Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life

by Anna Funder

A blazing, genre-bending masterpiece from one of the most inventive writers of our time.

Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. As she watches him create his writing self, she tries to remember her own…
When she uncovers his forgotten wife, it’s a revelation. Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s literary brilliance shaped Orwell’s work and her practical nous saved his life. But why – and how – was she written out of the story?
Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder recreates the Orwells’ marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and WW II in London. As she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell’s private life she is led to question what it takes to be a writer – and what it is to be a wife.
Compelling and utterly original, Wifedom speaks to the unsung work of women everywhere today, while offering a breathtakingly intimate view of one of the most important literary marriages of the 20th century. It is a book that speaks to our present moment as much as it illuminates the past.
‘So, she will live writing the letters she did – six to her best friend, and three to her husband. I know where she was when she wrote them. I know that the dishes were frozen in the sink, that she was bleeding, that he was in bed with another woman – and she knew it. . . .I supply only what a film director would, directing an actor on set – the wiping of spectacles, the ash on the carpet, the sweet dog’s chin on her knee.’

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Book Club, History, Feminism, Audiobook, Memoir

432 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 4, 2023

About the author

Anna Funder was born in Melbourne in 1966. She has worked as an international lawyer and a radio and television producer. Her book Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, won the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize. She lives in Sydney with her husband and family.

Reviews

[Christy fictional_traits · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Finding her held the possibility of revealing how it [power] works on women: how a woman can be buried first by domesticity and then by history'.

Eileen O'Shaughnessy may have been George Orwell's first and most influential wife but her-story was never a real part of his-story. Upon discovering some of Eileen's personal letters to friends, Anna Funder uncovers the true impact Eileen had on George's writing, including the infamous 'Animal Farm'. In trying to comprehend why so little of Eileen exists within Orwell's biographies or, indeed, his own writing, Funder discovers a pathological 'erasing' and 'minimising' of Eileen's life with George, 'Her work is barely acknowledged by the man it benefits, and she is later erased by his biographers from his achievement'. From this viewpoint, using letters and biographies, Funder attempts to recreate how Eileen went from being an intelligent, lively, and literary master in her own right, to being married to a philanderer who seemed to have little time and regard for her. In doing so, we also learn that despite the decades that have passed some things haven't really moved on, and women continue to lose themselves to the burden of shouldering much of the household responsibilities, 'One person's time to work is created by another person's work in time: the more time he has to work, the more she is working to make it for him'.

'Wifedom' is an exploration of Orwell, Eileen, and their marriage. But it is also a social commentary on the continued power men hold within our society, 'The individual man can be the loveliest; the system will still benefit him without his having to lift a finger or whip, or change the sheets...'. Funder spends time philosophising how patriarchy within our society was built and how we are all complicit in maintaining it; like some unspoken secret. Within this book you'll find plenty of points to ponder and how it relates to your own life, family and sense of self.

[Callum's Column · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eileen Blair (née O'Shaughnessy) was an erudite woman who sacrificed her agency to support a pauperise writer that would become one of the most consequential authors of the twentieth century: Eric Blair—better known as George Orwell. Eileen loved her husband, but she was also his servant; she managed the household, edited his work (notably Animal Farm), and was often the primary breadwinner. George's affection for Eileen was aloof, and he engaged in numerous affairs. Eileen died while having a cheap hysterectomy because she did not feel she deserved proper treatment. As she died, George was in France reporting on the final stages of World War II.

Eileen was sidelined in George's writing, and by his biographers; Anna Funder brings her back into the light in this book. Eileen's vitality is evinced as Funder recounts their time in Spain and her contributions to Animal Farm. This book is part history, part feminist analysis, part literature (Funder fictitiously recreates parts of Eileen's life where sources are lacking) and part self-reflection. While the historiography, feminist analysis, and literary storytelling are good, the self-reflection distracts from the rest of the book. Funder also teetered into non-sequitur speculation about George's actions, somewhat undermining her otherwise strong analyses.

The book misses an opportunity to provide a more in-depth analysis of the perennial debate of separating the art from the artist. Funder only briefly touches on her ongoing respect for George's political thought alongside her disdain towards his treatment of Eileen. Some may label this as doublethink, but I think that would be inaccurate. Funder simply expands the lens upon which George is viewed: a man who was profoundly insightful in his political critique but deeply flawed personally. It was George who engaged in doublethink. He had a piercing understanding of totalitarianism but was unable or unwilling to acknowledge the tyranny of patriarchy.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orwell's work was essential in this task. It was a joy, even, revisiting his writing on the systems of tyranny 'with theft as their aim', and the 'vast system of mental cheating' that is doublethink. It was his insight... that allowed me to see how men can imagine themselves innocent in a system that benefits them, at others' cost... But his insight into the rapacity of power... never extended to relations between the sexes. Orwell stayed blind to the position of women, though he'd been buying girls for a few rupees a time.

Funder is on a tightrope here balancing precariously between her love of Orwell's writings and her misgivings about the way he lived his life, especially with regard to women and his wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy.

As part of her exploration, Funder looks at the way Orwell's previous biographers have made implicit excuses for Orwell, using the passive tense to write out things that Eileen did. She also points to the way the 'standard' story is that the Orwells had an 'open' marriage or, at least, that Eileen didn't mind all his affairs - Funder finds no evidence for either position and, instead, quotes letters showing Eileen's hurt. It's especially uncomfortable to hear Orwell, in his own words, talk about 'pouncing on' secretaries and other young women with whom he comes into contact, not occasionally but as a generalised way of being a man in the world.

It's important to say that this isn't a book which is trashing Orwell: but it is wonderfully ironic that Funder uses his own analysis of doublethink, that ability to hold two contradictory positions in one's mind at the same time and find them both acceptable and 'true', to illuminate how Orwell considered women. He exposes political tyranny but gives the systemic oppressions of patriarchy a free rein in his everyday life.

Whether he is buying girl prostitutes in Burma where he's a colonial policeman, living off Eileen's hard-won earnings while he writes, eating all the butter rations during the war because he has no idea how much a ration portion is leaving her with dry bread, or dumping her with a court case for adoption of their son while he flits off to Europe and she is in the last stages of the uterine cancer which kills her, this is a story of private selfishness supported by patriarchal norms of masculinity.

