Keep the Aspidistra Flying

novel by Orwell

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June 30, 2026

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Keep the Aspidistra Flying is a novel by George Orwell published in 1936. The story follows Gordon Comstock, a bookseller's assistant who despises the materialism of middle-class life. Despite his literary aspirations, he is trapped in a job he loathes and struggles with poverty. The novel explores themes of commercialism, social status, and the compromises individuals make when faced with societal pressures. Ultimately, Comstock is reconciled to bourgeois prosperity through marriage, a resolution that reflects Orwell's own complex relationship with class and societal expectations.1

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George Orwell
Against imperialism and rejection of the bourgeois
Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) is about a literarily inclined bookseller’s assistant who despises the empty commercialism and materialism of middle-class life but who in the end is reconciled to bourgeois prosperity by his forced marriage to the girl he loves.
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Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) is about a literarily inclined bookseller’s assistant who despises the empty commercialism and materialism of middle-class life but who in the end is reconciled to bourgeois prosperity by his forced marriage to the girl he loves.
Read More

English literature
The 1930s
A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935) and Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), by George Orwell, are evocations—in the manner of Wells and, in the latter case unsuccessfully, of Joyce—of contemporary lower-middle-class existence, and The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) is a report of northern working-class mores. Elizabeth Bowen’s Death
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A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935) and Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), by George Orwell, are evocations—in the manner of Wells and, in the latter case unsuccessfully, of Joyce—of contemporary lower-middle-class existence, and The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) is a report of northern working-class mores. Elizabeth Bowen’s Death
Read More