Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell

…Money suffereth long, and is kind; money envieth not; money vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave unseemly…And now abideth faith, hope, money, these three; but the greatest of these is money.

The opening parody of 1 Corinthians xiii sets the tone for this grim, but very funny, dissection of life as a poor man in 1930s London. The central conceit is that our hero, an unsuccessful poet, tries bloody-mindedly to live his life outside the world of money and experiences a series of disasters as a result.

In a traditional book, the ending – marriage, kids, a ‘good’ job – would be a happy one. Here, ironically, it represents the final defeat of principle by pragmatism.

I love Orwell, so I’ve been meaning to get around to this novel for ages. It’s not as good as his best stuff (Homage to Catalonia would be my pick), but definitely worth reading.