Based on letters that Eileen wrote to a friend which have fairly recently come into the public domain, this is an interesting engagement with the perennial question of how we deal with artists whose work we respect, even revere, but whose personal lives are messy, even 'indecent'. To Funder's credit, she doesn't try to simplify this question and offers up the other side of Eileen's story.

I felt that this book can feel a little slight at times and the personal anecdotes from Funder's own life didn't add anything to my reading. It's also the case that the narrative continues on past Eileen's life thus making her part of Orwell's more general story which is rather counter to its stated agenda. Still, it's an interesting approach to recuperating a female life that has been over-written by her more famous husband.

Thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eileen O’Shaughnessy was George Orwell's first wife. Yes, that Orwell.

Anna Funder turned to Orwell's writing as she was feeling overwhelmed with life, motherhood, the domestic and professional workload. Funder has always admired Orwell's writing and his opposition to totalitarianism and oppression. She took on reading multiple Orwell biographies. Eileen was barely mentioned in most of them, only as an afterthought. When Funder came across several letters Eileen wrote to her best friend, she was struck by her writing and humour, she couldn't help but wonder who was this creature.

Eileen was intelligent and well-educated at St Hugh's, Oxford. She also had a two-year post-graduate degree in psychology and received a Master of Arts.

Then she married Orwell (real name Eric Blair). So she took on all the domestic responsibilities, living in a cottage with no heating, one cold tap and doing everything to support Orwell's writing, which included typing and editing his scribblings. She also ran a small shop at the front of the house, growing a garden and raising animals. So the educated, entrepreneurial, creative Eileen disappears under the wifedom burden. Did her efforts and sacrifice get noticed better said appreciated? Spoiler, NOPE.

Orwell was an unattractive, tuberculose-ridden, womaniser, brothel frequenter, sterile, homophobic, and relatively poor. He was also rapey.

It is ironic but not that surprising that the man who invented the expression "doublethink - the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct", who was against tyranny and other social injustices was an entitled, condescending, uncaring a-hole in his marriage.
At times, I was furious with Eileen herself for staying, even when knowing those were different times, but reminded myself to direct that frustration towards Orwell.

I was so taken with the way Funder went about this. The mix of biography, memoir, letter extracts, fiction and essays worked really well for this reader.

There are some excellent reviews around, including in the Guardian. For interviews, search Funder's name on the ABC webpage (www.abc.net.au).

NB: I've just realised something: My first sentence mentions Elaine as the wife of someone ... grrr I should have written - George Orwell was lucky enough to have had Eileen O’Shaughnessy as his first wife.

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Orwell was a piece of 💩.

Check out my BookTube review on Hello, Bookworm.📚🐛

"Eileen can be glimpsed, if in a negative way, like dark matter that can only be apprehended by its effect on the visible world. The way the text buckles and strains to avoid her is the way I can see the shape she left."

This book offers an intimate portrayal of Eileen O’Shaughnessy's life from the time when she first meets Orwell to the moment she takes her final breath. It also explores Orwell’s life, his predatory behavior, and his career as a writer. And woven throughout all of that are brief interludes where the author reflects on her life, as well as offers social commentary on patriarchy, misogyny, and wifedom.

One of the most enthralling aspect of this book is all of the revelations about the significant role Eileen played in bolstering Orwell’s career as a writer. And in conversation with this, Funder scrutinizes the unappreciated role women and wives have played throughout history in creating the conditions that allowed the great male writers of the past to pen their masterpieces, to say nothing of the work they did as typists and editors for their husbands.

You may appreciate Orwell’s writing, but I assure you that by the time you finish reading this book, you’re going to think he was a terrible husband and an a**hole.

The audiobook is great, but consider reading a physical copy so you don't miss out on the images and photographs that enhance Funder's marvelous book. Highly recommend!

[Kerianne Noel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been a much more thoughtful, nuanced book, one that allowed Eileen to be at its front and center. I was ready to accept Orwell as a selfish and unfaithful husband because I don’t need to reconcile his brilliance as a novelist and essayist with personal failings. The weakest parts of this book were when we flash forward to Funder’s own life as she works all of this out. Based on the reviews I had read, I definitely came into this book with incorrect expectations and that will color a lot of what I have to say here.

For example, I was hoping for some thoughtful musings on what it means to step out of the spotlight, to willingly do the hidden work of service that allow one’s partner to shine. I know both women AND men who quietly and nobly put up with a lot for those that they love or admire. This is where a feminist reading of a life, I think, often misses the point. The focus on power dynamics and sex tends to obscure everything else. The virtues of quiet fidelity, service, and what it means to love a (in this case, seemingly undeserving) person have no place in this base calculus of what constitutes a meaningful life. I find it interesting that this level of sacrifice and devotion when aimed at another person is seen as being on the weak end of a power dynamic, but that if we were monetarily compensated for it somehow, having directed that energy towards an impersonal economic end, that would be considered powerful and living up to one’s potentiality.

Even more distracting, Funder uses her considerable speculative powers to muse about the repressed homosexuality of Orwell himself and Eileen’s friend Lydia throughout this book, none of which is convincingly backed up by the historical record. Does being a sexually promiscuous man who expressed views now considered bigoted mean one was actually secretly repressing one’s true desires? That sounds more like gaslighting than an undisputed fact, yet this is brought up repeatedly. Apparently it’s only taboo to out the living and not the dead. I suppose it makes for a more novel explanation than the fact of his simply being an (outspoken) product of his time. And aren’t humans capable of giving and receiving many types of love other than Eros? It’s all sexual according to Funder, apparently. Poor Lydia will just have to be content to have another woman speak on the nature of her affection for Eileen. Her own words aren’t enough.

We get a lot of these side speculations instead of any meaningful consideration of the complex qualities that give Eileen a nobility of spirit that may be worthy of our admiration. To paint her as merely another victim of patriarchy, a receiver of others’ sexual interest or lack thereof, someone who, though in possession of a vibrant mind of her own, is glossed over by Orwell’s biographers, takes away much of who she was, and that is incredibly unfortunate in a book that supposedly centers her experiences. Does civilization not depend mostly on the quiet work of hidden men and women? Do we have to accept the premise that only those remembered by history are of value? These are much more interesting topics than yet another takedown of patriarchy and systems. We do catch glimpses of the woman behind the man through her and others’ letters and if there were more of this and less of Funders predictably modern takes in the book, my rating would likely be higher.

