Customer Reviews

Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Library Edition)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is a bit difficult task to place George Orwell (pen name for Eric Aruthur Blair) in the history of the 20th century English literature. A novelist? A journalist? A critic? Or just a guy who loved propaganda? Whatever it is, he is and will be remembered as the one who wrote "1984" and "Animal Farm." Still, before he wrote these famous works, he wrote a pretty good book of novel, and that is what you're looking at now.

"Keep the Aspidistra Flying" one of the most starange titles you ever see, is about a "poet" (and formerly a copywriter for advertizing company) Gordon Comstock, who, with sudden desire to be free from the curse of money, left this good job and starts the life of an aspiring artist. As he had previously a book of his own poems published (the title "Mice"), and received a review from The Times Literary Supplement, which said "exceptional promise," why not pursue his way as an artist? And his next project "London Pleasure" which must be the next Joyce or Eliot will be completed soon, probably next month, or next year perhaps....

As his misadventure starts, Rosemary, his long-suffering but always faithful sweetheart, naturally is dismayed, and it takes a long time for him to realize that his happiness, whatever it is, is possible with her presence. But aside from the romantic aspect of the novel, which in itself is well-written with good portrait of independent Rosemary, the book attracts us with the author's satire on the middle-classness of England, which is represented by those ugly, die-hard aspidistra decorating the windows of every house. Gordon's loathing of respetability is deftly turned into a dark comedy that attack the parochical mind of some people, sometimes including Gordon himself. For instance, Gordon, no matter how poor and disheveled he becomes, never lets his girlfriend Rosemary pay the check of lunch because, in a word, it is not proper. Those who are interested in Englishness might find something amusing in this book, I assure you.

As is his satire, Orwell's English style is always full of power, brisk and lively, and never lets you bored. The only demerit is, as time has changed since then 1936, some names are no longer familiar to us; once hugely popular novelists like Ethel M Dell is mentioned with derogatory comments from Gordon, and her bestselling novel "The Way of an Eagle" is clearly treated as trash in Orwell's mind, but in the 21st Century whoever read them? Hence, some part of the book is lost on us if you don't know these names like Dell or Hugh Walpole, but never mind. Such part consists only small part, and if you don't get it, just skip it.

At the time of publishing, "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" was never a commercial success, and in Orwell's lifeime it was never reprinted, but these facts should not discuorage you from reading it. It is wickedly funny book that makes you, if not smile, at least grin not a little.

The book was made a movie in 1997 as "The Merry War" starring Richard E Grant and Helena Bohnam Carter. The film, more inclined to romance side of the book, is also a good one. Try it.

Having completed "Keep the Aspidistra Flying", I have now read all of the novels of George Orwell. I can say with such authority that this one may be his best. George Orwell was, first and foremost, a Socialist and this book is his examination of being a Socialist in a Capitalist world. His hero, Gordon Comstock, is mired in a dead-end job that is just middle-class enough to require proper dress and behavior but not enough to enable him to afford any but the most essential living expenses. We sympathize with him. Or at least we do until we realize that his disdain for the pursuit of money has pointed him in the opposite direction. He is so anti-capitalist that he purposely keeps himself in his lower state. He quit a previous job because it paid too much. He won't strive beyond his current status because then he would enter a higher social status. He is convinced of the righteousness of his beliefs even though he has bled his sister dry "borrowing" money from her over the years. She "lends" him the money because the family always had such high hopes for this erudite young man. Gordon complains, to those that listen, that money is the root of all evil yet he is so ready to be victimized by it. He complains to his girl-friend that she measures him by his net-worth. This isn't true but he can't see that the problem is that HE is measuring himself by his own net-worth. He talks the talk but can't walk the walk. Well, money leads to one disaster of his own making and ends up as the solution to another "disaster" of his own making. I'm sure the prospective reader would prefer to read the book to see how his story ends so I won't go into any more details here.

This novel is enjoyable on many levels. I found myself, like most, getting upset with Gordon Comstock for his self-destructive "nobility". I was ready to rant and rave about it until I remembered my post-college Bohemian days and realized that I went through such a stage myself. I'm sure many of us have and so I think there is a personal connection that will appeal to a lot of readers. For pure literary merit, this is a hard 20th Century satire to top. Orwell scared a lot of people with his futuristic novels "Animal Farm" and "1984". He tried to indoctrinate many a reader with his Socialistic essays including his half-novel/half-essay; "The Road to Wigan Pier". I have a feeling that he was poking fun at himself in "Keep the Aspidistras Flying". Maybe that's why it works so well.

