Gordon Comstock is a bookseller's assistant with aspirations to be an author. But with little money, he decides to write and get some income working in a bookshop. He falls in love with Rosemary and they marry when she becomes pregnant, and takes out his resentment for being poor on her. They settle in a middle class home  Although they are poor, Gordon Comstock keeps his aspidistra flying, a potted flower of England symbolizing keeping up appearances when poor. 

George Orwell (Eric Blair) was born in 1903 in Bengal, India, came to school in Eton and served with the Indian police between 1922 and 1927. He died in 1950 of tuberculosis. He was the literary editor of The Tribune from 1943 to 1945 and manteined non-conforming patriotism. The book is written in a conversational style but is a criticism of commercialism, which leaves many lower middle class families behind. There is much pessimism, socialism, adultery and concern for riches.

C.C. (U.K., 2017)