By assigning greater value to systemic factors than personal choices we miss THE quality that makes us human: free will. Compared to the creativity and ordered/disordered ways with which we wield this quality, systems are mere background noise. Eileen chose to marry Orwell and chose to give up further pursuit of her professional aspirations. No one made her do these things and it negates her own agency in making these choices to merely blame patriarchy. We are never given a satisfactory exploration of why, other than that Eileen was part of and yet blind to a system. Similarly she chose to put up with Orwell’s poor choices and treatment of her to the bitter end despite having had alternative options at various points in her life. This all despite, according to Funder’s account of her, being brave, intelligent and a keen reader of people’s character. Is she just another victim being carried along by the inescapable currents of patriarchy or, again, did she have her own, more interesting, reasons for doing so? We know what Funder’s take on this is, and it makes for an ultimately dull analysis of a vibrant, though tragically short, life.

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wifedom arrived on my doorstep as a surprise mailing, and I was over-the-moon excited about it due to the feminist angle and absolutely stellar reviews from some of my favorite reviewers. I placed it in my #24in24tbr challenge stack and used a random number generator. This was book number one!

Wifedom is a biography/memoir/historical fiction unlike any I’ve read before. The biography sections are centered on Eileen O’Shaughnessy, wife of writer George Orwell, and a talented and well-educated writer herself. The memoir sections involve Anna Funder’s reflections on her own life, especially her research for the novel, including to places where Eileen and George lived and worked. The writing is clever, easy to read, and thoughtful, and interspersed throughout are fictional accountings drawing upon actual letters and what is known to reimagine daily life for the couple.

As a fan of Orwell, Anna Funder read all of his biographies. When she finally read about his long forgotten, very much invisible, wife, Eileen, everything changed for her, and this book was born. It’s like Eileen never existed. Not only was she often not named or mentioned, but her work, her ideas, her essential role in the shaping of his career (many facets to this); well, it’s like she never existed at all.

Anna Funder explored why Eileen was written out, and in that exploration, highlighted how this experience continues for women today, even when their husbands are not famous writers. This is a book I took my time with. While easy to read, I needed space to digest all that it is. It is FULL to the brim, and it is masterful. Wifedom is a marvel achievement.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Caren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have sat with “Wifedom” for several days, apprehensive that my review won’t do it justice. It is undeniably one of the most brilliant books I have read. Its structure and the meticulous research and intellect of author Anna Funder are as compelling as the characterisation of George Orwell himself. Funder “[blends] forensic research, fiction, life writing and criticism [to upend] the legacy of literary triumph to reveal the woman behind it.” (The Guardian, 7/7/23) In presenting in meticulous detail the omission of Orwell’s wife, Eileen, from both Orwell’s writing and from the biographers’ commentaries on her contributions to his life and literary works, Funder reveals the patriarchal (sometimes misogynistic) motives that had underpinned the omission.

The result is a dynamic portrait of the deliberate erasures of the women who had “taught and nurtured Orwell, influenced and helped him, [left] like offcuts on the editing floor…” Running alongside these omissions are Funder’s contemplation of her own writing and role, using “him to liberate [her]self from 'the tyrannies, the smelly little orthodoxies’ of his time”.

The combination of references to the biographers’ commentaries, to extracts from Eileen’s letters to her friends, to fictionalised scenes featuring Orwell at various stages of his private life, and to her own personal discussion of women in the twentieth century – as writers, as wives – is nothing short of masterful.

[Geevee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this with much to like and discover about Eileen [Orwell's wife] but also much to dislike.

Anna Funder delves into various records and some letters from Eileen to Orwell or her friends to create Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life and provides a interesting picture of the women, her times and her life with the famous writer. The Orwell is these pages comes across as chauvinistic, uncaring, unfaithful and at, at times, slightly bonkers. It is clear Eileen gives up much to marry and support Orwell in his writing and way of life, as she cooks, shops, cleans, fixes things, mothers their adopted son, nurses him through illnesses and injury [Spanish civil war], and types up his manuscripts allowing him to concentrate on his writing/work. Funder provides some fascinating insight into their relationship, notably in Spain and whilst in London during the Blitz and later in WWII.

The dislike for me comes in that Funder introduces fictional content (she is clear about this at the start), which for me adds nothing but intrude on a good exploration of Eileen's life. Moreover, Funder provides many chapters and distractions about her, her family and other aspects whilst writing the book; all of which to me felt the book wasn't Wifedom byAnna Funder but Wifedom with Anna Funder. Funder is also very critical of Orwell and his behaviour, and whilst much of this is fair and contributes to the life of Eileen, much of this is also grating as it is constant, and Funder, for this reader, pops up and over-analyses/and intrudes when contextualised against the times, the conditions and indeed both main parties. This later sentence of mine is not to excuse Orwell's infidelity merely that the reader understands and recognises this without a Funder tutorial/lecture. There is also some 70 pages of text after Eileen dies, which I felt added little in this respect to the book's subject and story.

The book also suggests, and I agree fully with Funder from her investigations and use of sources, that Eileen was instrumental in Animal Farm's genesis and likely plotlines, characters and dialogue. That is a fascinating development, and it will be interesting to see if this theory gathers more wider acceptance and allows Eileen to emerge out of the shadows. If so, Funder has done her a great service.

Overall, this was a easy and pacy read, which I feel has added greatly to the Orwell canon, but I recommend with some reservation as described above. As with any review, other reviewers have far more positive and, indeed, negative reviews and as such I place my rating as a three star, which GR rating speak is, I "liked it".

[Kylie H]

I am almost half way through this book and I cannot keep reading it. I don't understand where it is going, although it is meant to be about the 'invisible' wife of Orwell - she seems to be playing a 'bit' part in a piece of fan work dedicated to Orwell. I think I am the wrong target audience and rather than give it a bad rating I would rather pass.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wifedom is a biographical work by Australian author Anna Funder, recreating the story of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, the wife of George Orwell. This is blended with anecdotes from her own life, some fictional scenes, and some commentary or speculation on the motivations involved in the couple’s life.

