Keep the Aspidistra Flying

George Orwell, Benjamin Kohlmann (University of Regensburg)

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English

Worlds Classics
21 January 2021

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers; Classic fiction (pre c 1945)

Series: Oxford World's Classics

""Money is what God used to be. Good and evil have no meaning any longer except failure and success.""

Disgusted by society's materialism, Gordon Comstock leaves his job in advertising to pursue an ill-fated career as a poet. In his race to the bottom, only Rosemary, his long-suffering girlfriend, challenges Gordon's self-destructive course. The novel contains the most sustained reflections on the role of the author and the artistic imagination anywhere in Orwell's fiction, as the book's protagonist struggles (and ultimately fails) to reconcile his romantic-aestheticist sensibilities with the pressures of the literary marketplace and with social expectations. Completed while Orwell travelled north to work on The Road to Wigan Pier, this novel is a key transitional text in his career. Offering a powerful portrayal of the emotional toll of precarity and the desire to break with capitalism, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is a significant work of mid-century British fiction but it also speaks to our own time.

ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

By: George Orwell
Edited by: Benjamin Kohlmann (University of Regensburg)
Imprint: Worlds Classics
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 196mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 192g
ISBN: 9780198858317
ISBN 10: 0198858310
Series: Oxford World's Classics
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 21 January 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction Notes on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of George Orwell Keep the Aspidistra Flying Explanatory Notes

Benjamin Kohlmann teaches English literature at the University of Regensburg, Germany. He is the author of Committed Styles: Modernism, Politics, and Left-Wing Literature in the 1930s (2014) and Speculative States: Literature and Reform in Britain, 1870-1920 (forthcoming). His articles have been published in PMLA, ELH, Novel, and other journals. He has co-edited several essay collections, including A History of 1930s British Literature (2019), with Matthew Taunton.