Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Audible sample
Keep the Aspidistra Flying Kindle Edition
Gordon Comstock despises the materialism and shallowness of middle-class life—the worship of money, the striving for dull, stuffy respectability. To live up to his ideals, he quits his lucrative position as an advertising copywriter and devotes himself to poetry and other high-minded pursuits.
But low-paid part-time employment and a constant shortage of cash is not exactly conducive to creativity and happiness. The stress even causes him to lash out at his devoted girlfriend, Rosemary, who he suspects of preferring a richer man. This sharply witty novel about the difficulties of idealism and the effects of financial strain is yet another outstanding read from the genius who brought us Animal Farm, Down and Out in Paris and London, and other enduring works.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMariner Books
- Publication dateMarch 19, 1969
- File size4303 KB
Customers who bought this item also bought
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
About the Author
From AudioFile
Product details
- ASIN : B003T0GAM0
- Publisher : Mariner Books; First edition (March 19, 1969)
- Publication date : March 19, 1969
- Language : English
- File size : 4303 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 193 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #572,322 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #89 in Booksellers & Bookselling
- #721 in British & Irish Literary Fiction
- #733 in Political Fiction (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
George Orwell is one of England's most famous writers and social commentators. Among his works are the classic political satire Animal Farm and the dystopian nightmare vision Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell was also a prolific essayist, and it is for these works that he was perhaps best known during his lifetime. They include Why I Write and Politics and the English Language. His writing is at once insightful, poignant and entertaining, and continues to be read widely all over the world.
Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) was born in 1903 in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. The family moved to England in 1907 and in 1917 Orwell entered Eton, where he contributed regularly to the various college magazines. From 1922 to 1927 he served with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, an experience that inspired his first novel, Burmese Days (1934). Several years of poverty followed. He lived in Paris for two years before returning to England, where he worked successively as a private tutor, schoolteacher and bookshop assistant, and contributed reviews and articles to a number of periodicals. Down and Out in Paris and London was published in 1933. In 1936 he was commissioned by Victor Gollancz to visit areas of mass unemployment in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) is a powerful description of the poverty he saw there.
At the end of 1936 Orwell went to Spain to fight for the Republicans and was wounded. Homage to Catalonia is his account of the civil war. He was admitted to a sanatorium in 1938 and from then on was never fully fit. He spent six months in Morocco and there wrote Coming Up for Air. During the Second World War he served in the Home Guard and worked for the BBC Eastern Service from 1941 to 1943. As literary editor of the Tribune he contributed a regular page of political and literary commentary, and he also wrote for the Observer and later for the Manchester Evening News. His unique political allegory, Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame.
It was around this time that Orwell's unique political allegory Animal Farm (1945) was published. The novel is recognised as a classic of modern political satire and is simultaneously an engaging story and convincing allegory. It was this novel, together with Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which finally brought him world-wide fame. Nineteen Eighty-Four's ominous depiction of a repressive, totalitarian regime shocked contemporary readers, but ensures that the book remains perhaps the preeminent dystopian novel of modern literature.
Orwell's fiercely moral writing has consistently struck a chord with each passing generation. The intense honesty and insight of his essays and non-fiction made Orwell one of the foremost social commentators of his age. Added to this, his ability to construct elaborately imaginative fictional worlds, which he imbued with this acute sense of morality, has undoubtedly assured his contemporary and future relevance.
George Orwell died in London in January 1950.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book enjoyable and interesting. They describe it as a decent work of fiction that sheds light on current liberal attitudes. However, some readers find the protagonist despicable and tedious. Opinions differ on the pacing - some find it dark and humorous, while others consider it depressing and boring. There are mixed reviews regarding the writing style - some find it wonderful and artistic, while others mention punctuation and spelling errors.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book enjoyable and thought-provoking. They describe it as a lighthearted read with interesting ideas. Some readers consider it one of the best books written in the 20th century.
"...Unfortunately and surprisingly, the aspidistra are so fresh and enjoyable, despite their sordid subject, that I find myself under compulsive..." Read more
"Very different from Animal Farm and 1984, but worth a read...." Read more
"...While not one of Orwell's better known works this book is well worth the time of those interested in his ideas regarding capitalism and the dominant..." Read more
"...The book itself is entertaining, a bit of satire and comedy with a heaping dose of social commentary thrown in...." Read more
Customers enjoy the fiction quality. They say it's a decent work of fiction and the most brilliant parts are watching confrontations.
