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What is Keep the Aspidistra Flying about?
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George Orwell
Known best for his powerful anti-utopian novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), English author George Orwell came to be regarded as a prophetic voice in 20th-century literature.
Published in 1936, Keep the Aspidistra Flying follows a literarily inclined booksellerâs assistant who harbors a deep disdain for the materialism and empty commercialism of middle-class life.1
The novel draws on George Orwell's own experiences working in a London bookshop. Ultimately, the protagonist finds himself reconciled to bourgeois prosperity after he is forced into marriage with the woman he loves.1