Orwell's other Novels

[BMW-Guy]

All the posts on this Orwell-Forum are concerned with either 1984 or Animal Farm.

Has anyone else ready any of his other novels (i.e. Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Burmese Days, etc.)?

[den]

Ok, I'll comment on my second choice dystopian writer... (guess who's my first? :D )

Uhm, hell yeah, Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) is hilarious! ( I know I've posted about this book somewhere else here... )

From bartleby.com:

Any of several eastern Asian plants of the genus Aspidistra in the lily family, especially A. elatior, which has large evergreen basal leaves and small, brownish bell-shaped flowers and is widely cultivated as a houseplant. Also called cast-iron plant.
ETYMOLOGY: New Latin Aspidistra, genus name, from Greek aspis, aspid-, shield.

So, aspidistra is a plant and is also commonly known as `Mother-In-Law's Tongue' or `Snake' plant ... it's an ugly plant, doesn't need any water, you can put it in the dark and forget about it and it still won't die on you.

Operative word here `common' and that's what all the angst and anger is about in the main character's life... Comstock is anti-capitalist, wanna-be poet, trying to choose a life of poverty over the all pervasive `money-god'. He keeps quitting jobs and aggravating his friends and secluding himself in bedsits and chainsmoking stupor. Then his landlady presents him with a weedy sick aspidistra to `cheer' him, the heighth of conventional sentimental domestic attachment, all that he rages against. Then he meets Rosemary and all hell breaks loose.

Orwell's device of political creed as rationalisation for emotional problems is polished, he's angry and alltogether endearing you to his characters. Very worthwhile reading imo.

[THE BIG DICK CHENEY]

VFEORPPP!

[AbdoRinbo]

Unscrupulous!

[den]

Well! you could just say that about Gordon, but of course he redeems himself in end. :p :rolleyes:


Originally posted by AbdoRinbo
Unscrupulous!

[kev67]

I am currently reading A Clergyman's Daughter, and I have read all the others too. I thought Burmese Days was very good, though bleak. Coming Up For Air was bleak too. Not an awful lot happened it, but it was well written. I read Keep the Aspidistra Flying last year. It was quite enjoyable. I would not say it was great. I am quite enjoying A Clergyman's Daughter. Some of it comes across as Orwell's own experience, particularly the hop picking section, which I really enjoyed. Orwell's earlier novels were rather different to the political allegories, Animal Farm and 1984, which were attacks on the betrayed revolution in the Soviet Union. Of the four earlier books, Burmese Days was the most political. The other three were more sociological.

[The Atheist]

Great summing up of all of them!

A Clergyman's Daughter is highly autobiographical, from the hop-picking to the third-rate schoolteaching. Aspidistra is very heavy going but worth the effort - I'm sure a lot of Orwell's own personality and ambivalent feelings towards Socialism come out in Gordon.

[kev67]

Thanks, I just finished reading A Clergyman's Daughter. It was very enjoyable, although rather like a dramatised series of essays and given a female protagonist. I did not know Orwell had been a teacher, but he must have been.

[neilgee]

Thanks, I just finished reading A Clergyman's Daughter. It was very enjoyable, although rather like a dramatised series of essays and given a female protagonist. I did not know Orwell had been a teacher, but he must have been.

Orwell taught at a small prep school for boys 1932-3 and then moved to a much larger college but caught a chill whilst motorcycling which developed into pneumonia in '33. He never went back into teaching after that.

[kev67]

Orwell taught at a small prep school for boys 1932-3 and then moved to a much larger college but caught a chill whilst motorcycling which developed into pneumonia in '33. He never went back into teaching after that.

At least he did not suffer the same fate as T. E. Lawrence. Orwell often seemed to have problems with his chest.

I would be interested to know what a modern teacher makes of the chapter in which Dorothy attempts to teach at a girls' school. Without doubt things have improved a lot since then, but I suspect teachers still suffer some of the same frustrations. One slightly eye-brow lifting moment was when Orwell more at less admitted to having hit children when they exasperated him with their behaviour. It used to be commonplace but not allowed now.

One thing I like about Orwell's less famous novels is that they remind me of my grandparents. My grandfather could write in lovely copperplate handwriting, one of the skills drilled into her pupils by Dorothy, although she thinks it is a waste of time.

[Emil Miller]

At least he did not suffer the same fate as T. E. Lawrence. Orwell often seemed to have problems with his chest.

I would be interested to know what a modern teacher makes of the chapter in which Dorothy attempts to teach at a girls' school. Without doubt things have improved a lot since then, but I suspect teachers still suffer some of the same frustrations. One slightly eye-brow lifting moment was when Orwell more at less admitted to having hit children when they exasperated him with their behaviour. It used to be commonplace but not allowed now.

One thing I like about Orwell's less famous novels is that they remind me of my grandparents. My grandfather could write in lovely copperplate handwriting, one of the skills drilled into her pupils by Dorothy, although she thinks it is a waste of time.

Do you mean D.H. Lawrence ?

[The Atheist]

At least he did not suffer the same fate as T. E. Lawrence. Orwell often seemed to have problems with his chest.

The tragedy of it, had he not been a chronic smoker, he probably would have lived for years, because his TB would have been much more treatable and he was already at the dawn of antibiotics.


I would be interested to know what a modern teacher makes of the chapter in which Dorothy attempts to teach at a girls' school. Without doubt things have improved a lot since then, but I suspect teachers still suffer some of the same frustrations. One slightly eye-brow lifting moment was when Orwell more at less admitted to having hit children when they exasperated him with their behaviour. It used to be commonplace but not allowed now.

There's a kind of perversely funny story about Orwell and corporal punishment: he hated it with a passion, but on the occasions he used it, he made sure to give the came as hard as he possibly could. There's a story that may be apocryphal - but fits Orwell - that a former pupil once asked why he used to cane so dashed hard. Orwell replied along the lines that while he hated corporal punishment, it was his duty not to flinch at the task and give the strokes as hard as humanly possible.

[kev67]

Do you mean D.H. Lawrence ?

It was T.E. Lawrence who was Lawrence of Arabia, the author of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, wasn't he? He died in a motorcycle crash.

[Emil Miller]

It was T.E. Lawrence who was Lawrence of Arabia, the author of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, wasn't he? He died in a motorcycle crash.

Yes but as you mentioned Orwell's chest problem, I thought you were referring to the tuberculosis that killed D.H. Lawrence. I couldn't make a connection between Orwell and Lawrence of Arabia.

[kev67]

Yes but as you mentioned Orwell's chest problem, I thought you were referring to the tuberculosis that killed D.H. Lawrence. I couldn't make a connection between Orwell and Lawrence of Arabia.

I probably should have made that clearer. I did not know D.H. Lawrence died of T.B. too.