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Coming Up for Air
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Coming Up for Air Paperback - 1969

by George Orwell


Summary

George Bowling, the hero of this comic novel, is a middle-aged insurance salesman who lives in an average English suburban row house with a wife and two children. One day, after winning some money from a bet, he goes back to the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. The pool, alas, is gone, the village has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of his holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF.

From the publisher

From George Orwell, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm, Coming Up for Air is the classic, comic novel about the everyday struggles of the common man and a satiric look at the trappings of middle-class suburbia.

George "Tubby" Bowling is a middle-aged insurance salesman, a job at which he grimly excels, dutifully paying the mortgage on an average English suburban row house, and supporting an ungrateful family. As the years roll by, he comes to feel like a hostage to his wife and children, regarding them as wardens and himself as a prisoner.

One day, after winning some money from a bet at the races, George steals away from his family to visit the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. The pool, alas, is gone, the village has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of his holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF--the perfect ending to his failed escape.

"A work of rare vigor and imagination."--New York Herald-Tribune Book Review

First line

HASH(0x110b0330)

Details

  • Title Coming Up for Air
  • Author George Orwell
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition 9th Printing
  • Pages 288
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Mariner Books Classics, New York
  • Date 1969-10-22
  • ISBN 9780156196253 / 0156196255
  • Weight 0.6 lbs (0.27 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.14 x 5.36 x 0.71 in (20.68 x 13.61 x 1.80 cm)
  • Reading level 1060
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 20th Century
    • Chronological Period: 1900-1919
    • Cultural Region: British
    • Topical: Family
  • Library of Congress subjects England, Psychological fiction
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 00265573
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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Coming Up for Air
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Coming Up for Air

by Orwell, George

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Coming Up for Air
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Coming Up for Air

by Orwell, George

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Coming Up for Air (Harvest Book)
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Coming Up for Air (Harvest Book)

by George Orwell

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Coming Up For Air (Harvest Book)

by Orwell, George

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Coming Up for Air (Harvest Book)
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Coming Up for Air (Harvest Book)

by George Orwell

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Coming Up for Air
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Coming Up for Air

by GEORGE ORWELL

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Coming up for Air
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Coming up for Air

by Orwell, George

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Coming Up for Air
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Coming Up for Air
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Coming Up for Air

by George Orwell

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
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