I started to read 'Keep the Aspidistra Flying' on christmas day, and found that I had nearly finished it by the end of boxing day. I couldn't put it down! The book takes you through one man's (Gordon Comstock) struggle against the 'Money God' - with whom he began waging war early in his life. You travel with Gordon on his poverty stricken journey of self discovery and, indeed, on his road to maturity. His neglect for the people who care about him (his faitful sister Julia, and devoted partner Rosemary), and neglect for himself do make you angry at times, but this is Orwell's brilliance - the ability to make you feel passionately about things. This book, for me, was an absolutely brilliant read, especially when Orwell takes Rosemary and Gordon out into the country, to Slough - which is only 10 minutes away from my own home village! This book is a 'must' - go and read it!

After 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.

To the reviewer who claimed this bit of "capitolism bashing" [sic] is not worth half the status of 1984:

Perhaps you're right that it is not as good as that book. I definitely don't see myself reading it more than three times as I have with that one. Unless one is intimately familiar with Orwell's ouvre on the whole-and not just Animal Farm and 1984-I could see how they could come to this conclusion.

However, if you have read any of Orwell's essays (his criticisms of concurrent literature, his defenses of and attacks on socialism, his biographical works), you will see that this book fits in nicely with the rest of his work. If it were just for those two aforementioned books, Orwell would still have a high place in the literary canon, but there is so much more to his style than his writings/warnings against fascism.

I would not recommend reading this one until one has also read Down and Out in Paris and London and Road to Wigan Pier. Once those two have been taken in, the simple beauty of Keep the Aspidistra Flying will be more apparent. In those two relatively lesser-known works, Orwell expounds on the philosophy that is more indicative of his place in literature than the Winston Smith paranoia. One of Orwell's chief concerns in writing, it seems to me, was in displaying how the effects of money can rule one's life more than any government. In Down and Out and Wigan, we see what abject poverty-when it isn't a choice-can do to the human spirit. In Aspidistra, we have a main character-Gordon Comstock-who seems to accept this as a given, and supposes that, when this kind of poverty is a choice, one can break free of the trappings of the capitalistic burden.

This is the thrust of the work. Comstock's supposition that he can be free of money woes leads him to obsess over it moreso than anyone else. The reader wants to reach inside the book and smack him upside the head, because this leads to a preoccupation with money that none of the people whom he despises could even remotely have. Orwell's point is that we are all trapped in this system, and we can't escape it. When we make futile attempts, it is still on the system's terms. An intense sense of anti-capitalism, however noble it might initially have been, can indeed estrange us from our family and friends and cause even more problems than had been there before. Comstock (however unintentionally) antagonizes everyone around him, and disrupts his relationships more with his money-bashing than the money itself ever could have.

Without giving away the plot, Gordon proves himself more of a capitalist (...) than he could have been just by buying into the system.

As for the work itself, it is one of Orwell's lighter books, and yet it owes quite alot to Dostoyevsky. Whether Orwell himself would have admitted it or not, this seems to me to be one of his greatest influences. Comstock's character is not unlike Raskolnikov's in Crime and Punishment, Dimitri's in The Brothers Karamazov, and the main character in Notes from Underground. In all three of these, as in Aspidistra, we have a character so obsessed with an abstract notion that he lets it rule his life and destroy the lives of others.

All in all, if one does not read this expecting the stereotypical Orwell of 1984 and Animal Farm, I think they will be pleasantly surprised. I liked and sympathized with the majority of the characters. And unlike Burmese Days, Animal Farm, and 1984, it ends with a little hope.

And as far as giving it five stars when it is not quite as good as those, the Amazon rating system puts four stars as "I like it" and five as "I love it".

The book isn't perfect, but I am very fond of it, so I don't think I'm lying when I give it five.

My God! Whatever happenned to good old clean writing where one regards the scene, action, events and characters at hand, contemplating universals and dissonent examples to reach some higher, usually very personal, truth?