"...The most brillant parts of this amazing novel have us watch confrontations, or should I say Pas-de-Deux, of different social strata...." Read more
"...Make no mistake: this is superlative fiction. Orwell is among the giants of fiction in modern English, and this novel is but one proof of it...." Read more
"...The book reminded me of A Confederacy of Dunces. Decent work of fiction." Read more
Customers find the socioeconomic content relevant and insightful. They mention it sheds light on liberal attitudes and the current state of the economy in London.
"...Sheds light on current liberal attitudes." Read more
"Read this before 1984 and Animal Farm. Marvelous socio economic commentary, entirely relevant today. If you love poetry all the better." Read more
"...captures the between-the-wars stress in London...down economy, socialism rife (funny to think, given soon-to-follow jingoistic patriotism!)" Read more
Customers have different views on the pacing. Some find it entertaining with satire and humor. Others describe it as depressing and boring.
"...teach me that the thing is a somewhat non-descript and somewhat unkempt pot plant...." Read more
"...A dark comedy that targets the class system in all of its manifestation s." Read more
"...He's lazy and selfish. Towards the end however...redeemable. Orwell does a great job painting pre ww2 U.K. Lower middle class London...." Read more
"Dreary book about a dreary man. Very weird. But I could not stop reading it. Not my favorite for sure!" Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the writing style. Some find it charming and witty, like George Orwell's writing style. Others mention punctuation and spelling errors.
"This book is typical of George Orwells wonderful writing style" Read more
"...Periods are left out in places, so that sentences run on. Dreadful. Amazon, why did you take ten dollars from me for this?..." Read more
"Orwell is an artist with words and worthy of 5 stars. Anyone who is interested in human nature would enjoy this book." Read more
"...A few typos in the Kindle edition, but far less than what I found in A Clergyman's Daughter-well worth your time." Read more
Customers dislike the character development. They say the protagonist is despicable and his fanaticism is tedious.
"...I found the main character Gordon to be a unsympathetic character for most of the book. He's lazy and selfish. Towards the end however...redeemable...." Read more
"...The protagonist is pretty despicable, and his fanatacism is tedious and impossible to understand, but can Orwell write? Yes he can!" Read more
"Keeps you reading. Main character annoying, but a great little book that really captures the between-the-wars stress in London...down economy,..." Read more
Reviews with images
An almost agonizing tale on money
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2008After recently reading the 4 volume set of the essays, plus Coming Up for Air, which I found in my shelf unread, I had thought that the Aspidistra would be the closing session on Orwell for me. I thought I had covered the field. Unfortunately and surprisingly, the aspidistra are so fresh and enjoyable, despite their sordid subject, that I find myself under compulsive pressure to order the books that I have not read yet (the Clergyman's Daughter, the Road to Wigan Pier, Down and Out in Paris and London).
As much as I like to look at plants, assuming they grow wild or they are cultivated by somebody else, I am no gardener nor botanist. I honestly did not know what an aspidistra is. I looked it up in the Langenscheid's Dictionary English - German. I learned that an aspidistra is an Aspidistra. Aha. Google Images teach me that the thing is a somewhat non-descript and somewhat unkempt pot plant. It seems to like growing in places that no self-respecting plant ought to survive. Orwell's novel has them as a symbol for undestructability under nasty circumstances.
For the novel's hero Gordon Comstock, they are the enemy. They are allied with the oppressors, the seedy boarding houses and lower middle class dwellings that he loathes so much. They symbolize the lack of money; money rules, specifically when you don't have any.
The twist of the 'plot' is that Gordon chose to be poorer than he needed to be, by throwing away 'good jobs' in the money making world. We have here a study in the pretensions of poverty.
The most brillant parts of this amazing novel have us watch confrontations, or should I say Pas-de-Deux, of different social strata. Gordon tries to hide and is ashamed of his poverty, while his friend Ravelston is trying to hide and is ashamed of his wealth. The rich man is the socialist, who tries and tries to convince the poor man of the merits of socialism. Gordon can't be bothered, he doesn't have enough money to be a socialist.
The novel is far exceeding my expectations and I may have to think again about my classification of Orwell as mainly an essayist.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2018SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
An aspidistra is a plant kept by the "respectable," a symbol of middle class life. The aspidistra never dies.
The protagonist wants to really be radical. Unlike the radicals we have now, the protagonist tries to reject money. Today, a radical calls for crime and mayhem while living in an expensive condo and having a living standard higher than most of his fellow citizens, and most people on earth. The character Ravelston is a common type. He is rich and guilty about it. So he gives money to left wing causes. But he can’t imagine living in physical discomfort. But the protagonist, Gordon Comstock, really tries to live without what he calls the money culture, the good job, the wife and kids, he wants to live in poverty.
