George Orwell, Coming up for Air

Nigel Williams

Ed. by Peter Childs, Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Jun 1939

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Orwell’s fourth novel, Coming up for Air was published in 1939 under the lengthening shadows of pan-European Fascism. Both pathos and paradox are evident in the book. Pathos because it was largely written abroad where Orwell was in medical exile due to the difficulties he was experiencing in trying to draw air into his own frail lungs. Paradoxical because, of all Orwell’s novels, Coming up for Air most vividly rekindles the fading aura of dappled Edwardian Englishness despite the fact that it was written in Morocco.

The story features George Bowling, originally of shopkeeper stock, but now a wage-slave in the brash world of insurance-selling while tyrannised by Hilda, his joyless, suspicious wife and their two �…

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1817 words

Citation: Williams, Nigel. "Coming up for Air". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 March 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5879, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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