Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Keep the Aspidistra Flying is George Orwell's novel about Gordon Comstock, an aspiring poet determined to resist a society organized around money and status. After leaving advertising for poorly paid work in a bookshop, he finds that financial insecurity can narrow his life as much as the ambitions he rejects. His relationship with Rosemary brings affection and responsibility into conflict with resentment and wounded pride. The novel's social criticism is sharpened by its examination of Gordon himself: opposition to materialism does not free him from vanity or from the claims that other people make upon him.