Eileen was married to George from 1936 until her death in 1945, and this incorporates time spent involved in the Spanish War and also in London during the Blitz. Her story is largely recreated from a handful of letters more recently discovered, and from examining and commentating on previous biographies.

The main point is that, despite Eileen being an Oxford graduate, a writer, an intelligent and capable woman who made a significant contribution to both Orwell’s life and work, she is largely erased by history and Orwell himself. There is the classic inequity in household chores, and her aspirations are put on hold to support his. There is also the irony that, despite Orwell being very aware of power inequities in a general sense, he seems oblivious to the abuse of power in his treatment of women, even when he is non-consensually jumping on women or buying girls for a few coins.

Funder makes some important points, but I found this became very repetitive early on. I also dislike having things interpreted for me, I prefer as a reader to draw my own conclusions. I found the shift between Eileen’s life, Funder’s opinions and her own life anecdotes somewhat jarring. This conscious, very present-narrator style distracts from the reader’s ability to become immersed in the story. Lastly, in a story purporting to recreate an invisible woman’s life, it was irony of ironies that the audiobook continued on for another two hours after her death. In other words her story is yet again railroaded and taken over by a man’s!

[Krystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel that my rating is controversial, given so many friends I know have loved this book. Therefore, I feel compelled to write a review to explain...!

The good:
- Funder did some decent research here, and I loved hearing reflections on both Eileen and George from multiple friends, families, colleagues, neighbours. Along with their letters, this really brought the two to life.
- I enjoyed reading about Britain's involvement in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). It is something I knew little about and found this fascinating.

The bad (of course, simply as perceived by me):
- The concept that women are not featured significantly in history is nothing new, nor particularly interesting to me. You only need to look at who is featured in our history books, who wrote fiction and who have held positions of power- and you will see very few women featured. Women who wrote novels often wrote under pseudonyms because it was not generally accepted or expected.
- Following from this, the concept that the women who were married to men who "achieved" things (wrote books, led countries, made scientific discoveries)- were often clever and gave varying degrees of assistance to their partners in their endeavours, is not surprising. I expect that, as I know women are amazing - even when oppressed.
- Funder pushed this point so much throughout the book (about Eileen's lack of visibility, and that she did lots of useful things for George)- that I just found it tiresome. I get it, the point doesn't need to be reiterated so many times!
- Eileen, as much as she was not rightfully acknowledged at all (like practically all women at that time)- she was much more privileged than most women at that time. She was highly educated, as was her brother (he was a surgeon), and she chose who she would marry. She was able to fulfil her desire to head off to Spain to volunteer. Of course, she still lacked the power in the marriage as a woman, and George seemed like a fairly terrible husband, but unfortunately I've heard much worse. This is not to say I did not feel sympathy for Eileen, I just did not like when Funder made her seem like a victim as her main identity.
- Sometimes Funder wove in parts from her own life, in modern day Australia (where a woman like herself can write a book and receive credit) and she tried to draw some sort of analogies. I found this annoying and would've preferred the focus remain on Eileen.
- I did not like her style of writing overall, and found the way she switched between accounts (via interviews, or other texts) and her own fictionalised narrative, confusing. It's also a dangerous road to go down- mounting such a damning case against George in so many ways based on a bit of truth and mixing in your own storytelling. Readers absorb it all and don't distinguish which was fiction. This didn't always sit well with me.
- I think the story could have been told much more succinctly; I felt it dragged on.

I would refer people to read Virgina Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" and Annabel Crabb's "A Wife Drought" - to read two really succinct, beautifully written texts about why women struggled to participate (substantially) in literary pursuits (Woolf) and to understand why men continue to get ahead in modern-day Australia (Crabb).

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Readers who hold George Orwell in high esteem may be best served not reading this book, as it will do them no favors in regards to his personal character. The book covers the marriage of Orwell to his wife Eileen, and offers a much more unvarnished perspective than previously seen in delving into their relationship. Even though the Orwells lived in a different time, it’s hard for a modern woman not to struggle with the toxic masculinity and the helplessness with everyday tasks so that Orwell can focus all his efforts on the much more important task of writing. These things are not what drove me crazy about the book, as they were enlightening and eye-opening. The way the story is told is a mess. It’s told in the time of the Orwell with presumed actions and interactions based on information available. It’s also told through letters Eileen wrote. It’s also told through recollections of people that knew the couple. It’s also told by the author as she researches them, and her interpretation of their relationship. This is all mish-mashed together and makes it difficult to keep straight the perspectives. It may be more obvious distinguishing these in a final copy, but it won’t change the structure itself that I didn’t care for. And even after reading this, while I had a better understanding of their relationship and how awful Orwell was, Eileen still feels like a ghost to me that defines her role in life by how she can serve her spouse. That she questions whether she is worthy of medical attention she desperately needs is terribly sad to me. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I did not like this "biography". I say that term loosely because of the way the author had of writing. One moment, it's her personal memoir, reflecting on her own life with anecdotes that are supposed to tie into the Orwell's life, but it was too much of a stretch for me. Then the reader gets some biographical information about the couple. And when we do get biographical info, it's interspersed with prose. It almost feels like Funder was just padding out the biography because so little is known about Eileen, and what she found out couldn't fill up a whole book.

Instead of a straight biography about Orwell's wife, Eileen, we got this disjointed mess. The author says she didn't want to write historical fiction, but at times, that's how it reads, interjecting stuff that no biographer could know unless it was written down in a letter or journal. Stuff like pushing hair away from the face or lighting a cigarette. This is the type of biography I hate reading because little things are made up, which makes me question all the research done.

In keeping with my rules, I will not review any book below three stars on my blog and will not share on social media, only Goodreads.

[Christine McEwan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Riverbend Book Club Aug-23. This book needed a trigger alert. Woke feminist patriarchy bashing and projecting of the author’s biases. While I enjoyed reading ’Eileen’s’ story, loathed the author trying to put her life into it and surmising intent. Victim mentality. However, was illuminating on the older male / younger female love interest in 1984.

p55 - ‘fluid understanding of gender’
p68 - really, can’t remember?? DB
p70 - who’s the friend? Male/female? So many potential reasons for not wanting someone at your wedding.
p85 - thought it was distasteful to invade privacy, but told us doing anyway as if that absolves responsibility. Paparazzi stalking celebrities because it’s in the public interest much?
p136 - ‘nobody is her’. Is it though?
p144 - maybe the reason Orwell doesn’t mention her in Homage published in 1938 is because there was a fricking war looming and she was in her own words a political suspect. Oh no, it has to be the patriarchy erasing women; couldn’t possibly be protecting her.
p212 - ‘I bet it mattered to her’. Projecting much??
p258 - full time at work and full time at home. F*ck off.
p260 - how do we really know she threw away the other letters? we’re there any? So much speculation.

