A couple of quotes for you this evening, from the thoughts of Gordon Comstock:
"He could put up with this meaningless office life, because he never for an instant thought of it as permanent. Somehow, sometime, God knew how or when, he was going to break free of it."
"He thought of the Tube stations at early morning. The black hordes of clerks scurrying underground like ants into a hole; swarms of little ant-like men, each with despatch-case in right hand, newspaper in left hand, and the fear of the sack like a maggot in his heart."
Hmmm.