Coming Up for Air

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.

Alma Classics is committed to making available a wide range of literature from around the globe. Most of the titles are enriched by an extensive critical apparatus, notes and extra reading material, as well as a selection of photographs. The texts are based on the most authoritative edition and edited using a fresh, accessible editorial approach. With an emphasis on production, editorial and typographical values, Alma Classics aspires to revitalize the whole experience of reading classics.