Despite being completely mesmerized by Anna Funder's devastating take on the life of George Orwell, I'm still not sure how best to categorize Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life because of how often this biography skates right up to (and maybe just across) the line where it has to be said that the book morphs into novelization. So is it part standard biography and part novelized biography? Wait a minute, though, because there's still more to consider. Wifedom also combines strong elements of literary criticism, sociology, and feminist-leaning women's studies that even further differentiate it from any biography I've read before. There's a whole lot going on here.
Anna Funder spent several years studying the books and papers of George Orwell and his first wife Eileen Blair, and it was only after multiple readings of Orwell's own account of his participation in the Spanish Civil War that Funder finally realized that Eileen Blair herself was in Spain at the exact same time. The way that Orwell and his previous biographers had managed so successfully to mask Eileen's presence in Spain during those months made Funder determined to learn more about Eileen O'Shaughnessy and her marriage to Eric Blair (real name of George Orwell).
And what Funder learned is not pretty.
It all boils down to the fact that without Eileen Blair, there would have been no George Orwell as we generally think of him today. Orwell, whose sex life seems to have bordered upon that of a sexual predator, saw Eileen as a free source of the labor he could not afford to pay for: housekeeper, cook, typist, researcher, editor, farm manager capable even of digging out the family septic tank, and backup sex partner. Upon Eileen's death at age 39 while pregnant with his child, Orwell finally realized and admitted, if only to himself, how important she had been in his life. His response? Not long after Eileen's death, Orwell initiated marriage proposals to several women until he finally found one willing to take on Eileen's role.
Sadly, Eileen Blair may have been her own worst enemy, even to neglecting her own health in favor of Orwell's needs and never demanding support from him when she most needed it. No doubt, the "patriarchy" of the times made it difficult for women to compete directly with men, but Eileen had the money and skills to leave Orwell any time she wanted to; she chose not to do so.
While I still admire Orwell's two classic novels (1984 and Animal Farm), and always will, I will from now on find it impossible ever to think of the author in terms other than that of the classic jerk - even for his times - that George Orwell proved himself to be. And I will always wonder why Eileen O'Shaughnessy put herself through it all.
Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life is a stunner of a biography, one I will not be forgetting.
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| Anna Funder (publisher site photo) |
I’m intrigued by the biography/novelization/lit crit in this book. I want to see what and how the author pulls this off. Nice review.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite a trick, and she handles it well. I was well into the book before I decided to see how it is officially categorized in libraries and bookstores. I was a bit surprised to learn that it is considered to be nonfiction.
DeleteI think it sounds very sad. Not sure if I'd want to read this one. And yeah, that discolors my opinion of Orwell greatly, even though I have liked and admired many of his books.
ReplyDeleteTerribly sad life she lived, Jeane. I still don't know what could have made her such a masochist.
DeletePerhaps she enjoyed doing the work to support him, and admired him, and did not want any praise or limelight? It's hard to know unless the book presents things from her own opinion. Did you get any sense of that?
DeleteI got the impression that she was a willing partner in her invisibility, all the way to her deathbed, in fact, where she was still thinking more of his comfort than of her own critical situation. Her mindset is difficult for me to understand.
DeleteWow, Sam! I had absolutely no idea! I feel like I've been somehow duped. Excellent review, I really feel like I've learnt something.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite the exposé, Cath. I doubt that many people are aware of what the man was like in his personal life. He was such an oblivious pig of a man when it came to his attitude and behavior toward women that I'm still kind of reeling from it. Not at all what I would have expected from a man of his "genius."
DeleteI do sometimes wonder if one of the facets of being that clever is also possessing a chronic lack of empathy. Wasn't Dickens pretty appalling to his wife? Left her for an actress or something but made it ten times worse by separating her from her children, wouldn't let them go near her. Dreadful behaviour.
DeleteSeveral of my favorite authors have been exposed as not so nice people in recent years, and that does tinge my satisfaction with their work when I reread them. Several others have put their hatred of certain segments of society on such obvious display that I no longer can stomach reading them at all: Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, Don Winslow, among them.
DeleteHi Sam, It can be a surprise to find out what some of the great writers were like in their personal life or in other cases the prejudiced views they may have held . As you say it's hard to go back and reread their books in the same way when we have this new information.
ReplyDeleteFor sure, Kathy. Today's politics have revealed to me that several authors I respected in the past actually have nothing even close to an even mind when it comes to current events. They pretty much told me via their rants that they don't want me reading them anymore, and I was happy enough to comply.
DeleteSometimes I don't like knowing all the horrible things about someone whose books I like...Orwell is definitely not a man to admire, especially in the way he treated women.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not, Lark, but it's impossible to ignore or not read those two classics of his. I haven't read his essays, but those are highly respected, too.
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