with a utopic vision of a socialist, or at least care-free world. But this is quickly extinguished when reality sets in and we ignominiously admit defeat to The System and forfeit our fates to the demands of society. This book is an imagining of a person, perhaps Orwell himself in his youthful experiments at poverty, who actually takes action and attempts to live life according to these moralistic principles. It is the story of the man we all could have been, or at least the man we would have been had we dared to play out our fantasies.Everyone should read this book, because it may spark such thoughts in those to whom such thoughts would never have normally occurred. And as our protagonists painfully learn, one cannot live sanely in an insane world. It is only through mass concern that any meaningful change may come about, and if this book was read in high schools everywhere, perhaps we'd have less Enrons and banker-crises, and more corporate community-aid projects.It's an important book. It alleviates the ignorance most of us have towards poverty. It reminds us that although we may have found some sort of comfort in our lives, this is not how we should be living. It reminds us that our cosy corporate jobs have an actual impact on society, and that selling product and making a profit may look good in your accounts and to your shareholders, but you might be ultimately 'rankling the public consciousness like a poisoned arrow' to squeeze out the last pennies you can from the more oblivious victims of marketing, as in the hilarious bit about "pedic perspiration".In the end, it reminds us all that in another world, we could have actually been those writers or poets or artists that we would have loved to be. Or that we may have been able to achieve those dreams that we have all forsaken when the bills came at us rankling our dreams.

[mrminjares · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

To keep the Apidistra flying is to put one's apidistra plant in the window despite all of the turmoil and struggle one goes through in life. For Orwell, this is like keeping up appearances, an attempt to remain accepted in society by following along with it's conventions. The main character, George, is decidedly unconventional. He does not wish for money, and despises the dependence he and others have for it. He risks losing a girlfriend, jobs, and happiness so he can free himself of money's grip. But he is a curmudgeon, an idealogue, and takes this view to its extreme. He suffers unnecessarily, and outright punishes himself even when he knows money would make his life better.I couldn't't help seeing this as a semi-autobiographical story of Orwell, who himself lived a miserable life as a writer and was a downright loner. We see Orwell's views of money and capitalism clearly delineated here; we also see his struggles with his own ideology. This is a great addition to the Orwell ouvre. Compared to the books he had written before, this is the best one by far.

[bohemima · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Poor Gordon: he wants to be completely divorced from money, or the desire for making more money. He hates money, he says, and yet he allows the thought of it to rule his life: instead of simply keeping the job that paid okay and might possibly bring in some more cash, he must quit and take a shitty no-pay job that leaves him completely frustrated because he barely has enough money to live. His pride won't allow him to accept money from anyone, even Dutch treat with his sweetheart.I love Orwell: his writing that is so direct and clear; his sly and self-deprecating sense of humor; his startling kowledge of human weaknesses, and his great compassion for those weaknesses--all these combine to make a moving, funny, and very satisfying expreience every time I read his work. One feels that G.O. stares straight at you, unblinking, and just lays his thoughts out for you to examine.

[dsc73277 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is interesting to note that another reviewer here described this book as "funny". I must have completely missed the joke. A few laughs would not have gone amiss. I found this as well-crafted as one would expect from Orwell but quite a grim experience. Another one for my "admired not enjoyed" category - which I think I shall start a tag for.

[theboylatham_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

7/10.

Gordon Comstock decides to give up what he sees as the inevitable chase for money and status as a sort of romantic gesture. The book follows the dismal results.

Not Orwell's best book - quite slow and clunky at times but the message is good.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Probably my least favourite Orwell novel, as I found the central character Gordon Comstock very irritating with his constant moans about having no money and his stubborn resistance to doing anything constructive about it; he really has chosen poverty due to his mental attitude. The novel improved after he got hopelessly drunk and spent the night in a police cell. The story became more engaging and the ending was heartwarming, if a little sudden and twee.

[kcslade · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this a couple of years and enjoyed it quite a bit.I saw the movie which was based on it which is good too.Kind of humorous about a guy in a seedy neighborhood.

[meggyweg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book grew on me. At first I hated it. Gordon is a rather unlikeable protagonist. He quit his well-paying job because he didn't want to be a capitalist slave, then he spent the rest of the book whining about how miserable he was being poor. But I gave the book another read, and decided I liked it. Sure, Gordon is whiny, but that's pretty realistic -- very few people bear their suffering in silence. His relationship with Rosemary and the way his poverty affected it was also well-done.A bonus: if you compare the beginning of Aspidistra to 1984, you can see similarities -- both characters are looking out the window at a dismal scene, a poster is flapping. And there are also similarities to Gordon and Winston's incarcerations. Both sit in jail cells made of glittering white bricks.

[alirob_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent, but the main character is the most irritating person I have ever read about.