Orwell understands the left mentality. Gordon is angry that he is not special. He claims to be a socialist but at the same time considers himself far superior to most people. The kindness of friends and family he repays with contempt. He can’t bear the idea of an ordinary life with ordinary people.
In the end, he accepts reality and settles down to a middle class life. What brings about his acceptance is the unescapable reality of reproduction, caused by sexual intercourse. Gordon looks at the pregnant Rosemary and feels a physical tie to her. He goes to the library and looks at pictures of fetuses and realizes what Rosemary and I did created this person, him or her. Rosemary is important and the baby is important and he cannot abandon them.
Orwell’s attitude about the importance of sex is old fashioned by today’s standards when we are supposed to believe that sex is a game and abortion is easy as having tonsils out. In Orwell’s world, at least in this book, abortion is abominable. To the extent that Orwell did anticipate the separation of sex from reproduction and sex regarded totally as recreation, he was against those things. He could not imagine the entire society having “advanced” views of sex.
Orwell was a socialist, but for the most part, not contemptuous or arrogant or angry. He did not despise his culture or his people. He did not anticipate that the left wing views of that time, as expressed in the writing below, would spread through the entire culture.
It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true, that almost any English intellectual
would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King' than
of stealing from a poor box - George Orwell, England Your England
- Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2024Very different from Animal Farm and 1984, but worth a read. The son of a previously middle-class family that desperately tries to hold onto its past glory, makes a try at being a poet. Rejecting the capitalist money system, his only friend with influence is a trust fund scion who feels guilty and embraces socialism. A dark comedy that targets the class system in all of its manifestation s.
Top reviews from other countries
- Rishabh kumar JhaReviewed in India on July 28, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Another must read by George Orwell
Reading books in which the protagonist is facing his overpowering thoughts is always something which I love reading. In this novel the protagonist wages a war against money and the people who hold power over money by never letting himself get caught in a monotonous life cycle in which he is forced to work as per the wishes of his employer. Although this decision of his pushes him in the abyss of chaos and hundreds of problems, he is criticised not only by his family members by his decision but also his close friends and lover criticises his decisions though they never present them in front of him. His love towards writing poetry is also not very fruitful as he doesn't get any recognition in public. The story pushes the reader into an internal conflict and will keep you hooked .
-
aska86Reviewed in Italy on October 6, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Consigliato
Il problema di Orwell è uno solo: 1984 è così un capolavoro da eclissare tutti i suoi primi lavori letterari degli anni Trenta. Ed è veramente un peccato perchè sono veramente ben fatti.
"Keep the aspidistra flying" narra le vicende tragicomiche di Gordon Comstock, che incarna la figura del socialista idealista ed intransigente che ci ricorda tanto Orwell stesso. Gordon si lancia in una povertà auto-indotta, motivata dalla volontà di fuggire dalle tentazioni capitalistiche e dal denaro che corrompe l'uomo: una vita ai margini che avremmo ritrovato 70 anni dopo nei Sick Boy e Renton di Trainspotting.
La lettura è a volte "disturbing" per la psicologia perversa ed assurda - ma assurdamente coerente - delle scelte di vita di Gordon. Ma come in tutti i romanzi di Orwell nulla è come sembra ed il finale stravolge tutto, lasciando fiorire la tanto odiata pianta dell'aspidistra
Il romanzo è da leggere come una triologia con "The Clergyman's daughter" e "Coming up for air": tutti e 3 descrivono in modo lucido e spietato la Gran Bretagna nella depressione degli anni 30, con lo spettro della Seconda Guerra Mondiale che aleggia pesante come le esercitazioni aeree che sfrecciano nel cielo. A ben vedere troviamo in nuce tutte le tematiche che verranno esplose in 1984: le costrizioni sociali da Thought Police, l'impossibilità di essere se stessi, la presenza di un'autorità superiore che invade pesantemente la vita privata dei cittadini.
La lingua inglese di Orwel è tagliente ed efficace, piena di phrasal verbs ed parole ricercate molto utili per un locutore avanzato. Ovviamente è passato un secolo, quindi qualche costruzione è desueta: ciò non ostacola affatto la lettura, anzi è una finestra interessante sull'evoluzione della lingua di Shakespeare.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Australia on September 13, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars A great writer
Depressing, uplifting and beautifully expressed. Hard to imagine a better portrait of London in the 30’s. Money, class distinction and the awful reality of life for the downtrodden. Thank God for the introduction of the minimum wage and national health. A great novel that makes you consider life then and now.