Early in the book, saying Orwell may be gay, but end of his life pursuing women and men not mentioned again?

[leynes · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Orwell's biographers are seven men looking at a man."

This is the sentence that stuck with me the most during my read of Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life. Anna Funder calls out the blind spot in the existing biographies of Orwell: his wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy. It's patriarchy working overtime when you realise how she was and is overlooked, not just by her husband during their lifetime, but also by her husband's biographers and readers posthumously. It's chilling how she's literally not to be found anywhere. Anna Funder removes her from the margin and tries to put her at the center of her biography, with differing success (imo).

This biography is far from perfect and still centers Orwell to an extent but I can't really fault Funder for that. What I took more of an issue with are some of the bad faith interpretations of Orwell's actions. Funder decided to fictionalise parts of this biography – which is a choice many readers will have a problem with, which I understand – and so there are tidbits of imagined dialogue between Eileen and George that make George particularly look bad — but then you have to remind yourself that Orwell never really said those things. You get what I'm saying? Like, I kinda understand why Funder choose this path: she wanted to humanise Eileen and make her readers understand that this was a real woman, a real woman who really suffered at the hands of her husband, and this whole book reads more like it is in the tradition of 'writing back' anyways (see Maryse Condé's I, Tituba... which also gives life to a real historic figure, though in an entirely fictionalised context), but academically speaking, this isn't clean work. It's a tad bit messy, ngl.

All in all, I still appreciate this book and it opened my eyes to some of Orwell's shortcomings that are essential if you truly want to understand his work. Funder does an excellent job at showing how much Eileen was involved in her husband's career. Her function as 'wife' was what enabled him to write so much in the first place. She did all the care work, on top of being his typist, on top of offering suggestions and advice, on top of being the sole breadwinner in their marriage for some time etc. etc. Her impact truly cannot be overstated, yet Funder is among the first scholars to give Eileen her flowers. It's crazy.

I wanna share some of my favorite quotes/ most notable sections from this work bc I know not everyone's gonna read it but you might still wanna learn more about Eileen and her husband:

● "...during the first few weeks of marriage we quarrelled so continuously & really bitterly that I thought I'd save time & just write one letter to everyone when the murder or separation had been accomplished." – Eileen in a letter to her best friend, shortly after her wedding to Eric (George)
● "I write because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention..." – George on why he writes (Oscar's art-for-art's-sake-ass would be gagged!!)
● "There were two great facts about woman which...you could only learn by getting married...One was their incorrigible dirtiness & untidiness. The other was their terrible, devouring sexuality...women were quite insatiable, & never seemed fatigued by no matter how much love-making..." – George in a private notebook, during his final illness, after the marriage was already over
● Orwell's own family was part Burmese. Both his uncle and great-uncle on his mother's side had partnered with Burmese women.
● Funder writes: "So many of these men benefited from a social arrangement defying both the moral and the physical laws of the universe in wich the unpaid, invisible work of a woman created the time and – neat, warmed and cushion-plumbed – space for their work." Uff. True though!
● Orwell tried to rape Jacintha, his "childhood sweetheart". She wrote to him afterwards, telling him of "her disgust and shock that he should try and force her to let him make love to her...He had held her down [and he was 6'4" while she was still under 5'] and though she struggled, yelling at him to stop, he had torn her skirt and badly bruised a shoulder and her left hip."
● Eileen's friend Lydia thought she deserved someone better than Eric Blair
● after the marriage, there is a vastly more physical labor for Eileen than she has ever done before – in the house and garden and shop
● there is an enormous change that took place in Orwell's work after his marriage to Eileen,
● Orwell left Eileen's involvement in Spain out of Homage to Catalonia, even though she was doing more important work there than him; he also doesn't mention her visit to the front or how she otherwise supported him during that time
● Funder writes: "Orwell spends over 2500 words telling us of his hospital treatment without mentioning that Eileen was there. I wonder what she felt, later, as she typed them." Uff.
● Funder: "Eileen had worked at the political headquarters, visited him at the front, cared for him when wounded, saved Orwell's manuscript by giving it to McNair, saved the passports, saved Orwell from almost certain arrest at the hotel, and somehow got the visas to save them all."
● Orwell kept hitting on Eileen's close friends (big yikes if you ask me) – there's one letter in particular he wrote to Lydia: "I have thought of you so often – have you thought about me, I wonder? I know it's indiscreet to write such things in letters, but you'll be clever and burn this, will you?" OH FUCK YOU!
● Orwell most likely slept with Burmese prostitutes, which is abhorrent (especially in the context of him being part of the colonizers)
● Eileen gets a job in a highly placed position in the newly formed Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information. She is the one who financially supports their family for the next two years. No other Orwell biographer makes that clear.
● Orwell in a letter to Brenda: "I've tried so often to forget you but somehow didn't succeed...Eileen said she wished I could sleep with you abt twice a year, just to keep me happy, but of course we can't arrange things like that." BOY, DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF??? ARE YOU OKAY???
● Brenda herself later said: "He didn't really like women. He was a sadist and that was why he had feelings towards women." YIKERRRRRS.
● Eileen to her friend: "I have many times half thought I could come to Bristol but it is literally years since a weekend belonged to me & George would have a haemorrhage." I HATE IT HERE. He's your husband, not your prison guard.
● Lydia remembers: "After a row with Eileen, to my great annoyance, George came to my room and got into bed with me...I had to spend the next half hour wrestling to ward him off from forcing himself on me." I HATE IT HERE!!! There are many other instances which Funder references in which Orwell sexually assaults women. It seems to have been a pattern with him.
● after her death (Eileen dies from complications after an operation), Orwell desperately wants to replace her (bc she fulfilled so many functions in his life as 'wife') that he basically interviews a bunch of women to make them this proposal
● "Life is bad but death is worse." – Orwell in his last notebook

[Jen Burrows · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wifedom is the history of an invisible woman, and the counter-fiction that seeks to give her back her voice.

