George Bowling, a forty-five-year-old insurance salesman with a wife and two children, is overweight, depressed and haunted by ever-present portents of imminent global conflict. Dreaming of escaping the staid suburban rut in which he has become embedded, he reminisces about his home town in Oxfordshire, Lower Binfield. But as he seeks refuge in the rural idyll of his treasured childhood memories, the rapacious forces of "progress" continue their relentless march, eventually forcing George to reflect on the folly of nostalgia and the impossibility of reliving the past. By turns comic and melancholy, Orwell's fourth novel - published in 1939 to critical and commercial acclaim by Victor Gollancz - is Wellsian in its exploration of the frustrations and helplessness of a lower-middle-class protagonist faced with the indifference of a rapidly changing world, and a vital record of a society on the verge of war.

Part of Alma Classics George Orwell Collection, this new edition of Coming Up for Air contains notes and extra material for students.

About the Author
Eric Blair (1903-50), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was a novelist, journalist and critic, best remembered for his seminal novels 1984 and Animal Farm, and for works of non-fiction such as The Road to Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia.


Book Information
ISBN 9781847499004
Author George Orwell
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Alma Classics
Publisher Alma Books Ltd