Keep the Aspidistra Flying: Gordon Comstock despises middle-class respectability and money worship. He quits his "excellent job" in advertising to work part-time in a bookstore, allowing him to devote more time to writing. Instead, he sinks into self-created poverty that suffocates his creativity and spirit. A Clergyman's Daughter: Dorothy plays the subordinate roles of loyal daughter and tormented housekeeper under the influence of her father, the rector of Knype Hill. Her mind is consumed with the costumes she is creating for the church school performance. Burmese Days: George Orwell's first novel, based on his experiences as a police officer in Burma, paints a dismal portrait of British colonial control. Burmese Days is a novel about corruption and imperial intolerance in a society where "natives were natives." Animal Farm: When the impoverished animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and seize control of the farm, they believe it is the start of a new life of liberty and equality. However, a cunning and cruel élite among them, led by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, gradually gains power. 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four: 'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past,' says 1984. Winston Smith, hidden away in the Ministry of Truth's enormous Record Department, deftly rewrites history.