Eileen Blair was clearly a courageous, intelligent woman, who had a tangible impact on Orwell's creative output. So why does she barely get a mention by Orwell or his biographers? Funder explores the 'doublethink' at the heart of gender politics, the world of unpaid 'women's work' and the male creative ego. Eileen may have been all but erased from the history books, but through a series of newly discovered letters, Funder uncovers the real life hiding between the lines.

While this biography is steeped in historical context, Eileen's story is still painfully relatable in many ways, and Funder isn't afraid to make those connections to her own life. Her insights are thoughtful and often gut-wrenching in their brutal honesty.

Wifedom is a book I feel I'm going to return to time and time again: a real must-read.

*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*

[Justine · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an easy read, but it's a mess. Anna Funder doesn't know what she wants to do in this book and clearly the editors were of no help. It's described as pushing the bounds of different genres, but it's just unfocused. Through most of the book, it was about 3 stars for me, there were interesting bits about Eileen, but Funder's constant interjections and personal anecdotes (Patriarchy and Feminism 101... *Yawn*) as well as fictional imaginings of Eileen (let's give this woman a voice, but oh wait, let me speak for her and project my own issues onto her life) were really unnecessary. What really dropped this to 2 stars for me though, was the fact that after Eileen dies, Funder keeps going on, following George around until he gets another wife and dies. What was the point of everything then, if Eileen becomes an afterthought in the last sections and George's death is given more time and consideration?

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

From this book onwards my reading of biography will be focussed as much on who is not mentioned as who is, who is lurking in the space, or the silence presented in the passive voice.

In a style that re-writes how biographies can be done, Wifedom gives voice to one woman who stood in the places left silent in other memoirs of George Orwell, and in his novels. Eileen O’Shaughnessy, poet, Oxford graduate, married Orwell and disappeared into the background of history while being essential to his story.

Orwell stands in for many ‘Great Men’ and other men whose work is made possible by the unpaid work of others.

In Wifedom the role of Wife is examined for the social convention it is, the unpaid labour that for many men provides them time and support to be who they want to be. It is work rendered invisible via the passive voice (the meal arrived, the child was collected, the papers were signed), via omission all together, and by trivialising their work because it is so expected, so ordinary that it doesn’t bear mentioning.

And yet, in this portrait of Eilleen, we meet a woman who was in the thick of things. Truly in harm’s way in the Spanish War and the London Blitz, rather than on the peripheral as Orwell was. As ill as Orwell (she with Uterine Cancer, he with recurring bouts of TB) and yet doing the lion’s share of the heavy lifting to enable him to write, travel, and live out his own destiny at the expense of her own.

It reminded me that throughout history women were there, doing the amazing things that men were. We just need to look a little harder to find them.

Beautifully written, combining letters, examination of other memoirs, primary sources, investigative techniques and personal reflections that don't overpower the story. A real treat.


PS. I read Dennis Glover's The Last Man in Europe a few weeks ago. A fictional biography of Orwell. I went back to that review just after writing this one and saw I'd written "The women in Orwell's life are portrayed as one dimensional and disappear into the background, be it his wife, his lovers, his sister, his second wife, or even his child. There are so many people who enabled him to be Orwell. I can't decide if this is an accurate portrayal of Orwell's state of mind in relation to those that supported him, or yet another memoir of a Great Man that doesn't delve into the social structures that enabled him to be thus.". So yes, it was obvious.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

My opinion is not a popular one. I must have read a different book than others did. I thought this book was slow, boring and a mish-mash of the story of George Orwell's wife, Eileen.

There was no easy flow of the book. The author used biographies on Orwell, Eileen's own letters to friends and family, as well as the authors opinions about their marriage. Those that like Orwell as a writer, may come away with a totally different view of him. He was a sexist man that had no respect for his wife. He cheated on her countless times. Eileen supported them for years and worked herself to the bones. Orwell comes off in a very bad light in this book.

I just struggled to read it. I thought I should have DNF'D it, but kept thinking I would find out why she stayed. My only reason is that she truly loved him. Not my favorite book, but not the worst I read, either.

Tentative publishing date: August 22, 2023

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the E-ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

😊 Happy Reading 😊

#netgalley
#knopf
#wifedom
#annafunder

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to have you back Anna.

[Penelope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Struggling to find adequate words to describe how this book affected me. It was an amazing insight into a marriage, an author but especially to a women who was so much more than the two.

[Jane Milton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning book. As in you’ll feel like a rabbit in the headlights. So impeccably researched, and makes you think about all the other women who have been shrouded with invisibility cloaks. I cried at points, and it’ll take me a long while to forgive Orwell.

[Nadirah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The year 2023 was the year we finally started to cast off our idolization of people who don't deserve it (i.e. celebrities, figureheads, 'icons', influencers, politicians, writers, etc.), and it looks like that streak is going to continue in 2024, judging by the utter disillusionment I felt when I finished Anna Funder's "Wifedom".

Orwell's writing needs no introduction, of course, and I have been a fan of his writing, especially his nonfiction essays and literature. Having read Funder's biography of Eileen O'Shaughnessy, Orwell's wife, however, I would be lying if I said that Funder's revelatory book didn't color my perception of Orwell and his works.

Did you know that Orwell even had a wife? Readers could not be blamed for not knowing this, considering Orwell himself made very little mention of her in his biographical works. And even when he did mention her, Eileen was only ever mentioned as 'my wife'. For example, in Orwell's book about the war he fought in Catalonia & WW2, he mentioned his wife in passing and never elaborated on why she was with him in the middle of war. It's only when Funder dug deeper into the letters left behind by Eileen's friends and acquaintances — most of which have only entered the public domain recently — that we can even begin to outline the heretofore invisible life of Eileen. And the thing is, based on what Funder has discovered about Eileen's work at the office during the war, she was a major player in it despite Orwell not making a mention of it at all in any of his works.

