First published in 1936, and drawing on Orwell's own experiences of working in a Hampstead bookshop, Keep the Aspidistra Flying tracks the career of Gordon Comstock ('nearly 30 and moth-eaten already') a struggling poet who tries to rebel against the conventions of middle-class English life, only to be drawn inexorably back into the world that grinds him down. This new edition includes an introduction and extensive end-notes, and an appendix containing original responses to the novel as well as letters and documents from the period in which it was written.