More than a wife

On the back cover of Wifedom, the newly published book by Anna Funder, Geraldine Brooks judges it as ‘simply a masterpiece’. I agree wholeheartedly.

Wifedom breaks new ground in biography. As well as telling the story of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, the wife of George Orwell from 1936 to 1945, it includes discussion about what it means to be a wife, provides an insight into the experience of foreign fighters in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s and 40s and Londoners during the blitz in the second world war, and offers a glimpse into the present day life of the author as writer and wife. While the style changes for segments of narration, fiction and non-fiction, in any chapter the voice of the author remains buoyant, intelligent, and invigorating to read.

Eileen O’Shaughnessy dominates the book. As Orwell’s wife, she played a large part in his work, contributing her ideas, editing drafts, typing manuscripts, and dealing with publishers. Funder suggests that Eileen and George worked together on Animal Farm, sheltering in bed while bombs rained down on London. Orwell gave Nineteen Eighty-Four the name of a poem Eileen wrote at Oxford before she met him and he based the Ministry of Truth on the building in which she worked to support them. Despite this, Eileen’s contribution to George Orwell’s life and work is all but absent in biographies of Orwell and in what Orwell wrote about his experiences in Spain. This absence was the jumping off point for Anna Funder’s extensive research into their marriage and the life Eileen Orwell made for herself.

Anna Funder invented the word ‘wifedom’ for the title to highlight the wider implications of Eileen’s predicament. In her marriage to Orwell, Eileen lived a life of poverty, isolation, and sheer hard work. She supported her husband emotionally and financially, cooked and cleaned for him, worked on his manuscripts, nursed him when he suffered a crisis with his tuberculosis, and arranged for his escape from Spain when their names appeared on a Stalin hit list. Eileen had no time or opportunity to write herself except for a collection of witty and understated letters to friends and family.

At an event last week organised by the Sydney Writers Festival, I was fascinated to hear Anne Summers, author of Dammed Whores and God’s Police, discuss the feminist ideas in Wifedom with Anna Funder. The two authors challenged one another to speculate about whether there would come a time when women enjoyed the same pay, leisure, and opportunities as men. Both put on a brave face and spoke about the progress made since Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s time.

Wifedom will make you think. It will make you weep. It will entertain and amuse you. If you read one book this year, read this one!

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