Keep the Aspidistra Flying, first published 1936, is a grimly comic novel by George Orwell. It is set in 1930s London. The main theme is the protagonist's romantic ambition to give up money and status, and the dismal life that results.
Orwell wrote the book in 1934 and 1935 when he was living at various locations near Hampstead in London, but drew on his experiences over the preceding few years. At the beginning of 1928 he lived in lodgings in Po...
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Keep the Aspidistra Flying, first published 1936, is a grimly comic novel by George Orwell. It is set in 1930s London. The main theme is the protagonist's romantic ambition to give up money and status, and the dismal life that results.
Orwell wrote the book in 1934 and 1935 when he was living at various locations near Hampstead in London, but drew on his experiences over the preceding few years. At the beginning of 1928 he lived in lodgings in Portobello Road from where he started his tramping expeditions, sleeping rough and roaming in the poorer parts of London. At this time he wrote a fragment of a play in which the protagonist Stone needs money for his child's life-saving operation. Stone would prefer to prostitute his wife than to prostitute his artistic integrity by writing advertising copy. Orwell's early publications appeared in The Adelphi, a left-wing literary journal edited by Sir Richard Rees, a wealthy and idealistic baronet who made Orwell one of his protégés.
At the end...
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