Thank God there is still Orwell? This is one of his best. Forget the literary critic's remarks about this being a young Orwell. Who cares? It is honest, clean and offers a valuable example of life of working poor in England in the 1930s. When you contrast it to our present circumstance you see a lot that has changed and so much that has not; two pound / month was just not enough to survive, but to slowly starve to death. But Gordon will not yeild to the Money God that he has delcared war against. While he is waging this war we glimpse at his self-induced problems along the way.

The ending poses that critical question; Is he a hero? Was he conqueror of, or conquered by the Money God?

There are a few dated expressions which add colour to the book in my estimation. The trash readers of the times he refers to are unknown to most of us nowadays. But it does not matter. We know what he means. You could just as easily substitute Danielle Steel with the names of the other trash authors of the 1930s. We would then get his intent.

A great read. A true modern classic.

I read many of Orwell's works, and I find this far surpasses both 1984 and Animal Farm. This is certainly not a novel about Gordon struggling against poverty, though he is poor that is self inflicted, instead this novel centers around a man's struggle for the freedom that the world of money denies a man. Put simply, Gordon just wants the freedom to be a bum, but even this is not so simple. He has to deal with a family which sees him as their most talented, but also the one wasting his talents. A girlfriend as well that wishes he would take the job at the advertising firm, and also a wealthier friend who enables him to survive through his self inflicted poverty. His failure though is that his poetry is published and he recieves royalties for this, but he then rids himself of the money by getting quite drunk. I guess I shouldn't tell the ending, anyways, this is one of the best books I have ever read with a character that is quite simply fascinating and enigmatic.

"Keep the Aspidistra Flying," published in 1936 during the Depression, is a satire on the literary life, and an examination of poverty in London.

Orwell chronicles a period in the life of disaffected twenty-nine year old, Gordon Comstock, who leaves his "good job" in advertising to work in a bookshop, and to pursue his ambition of becoming a poet. Gordon is of middle-class upbringing, which incidentally, along with his resilience, the Aspidistra symbolises.

Gordon is obsessed with money, and believes that commerce is the cause of all society's problems and attempts to drop out of the capitalist system altogether. He refuses to advance himself in life, defying pressure from family and friends. He falls willingly into the abyss of poverty and self-neglect, until he is trapped by circumstances into embracing the very values that he formerly despised.

Having declared war on what he calls the "Money God," Gordon wants to live by his own values, not those of a corrupt, materialistic system, which grinds the life and spirit out of people.

Gordon soon finds that money is all he thinks about. He does not find happiness having renounced the values that others live by. Forced to live in squalid lodgings, he believes that others reject and despise him because of his poverty. He cannot relate to his moneyed friend Ravelston on equal terms and blames his poverty for the fact that his girlfriend, Rosemary, will not go to bed with him. Nothing seems to go right for Gordon.

The novel's power is in the honesty and directness of Orwell's realist writing. He is ruthless and unsparing in his portrayal of the sordidness of poverty, down to its smallest detail, and it is this which gives "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" a place in the tradition of the novel of poverty.

Brilliant and powerful writing!

....maybe it is to Orwell's credit that his ideas are so different than other authors. Maybe it is to his credit that there is so much going on in this little tome.
To me, "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" is an insighful, empathetic exploration of a fundamental paradox of modern life:
Should an educated man sell his soul and work a lucrative job for a big business doing something he doesn't care about or believe in - and lead any easy life of comfort and confidence?
Or should a man stand up to the money God and to the false prophets of materialism and respectibility and work a humble, honest job - and pay for his righteousness with perpetual poverty and insecurity?

**it is a very important question, and Orwell doesn't give the answer that you think. He is known as a socialist, but Orwell is primarily a great humanitarian and social philosopher.
as a former starving graduate student who now works a cushy corporate job for a big credit card company, i know from personal experience that Orwell knows exactly what he is talking about and the lessons he teaches are as true today as they were in interwar England.
**buy this wonderful book**

One of the most underrated, least-known masterpieces I have ever read. I could not put it down! The Orwell brilliance that finally became better known in Animal Farm and 1984 shines forth peek-a-boo style in this book, easily the best of his earlier works. The most human book he ever wrote. Quite charming, quite ridiculously idealistic, in it's positive ending it is unlike the darkness he would write about later--though shades of it are there throughout. Oh but I love this book. One of my all-time favorites. Orwell was the best author of the 20th century, in my book.