-
Daniel RousselReviewed in France on August 31, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars important pour connaitre Orwell
Largement autobiographique (les origines sociales de Gordon: famille lower middle class, qui manque cruellement d'argent mais veut garder les apparences; les premières souffrances dues au manque lorsque Gordon est dans sa public school-pour laquelle ses parents se sont saignés aux 4 veines et sacrifié l'avenir de sa soeur Julia), "Keep..." introduit le concept central de l'oeuvre d' Orwell: la "décence" (Il n'emploie as encore le terme du concept abouti de "common decency"qui apparaitra je crois dans "The Road to Wigan Pier". Traumatisé par ce qu'il considère comme la soumission de la société au dieu argent, Gordon décide de se libérer de cet esclavage, refuse toute compromis et tombe de plus en plus bas dans la société, et se réfugie dans son statut de "poète" (raté). Bien entendu, il est d'autant plus l'esclave de l'argent qu'il veut s'en débarrasser, le manque d'argent étant finalement bien plus aliénant que l'argent lui même. Le manque d'argent non seulement lui fait mener une vie misérable, mais éteint toute créativité artistique-comment peut on écrire de la poésie avec 2£ par semaine?- et entraîne une frustration sexuelle insupportable (La même idée se trouve dans Burmese Days). Le personnage de Rosemary (son amie), permet d'introduire la notion de décence: il est possible de vivre décemment sans devenir l'esclave de l'argent. Coup de griffe au passage aux socialistes fortunés, en la personne de Ravelston, marxiste avec une rente de 2000£ par an (beaucoup d'argent à l'époque) et qui, comme dit Rosemary, peut se permettre d'avoir des principes.
La fin est inattendue pour Orwell le pessimiste: on s'attend à une fin tragique, comme le suicide de James dans Burmese Days: Gordon en effet doit choisir entre se joindre aux adorateurs du dieu argent, donc renier ce en quoi il croit,ou renier son humanité en abandonnant Rosemary (enceinte) à son sort. Gordon choisit de rentrer dans le rang. Est ce bien un "happy ending"? N'est il pas plutôt pessimiste de dire que finalement c'est l'argent qui l'emporte? Non, justement grâce à cette notion de "décence", qu'Orwell mentionne plusieurs fois dans les dix dernières pages, et qui permet de vivre dans le monde de l'argent, si soi-même on a des valeurs supérieures, ici la Vie symbolisée par le foetus que porte Rosemary.
En résumé:
Peut on vivre en refusant l'argent?
Ce refus n'est il pas finalement plus aliénant que l'argent lui même?
La solution peut elle être collective (le marxisme de Ravelston), ou individuelle (la "décence" de Rosemary, puis Gordon)
Le salut est finalement dans la reconnaissance d'un lien social, une vertu personnelle qu'Orwell appellera plus tard "common decency) que se retrouve d'une façon innée dans le peuple
En conclusion: une étape indispensable pour comprendre la pensée d'Orwell
- JofusPocusReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2006
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, bleak book
Nobody does “bleak” better than Orwell! This sounds strikingly like one of the many advertising slogans that continually grate our main character Gordon Comstock. The slogans represent to Comstock all that is wrong in the “money-god” driven society that is his constant preoccupation. Ironically, his only potential escape from his life of poverty is to go back to work as a copywriter producing the ads that have become so symbolic of all society’s ills. Gordon is a struggling poet who puts money, or lack of it, at the heart of every single problem in his life. All of his anger and frustration is directed outwards onto the few people who care for his welfare both as a writer and a human being. This is a classic Orwellian journey that contains all of the foreboding of “1984” along with the poverty and bleakness of “Down and Out in Paris and London”.
Some reviewers have mentioned that Orwell disowned this novel but the reason for this was that the publishers demanded re-writes of the advertising slogans, among other things, in fear of litigation. Given that the novel had already been typeset it meant that the text had to be replaced with text containing exactly the same number of letters. Consequently, the first chapter became something of a mess and because this sets the scene for the entire novel Orwell was obviously outraged at the changes. Luckily the details of many of the changes were recorded and where possible this publication has restored the original text.
One can’t read “Aspidistra” without reflecting that it was written in a Europe that was on the brink of war. This despair comes across beautifully in Gordon’s character and in Orwell’s descriptions of London during the period. This is a great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely urge you to read it.