Anna Funder is conflicted. She loves George Orwell’s writing but detests his treatment of women. She wonders whether there’s a word to describe that. (Orwell’s own ‘doublethink’ almost – but not quite – fits.) Wifedom is a sublime mix of memoir, biography and fiction, and Funder revives the life of Orwell’s most tragic victim: his wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy. Letters written by Eileen to her best friend and to her husband form the basis of research into her life and expose extreme levels of self-effacement. Funder follows Eileen’s physical footsteps, and writes herself into the narrative with her own experiences of wifedom and its effects on her writing life.
Orwell (Eric Blair) and O’Shaughnessy married in 1936. By refusing to add ‘obey’ to the vows, Eileen’s strong character is instantly revealed. That strength is consistently tested by Orwell. The marriage doesn’t begin well as Orwell wasn’t writing. (O’Shaughnessy wasn’t either, but her writing was deemed less important.) The couple live – at Orwell’s insistence – in a tiny, damp, squalid cottage when Orwell decides to leave his wife and fight in the Spanish Civil War. Eileen cannot abide staying home alone and soon travels to Barcelona to help. She is at the centre of the conflict; Orwell is at the margins. She is in danger, courageously surviving under constant surveillance; Orwell is wounded, not by heroism, but by stupidity. Eileen manages to smuggle Orwell, herself and her colleagues out of Spain.
Orwell writes of his war in Homage to Catalonia. He inflates his own actions and deletes any mention of his wife. Astoundingly, she must then type his manuscript – assembling his words and typing her own erasure. O’Shaughnessy gives; Orwell takes. She wrote a poem entitled 1984. Years later, with no attribution, that title is appropriated. The style of Animal Farm is so unlike Orwell’s other work – and so similar to O’Shaughnessy’s – that it seems she was the genius behind that as well.
Funder is incredulous. O’Shaughnessy’s selflessness has allowed Orwell’s reputation to shine undimmed.
This magnificent novel/memoir/biography writes O’Shaughnessy back into existence and cements Funder’s place in the writers’ pantheon.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Funder worked for the Australian Government as an international lawyer in human rights, constitutional law and treaty negotiation, before turning to writing full-time in the late 1990s. Since then, her writing has received dozens of awards. Funder’s book, Stasiland, tells stories of people who resisted the communist dictatorship of East Germany, and of people who worked for its secret police, the Stasi. It won the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize and is on school and university reading lists. Her novel All That I Am won numerous awards, including the Miles Franklin Award, among others.
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