Keep the Aspidistra Flying

The joys of Aspidistra (English original: Keep the Aspidistra Flying ) is a novel by George Orwell in 1936, the hero of the novel is a poet in London in the 1930s, of the acquiring company tries to deny and thereby fails radically. .

Action

Gordon Comstock comes from the descending middle class, his family is described as fit for life. In accordance with his status, he is to receive a good education (at the expense of his sister ), but suffers the humiliation of being made ärmerem house as his classmates. In his other professional life he can not have success and did not get out of his poverty, but what seems to him subconsciously to please, as he makes no serious effort to improve his circumstances. Nevertheless depresses him the constant need of money and seems to him to be the only source of all his problems. He wants to be a poet and as a small success seems possible, he gives his job at an advertising agency immediately. His book of poems, although it gets good reviews, however sold poorly. To escape the bourgeois, Gordon opts for the lower-paid profession with no chance that he will Antiquarian employee. But he does not take a political position which Marxist views of an acquaintance he can not share, and besides, he flirts with the Catholic Church. Rather, he seems to have a anti-capitalism with the attitude " Everything was better " to represent, because he constantly gets upset around him on billboards and campaigns.

Now his life has come to a standstill. He's not coming to write to because it oppresses his poverty. He can not participate in social life, because he is poor. His girlfriend does not want to sleep with him - as he believed - because of its poverty. A newspaper published a poem of his, and now he gets a veritable payment. Immediately, he must spend the money: When he is drunk, his money is stolen by a hooker, he beats himself with a police officer and comes in the drunk tank. Because it is reported about this unimportant news in a newspaper, then he loses his job.

He finds a similar but poorer working and a worse furnished room for living and can be totally depraved, he washes barely, living in a filthy room and would love to cut off all contact with friends and relatives. Out of pity, his girlfriend is sleeping at last with him and is now pregnant. She asks Gordon whether to keep or abort the child, after which spontaneously awaken paternal feelings in him. He wants to keep the child unconditionally and can finally bring themselves to ask for re- employment at his former workplace, the advertising agency. A little later he is accepted and is immediately successful. He marries his girlfriend (but at her request only civilly ) opts for a middle class life and decides to buy an aspidistra, a houseplant that had previously been regarded him as a symbol of the staid England.

Filming

The novel was made into a film starring Richard E. Grant and Helena Bonham Carter in 1997. In New Zealand and the USA, the film under the title A Merry War was released. In Germany the film was released under the title Love, Art and houseplants.

Literary work
Literature ( English )
Literature ( 20th century)
Novel, epic
Work of George Orwell

Down and Out in Paris and London Nineteen Eighty-Four

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