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Books Related to Keep the Aspidistra Flying George Orwell - ISBN: 0141183721
Chin up - Rated
The dogged pursuit of a life outside the capitalist system by the central character can begin to get frustrating. However, it is well written and the descrptions of life unadorned by material possesions, at any level, offer a remarkable contrast to the way we live now.
Faith, hope and criticism. - Rated
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 wife wouldn't hear of us owning an aspidistra and bought a cheese plant which she then proceeded to kill. This should have told me a tale in it's self. Anyway on getting my own novel published I was determined not to brood on it in the way Gordon tracks down copies of `London Pleasures' in the remaindered shelves. So whenever I catch myself checking the inventory on Abe Books or my the ranking on Amazon for `Here's 2 Absent Fathers' I find myself drawing a parallel with Gordon and his bleak world view.
A disappointment - Rated
Tired and tedious, lacking any sort of coherency.
The plot tells of a misguided socialist who eventually submits to earning a proper living.
Hardly the stuff of 1984 and Animal Farm.
The harsh realities of poverty. - Rated
Robert Comstock is a principled man of intellect and talent in poetry writing and article reviews. However, in his pursuit of an 'ideal' job of full- time writing, meant giving up a respectable job at the New Albion that paid well; leading to years of financial hardship;living a life of a recluse and disregarding those most close to him. He was rebelling against capitalism and the material tendencies of modern companies to deceive the public from the truth.
Then, something was to happen between Comstock and his long suffering girlfriend Rosemary. Can he hold true these long standing beliefs when the 'money God' rules the order of the day?
A brilliant understanding of Poverty - Rated
Some books are thrust upon you with the slightly meaningless generic "still relevant today" but I'm afraid this is a phrase most apt for this novel.
Orwell's novel stabs at the heart of the model of English society as the capitalistic model moves into what was seen as its "final phase" and it is a period in which we see the seeds sown for our modern society of chain stores, mass advertising and what Orwell quite clearly sees as an import of American capitalistic values into Brisitsh.
Orwell cleverly places our main character between a rock and a hard place, that is between capitalism and socialism, both of which he refuses to embrace; capitalism for its brutal and immoral code and worship of money and socialism because it is unrealistic. George suffers painfully and egged on to stick by his principles and live his life purely he finds the only place to go is down.
Unlike other reviewers I do not believe that this is a book about success. Bearing in mind this has a slight autobiographical element to it you can read Orwell's own thoughts at this period in his life. The truth is that anyone bar the aristocracy or the very well off have the luxury of being able to pursue their creative art - if one rejects money for art they are stifled through the struggle to life but if they pursue money to fund their art then they are exhausted and bled dry.
It is a very accurate book which deals with the issues of trying to be a pure artist in a society that only favours the rich which is why George finally has to accept that he must throw his manuscript away despite the fact he is very talented for, as he has always known, dispite the great injustice of it all without wealth one can never be productive.