There is also the fact that when Eileen married Orwell, it was arguably the catalytic event that would propel Orwell's writing to another level due to Eileen's editing skills (critics and biographers have denoted a marked difference between his pre-Eileen and post-Eileen writings), not to mention that Eileen's mere presence as a wife was the reason Orwell could afford to do nothing else but write. Having persuaded Eileen to live in a cottage with no central heating and an awful sewerage system (in a memorable anecdote, Eileen had to deal with a clogged toilet issue while Orwell was asking her what's for dinner), Eileen has had to defer her writing career to take care of Orwell since he had tuberculosis in addition to caring for the farmhouse and the attendant animals that came with the asset. Meanwhile, Orwell was free to pursue his writing while Eileen dealt with the daily minutiae of their lives.

Even worse: Orwell was not faithful to Eileen and had dalliances with other women during their marriage. Funder argued that it was never truly proven that Eileen has accepted Orwell's two-timing ways and there was no proof that she ever cheated on him, nor did she ever agree to a threesome relationship, despite Orwell's biographers' attempt to paint the Orwells' relationship as an "open" one. (Such attempts hint at the fact that the biographers tend to overlook Orwell's faults, despite there being plenty of evidence that Orwell was a two-timing and naive character through other people's correspondences via Orwell's social circles.)

These are just several of the facts that Funder has now brought to light, thanks to her investigative work on Eileen's life. There were many other enraging examples, such as the fact that Orwell overplayed his poverty act when in Paris because he never mentioned that he had had help from the women in his life — his once-paramour and his aunt, for instance, who bankrolled his rent and allowance while he was there. Another is the fact that he 'pounced' on many women he 'fell in love with' — note that 'pounce' was a very polite euphemism for what it would have been called in this century: sexual assault because one such case is a rape attempt as far as I'm concerned. Also, the various mentions of Orwell's 'appreciation' for girl prostitutes made my skin crawl. If I were to list them all, I would be giving the book away for free. I'm not trying to vilify him, but there is much evidence to show that Orwell was far from the wise and super-intelligent man we have come to expect based on his writings.

Overall, "Wifedom" wasn't perfect since the jump from Eileen's past to the author's present can be a bit jarring, and I would have preferred less of the author's fictionalization of Eileen's thoughts and certain events since it made the line between facts and conjectures a bit blurry. In comparison, I thought "Stasiland" has a more compelling narration when it comes to how the author used anecdotal evidence to present her case. And to be honest, at some point, there is the possibility that perhaps Eileen herself might have not wanted to become a 'character' in Orwell's many books and that they have both discussed this guarding of her privacy, hence the omission of any mention of her. Still, a complete omission of her contribution as a domestic & literary partner in any account of Orwell admittedly left a bitter aftertaste.

My preference for less of Funder's artistic license aside, this is a necessary read. It's time we stop blindly idolizing writers and such personalities in light of what has happened post-Oct 7th, and it's time to rethink your stance when it comes to the issue of separation of artists from their art. Sure, I think he was a great writer and deserved some of his accolades, but I would never condone his character after what I've read of "Wifedom".

[Yahaira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in a day 🙃 I couldn't help myself, I needed to know everything I could about Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a witty, ironic Oxford educated woman who was George Orwell's first wife (and pretty much his everything).

Through letters, biographies, speculative fiction, and personal essays, Funder acts as a detective and creates a fuller picture of Eileen and how impactful and influential she was to Orwell's work. Orwell essentially erased Eileen through his writings and his biographers continued to push that fiction in theirs.

I won't say much about what we learn about this marriage, I want you to discover that for yourself, but I will be reading Orwell's work differently and paying attention to what's in the shadows. What does he hide through the passive voice?

I thought it was ironic that Orwell wrote articles on how the work and the artist are separate, a sort of doublethink. The male artist (he was writing about Dali, Dickens, and Shakespeare) can be both great at painting or writing and an indecent human. The artist personality has nothing to do with his private personality. The artist is just the source of the art.
He was ahead of his time writing about monsters, while he himself was one.

Thank you @aaknopf for this gifted copy

[Rucio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing. Despite intending (I presume) to elevate Eileen, this book actually diminishes her to a mousey sidekick. The author actually thrusts Orwell front and centre, to take responsibility for the male dominated world it then was.

Also curious why the author puts herself into the picture from the beginning with a brief, but astute, observation about the role of a writer's partners subjugation in a relationship. Yet her own concerns about her role in her marriage then evaporate? After delving so intimately into Orwell's life, while injecting herself into the writing, it would have felt more honest if she'd given her own marriage a little more of the blow torch.

On the positive side it has made me go back and read some Orwell!

[Bonni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I have read a conglomerate work like this--biography, personal essay, literary analysis, fiction. The format serves the subject well. I appreciate that Anna Funder does not serve up a bitter feminist banter, but instead presents what biographers might have missed when documenting Orwell's life and why his wife, Eileen, should get a second look (or more). It's probable the same could be said for many women behind great men. I found the piece to be thoughtful and balanced, and I still have more to ponder on the subject. I received this book as an e-arc from Netgalley.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew Orwell was such an asshole?!?! His wife Eileen certainly did! Funder reinserts Eileen into the story of Orwell’s life and writing after discovering some wonderful letters Eileen wrote to her best friend. She also reconsiders her own life as a wife and writer. She inserts herself into the narrative almost the exact right amount (less is more with this). An enraging and wonderful read. I did this half on audio and it’s an excellent audiobook.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most people have heard of Anna Funder thanks to her stalwart endeavor of disclosing previously unmentioned stories of former East Germany and the lives of those affected by the former's state's secret surveillance operatives - the Stasi. (It should be of no surprise, then, that she's exploring Orwell after exploring a totalitarian regime, and I highly recommend this book. I don't know if there's anything else like it out there. Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall ). She truly does bring a humane and compassionate sentiment to an otherwise very bleak and desolate tale.

It comes as no surprise that she does the same with her latest work, published over twenty years later, on what can perhaps only be characterized as "a fill-in-the-blank biography of Eileen O'Shaughnessy-Blair (Orwell), with ingenious observations serving as the filler."

Never heard the name? It's no surprise. I hadn't, either. After all, her only purported life's purpose (before Ms. Funder expertly brought her in as a lead actress) was to play a supporting role in not just furthering, but perhaps even creating her uber-famous literary husband's career. It's no surprise, either, given that all of George Orwell's former biographers have been men (nothing misandrist about that, it's just that no one wants to bash their literary hero - and men, given it doesn't affect them - will even be less reluctant to dive further into who he truly was). Upon finishing this book, I just said screw it and gave it five stars. I really can't think of any reason why it would deserve less.

