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Start giftingKeep the Aspidistra Flying
Narrator
Richard Brown
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Length
9 hours 22 minutes
Language
English
Gordon Comstock is a poor young man who works by day in a grubby London bookstore and spends his evenings shivering in a rented room, trying to write. Gordon has published a slim volume of verse and is determined to keep free of the “money world” of safe, lucrative jobs, marriage, and family responsibilities. This world, to Gordon, spells the end of art and aspidistra, the homely, indestructible house plant that stands in every middle-class British window.
Gordon’s sweetheart, Rosemary, understands him: she is patient with his pride and lack of funds. But then, as it happens with all lovers, events overtake them.
Orwell’s picture of the “money world,” as Gordon sees it, is in his best satirical vein.
Eric Arthur Blair (1903-1950), better known by his pen-name, George Orwell, was born in India, where his father worked for the Civil Service. An author and journalist, Orwell was one of the most prominent and influential figures in twentieth-century literature. His unique political allegory Animal Farm was published in 1945, and it was this novel, together with the dystopia of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), which brought him world-wide fame. His novels and non-fiction include Burmese Days, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.
Richard Brown (1937–2005) (a.k.a. Joseph Porter), was a former ballet dancer, actor, and popular audiobook narrator. Born in England, Richard came to the United States early in his career and performed with numerous regional ballet companies. After retiring from the ballet, he pursued a career in acting and recorded dozens of audiobooks for numerous publishers.
Reviews
“Richard Brown reads in a clear voice and effectively captures the rhythms of the text.”
“Gritty, growling, commonsensical and touching. [Orwell] never wrote a basically kinder or more human novel.”
“A remarkable novel...A summa of all the criticisms of a commercial civilization that have ever been made.”
“A delightful addition to the Orwell literature…A work Orwell enthusiasts will bracket with Down and Out in Paris and London.”
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