Why did George Orwell once try to bury his own novel about money?
In short: In 1936, George Orwell published a biting critique of capitalism titled Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Yet, he later grew ashamed of the work, viewing it as a desperate, hollow exercise written only to survive poverty. Decades later, critics remain divided, debating whether it is a flawed failure or a perfect masterpiece.
The novel follows Gordon Comstock, a young man who declares war on the 'Money God' by abandoning a lucrative advertising career to pursue poetry. Living in a squalid London bedsit, Comstock descends into a neurotic, petty existence, resenting the very society he attempts to reject. His struggle is mirrored by his girlfriend, Rosemary, who represents the conventional life he fears. The title itself mocks the middle class; the aspidistra, a hardy plant that thrived in the poor air of Victorian homes, serves as a symbol of the stuffy, status-obsessed life Comstock ultimately finds himself unable to escape.
Orwell wrote the book while living in London during the mid-1930s, drawing heavily on his own experiences with financial instability. At the time, he was working part-time at a second-hand bookshop in Hampstead, earning far less than his wealthy, socialist friends. This personal friction informs the character of Philip Ravelston, a well-off publisher whose unearned income highlights the stark divide between intellectual ideals and the practical miseries of poverty. Orwell’s own frustration with his financial state was so intense that he later requested the book not be reprinted during his lifetime, dismissing it as a product of necessity rather than artistic vision.
Despite Orwell's disdain, the novel has garnered significant attention for its foreshadowing of his later work. Critics have noted that Comstock’s rebellion against the system and his eventual, inevitable assimilation mirror the trajectory of Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Furthermore, the book’s exploration of the alienation caused by mass advertising and the difficulty of finding private space in a crowded city provides a clear precursor to the themes of his final masterpiece. While biographers like Jeffrey Meyers point to weaknesses in plot and characterization, others, such as Norman Mailer, have hailed the book as perfect from start to finish.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Keep the Aspidistra Flying
- Also: Wikidata — Keep the Aspidistra Flying · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — Keep the Aspidistra Flying · CC0
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