Funder just raises so many essential questions as to a woman's place in the world. Of course, it's specifically in relation to Eileen's role as "George's wife" in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but it applies to just about every aspect of our being, from time eternal. At times, you become quite furious with Eileen for not leaving him - after all, she is from a well-to-do family and highly educated (graduated with her master's - I think in literature, but don't quote me on that - from Oxford). Her family and friends most definitely would have supported her in filing for a divorce from this man who treated her so cruelly.

Why furious? Because I thought there could at least be a plausible explanation for why she put up with his misogyny, his total disregard for her, his blatant affairs, and at best - her irrelevance to him, and at worst - her "value" in her servitude to him, continuously treated as some kind of pawn in his "sadistic" power games (not my words!).

Good luck in finding one, though. I know Funder herself ponders why Eileen didn't just leave him. You'd think, "well, maybe it was because they had children" (no) "people didn't divorce in those times" (mostly true, except that in their circle of highly educated friends, divorce wasn't common) or "she was afraid to." She had nothing to lose and everything to gain! I'm still beyond bewildered why she would so cheerfully play the part of his editor, his ghostwriter, his nurse, his lover, his servant - when she had so much going for her. She could have easily embarked on her own writing career. Her brother was a great surgeon, married to a female surgeon. But to stay with someone so awful and dismissive, someone so "simple" (by accounts of nearly all who knew him) when she could have left? I don't know. Of course I pity her, but I can't help but feel incredibly frustrated as well.

Want to know some of Orwell's lovely opinions on women?

"Women disgust him; he disgusts himself. He's paranoid, feeling he's been tricked by a politico-sexual conspiracy of filthy women 'imposing' a false 'picture of themselves' on the world. He sees women - as wives - in terms of what they do for him, or 'demand' of him. Not enough cleaning; too much sex. How was it then, for her? My first guess: too much cleaning and not enough, or not good enough, sex."

It was said that Eileen "loved Orwell deeply, but with a tender amusement - she noted his extraordinary political simplicity - which seems to have worried one of the biographers, who rewrote her words to give him an 'extraordinary political sympathy' instead. And she objected to him being called 'Saint George' on the grounds of his wizened, Christlike face. It was merely due, she said, to him having one or two teeth missing."

It's outrageous that a biographer could turn "extraordinary political simplicity" to "sympathy" instead. And more importantly, why?! I'm not saying it was their duty to include that information in the biography, but if it's that problematic, omit it. Don't change the words so drastically that it just looks imbecilic. Orwell does it himself, but so do his biographers - he omits her importance from every story he writes. Even (especially) when she is at the center of the action.

It was EILEEN who worked for a counterrevolutionary group in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War (no wonder the reviews of Homage to Catalonia all seem to mention how misinformed or bland the story really is). EILEEN'S life was the most in danger from the Stalinists, and EILEEN worked for a "Ministry of Truth" building in the UK - censoring news about the war from the public eye. EILEEN wanted a child and was perfectly healthy; Orwell was sterile. EILEEN wanted a loving and close marriage, not an open one. George only loved women as objects he sought to possess.

This is likely the most-quoted sentence of the book, and with good reason: "One person's time to work is created by another person's work in time: the more time he has to work, the more she is working to make it for him." It's astonishing to me that Orwell claimed to be so set on class equality, in freedom from policing thought and any kind of society that limits free will - well, except of course when it applies to half the world's population, anyway.

I'll try to wrap it up, because I know I could go on forever. It's difficult to review this book, really. It's so different from anything else I've read, and if my review is really that all over the place, that's the reason!

She does an excellent job of finding the "hidden methods" used by writers and biographers alike to leave women out of any main roles, in attentively searching for the passive voice. She states that what Orwell does has two purposes: "The first is to make what she does disappear (so he can appear to have done it all, alone). The second is to make what he does to a woman disappear (so he can be innocent). This trick is the dark, doublethinking heart of patriarchy." YES! Gotta love her using his own critique against him (if the word truly was his invention, that is).

Funder actually started on the project because she wanted more information on Orwell himself - possibly to do a biography of her own. She admits to always being inspired by his work, and how his books have always "gotten her out of a slump" in the past. She doesn't long to "cancel" him - but she does long to show what has been omitted about HIM. Even if men don't find it problematic that he was misogynistic and had multiple affairs (and I guess you'd have to hate most of your literary heroes if you hated every male from those times guilty of extramarital relations) - it should certainly be problematic that he completely ignored her when she was undergoing critical, life-threatening surgery. He was more concerned with trying to sleep with her best friends. Seriously.

And to no one's shock - he's not even there when she dies. She can't even find a way to ask him to "permission" to pay for her medical bills (when she's the primary breadwinner - AND, his medical treatment has come so inexpensive thanks to her brother's help) nor can she think of any way to ask him to come see her in the hospital before this surgery ultimately kills her, because she knows he is "disgusted by hospitals and sick wards."

I've spoken enough about it. Read this book! Read it so that you too can read behind the lines along with Anna. She truly performs the feat of a magician by making an invisible woman not just suddenly appear, but appear with a dramatic burst of liveliness and character - one that so enriched the lives of all those lucky enough to know her.

I hated 1984, anyway.

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wifedom is a biography of George Orwell’s wife, Eileen O'Shaughnessy. It documents her life based on newly discovered letters she had written to a close friend. Funder argues that George Orwell's literary legacy was at least partially built upon his wife's unacknowledged contributions. She takes issue with Orwell's biographers who have provided excuses for some of his less admirable behaviors and minimized Eileen’s role. The book provides examples of the techniques they have used to erase Eileen, such as passive voice. It is also a memoir that documents the author’s own personal crisis.

I have mixed feelings. I enjoyed learning about Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s life and her role in Orwell’s career. I particularly enjoyed learning about the collaboration between O’Shaughnessy and Orwell during the writing of Animal Farm, completed during bombing raids in London during WWII. However, I do not particularly care for the writing style. Funder employs what she calls “stage directions” which attempt to set scenes and contexts for the couple’s interactions. Of course, the author could not possibly know these details. Wifedom rescues O’Shaughnessy from the status of footnote to her husband’s career, but I do not think the fictional scenes belong in a biography. Historical fiction may have been a better choice.