Keep the Aspidistra Flying

The chief character in this early but exceptionally fine novel of Orwell's is Gordon Comstock, a writer who rebels against the twin British middle-class preoccupations: money and respectability.

"Not pretty, but powerful, accurate, and fair. This book projects as do few others the desperate ingredients and blind rage of the educated moneyless. And Orwell's power is wielded responsibly.

"Neither the rebels nor the hucksters are romanticized, nor is life--which wins in the end." (Chicago Sunday...