Audio By Vocalize
One of the best works about the travails of a struggling writer is Keep the Aspidistra Flying, published by Victor Gollancz Ltd in 1936. The novel by George Orwell, whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair, tells the story of Gordon Comstock, a 29-year-old writer who quits his copywriter’s job at a prestigious advertising firm and takes up a nearly voluntary job at a small bookshop.
Comstock expects a poetry book he has just published, titled Mice, to be a runaway success. And he wants to be there at the bookshop to witness history being made, with copies of Mice flying off the shelves. But woe unto Comstock. People come into the store, buy books on raising dogs or gardening, pay, walk out and mingle with the madding crowds yonder without as much as a second look at Mice.
So he continues living in a dimly lit lodging house, where he has to survive on cold beef and black coffee, always dodging the owner over rent arrears. Sometimes he gets invited to literary events where he could meet serious editors who can hook him up with a side gig, but the mail often arrives long after the deadline. Or when the invitation comes early, there is another letter, which arrives late, announcing that the event has been postponed.