[patrisha_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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 you 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

[patience_crabstick · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My whole life, I've avoided George Orwell. I figured anything by the author of 1984 would be unbearably dreary. Maybe I wasn't so wrong. Keep the Aspidistra Flying is a about a young man leading an unbearably dreary life. Gordon Comstock , poet, former copywriter at an advertising firm, has declared war on money. The result is a life devoid of all pleasure, other than sneakily brewing tea in his bedroom, a practice forbidden by his landlady. I was blown away by Orwell's writing: concise, witty, he makes every word count and this book is a joy to read as much for the elegant writing as for its observations on social class and money as well as Gordon Comstock and his absurd predicament.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was almost written for me - and now it means I cannot write the book I would have written about myself. Like Gordon Comstock, the hero of Orwell's tale, I've always wanted to free myself from the constraints of money and economics, and have never managed to do it. I also wished once to become a writer, and I have slowly allowed my ambition to erode into nothing. So 'Aspidistra' is a sad story, but at its heart there is a great hope for the future - for all the problems that we face, there are possible solutions.Oh, and I'd love one day to work either in a bookshop or a library.

[morgannakerrie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book reminds me to keep writing.

[mbmackay · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The last of Orwell's novels for me to re-read, and I struggled. The writing is fine, but the topic is so formidably ugly! The lead character has chosen a literary life, and foregoes a well paid job in order to succeed in writing. We then spend 30% of the book, in tattered clothes, cold because his coat is in hock, hungry, lonely and sad. So sad. It is never explained why he couldn't retain the better paid job and write at night - as he does, fitfully, in his chosen literary life.I was pleased to read later that Orwell wasn't proud of the book, and refused permission for it to be reprinted in his lifetime. The publishers should have continued to observe his wishes!

[ionas_7 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn’t appreciate this book, unfortunately, and I will explain why shortly. It is the story of Gordon, a budding poet who works in a bookshop. I must first confess that I didn’t really know what an aspidistra was, until I looked it up in the dictionary. (Being old-fashioned and bookish, I still avail myself of dictionaries, first and foremost, and not the net, though sometimes I need eventually to resort to the latter.) It turns out an aspidistra is a plant, commonly found in people’s window sills, at least at the time Orwell wrote the book, perhaps still. What bothered me about the book was Gordon’s attitude to money, which he spends all his time thinking and talking about. He never has any, and he thinks he will never have any; and without money, he will never get a woman to sleep with him, which is also a main preoccupation of his; in fact, he will never get anything. He has a kind, wealthy friend called Ravelston who is always willing to lend Gordon money and wouldn’t care if he never got it back. But Gordon feels it wouldn’t be right to borrow or accept money from him. He won’t even accept a meal from him. Orwell himself must have had this negative attitude to money, since he makes so much of it in this book; so I well understand that for long periods he found himself in deep poverty, as attested by his book “Down and out in Paris and London”. Gordon says to his girlfriend, Rosemary: “-- the way nothing ever goes right in my life. It's always money, money, money that’s at the bottom of everything. And especially between me and you. That’s why you don’t really love me.” -- “You won’t sleep with me simply and solely because I’ve got no money.” I wonder if Orwell ever had money or whether he died penniless. I myself probably subconsciously have more than a touch of Gordon’s attitude, otherwise it wouldn’t bother me so much. The aspidistra turns out to be a symbol of respectability and belonging to the common herd, and finally, but surprisingly, or even shockingly, Gordon decides he too wants to have one. The book is exceedingly well-written and despite G’s attitude I will absolutely not advise against reading it.

[amzzz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“It all comes down to money” - the story of what it looks like when you’re doing your best to avoid being a slave to money and it ends up ruling your life as a result!

[eglinton_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Young Gordon Comstock rejects responsibility and the binds of respectability, seeking instead, in 1930s London, to live out the trope of a starving garret writer. And he gets what he bargained for: dismal surroundings, grinding poverty, failure. London scenes are nicely observed and depicted, and the poem that we witness Gordon composing throughout the story, is worthy and indeed gives us an interesting peek into the creative process. The blowout scene, practically lifted from Patrick Hamilton’s recently published London tales (recently read by me, anyhow), is disheartening, as Gordon squanders a windfall cheque, cruelly depriving his sister of long overdue repaid debt. (Long-suffering, virtuous characters generally continue to suffer in Orwell’s works; candour not kindness was his ethical rock). The writing is more showy and sloppy than the mature Orwell style, but still has ample good qualities, making it very readable. More resentful too; the defeated tone of this book can be rather wearing but we have to acknowledge this also counts as Orwellian.

[karatelpek · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A less sympathetic protagonist I could not have imagined. That being said, Orwell is a great writer and the story was engaging. The ending was almost like Taxi Driver however, didn't really fit the tone of the rest of the book.