Very interesting, well-researched and I learnt a lot, but structurally all over the place. It may just be reading on kindle but I found the switches between letters, commentary, fictional imaginings and personal narrative bizarre and the blending dishonest where I'd have liked to have seen the clear delineation to see the picture of Eileen with greater clarity.

I greatly admire Anna Funder's Stasiland, a book I devoured prior to spending time in Berlin. However I found Wifedom to be slower paced and less interesting to me personally. I still believe Funder to be a very skilled writer but this one was not for me, and I did not finish it.

As well as the issues with the research, which have been documented elsewhere, I didn't like the way the author inserted herself into the story. Her family comes across as a generic Radio 4-daytime-drama middle-class family - not very interesting, or relevant to the larger issues of feminism and erasure of women. Personally I do not see taking the French exchange kid swimming as oppression! DNF

It is difficult to describe how clever and compelling this book is. It’s partly memoir and partly a biography of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, who was married to George Orwell (be warned – it’s hard to finish this book with any impression other than ‘Orwell was a real arsehole’). Funder manages to blend memoir and biography by questioning what it takes to be a writer, and what it is to be a wife.

I am always impressed by Funder’s writing style – she’s economic with words but descriptive when appropriate. For example, there’s a chapter in the book titled ‘Strawberries’ – it’s ostensibly about Eileen making strawberry jam, yet it reveals much more: a country on the brink of war, Orwell’s belligerence, and Eileen’s inner struggles. The detail has stayed with me because it is such beautiful writing about ordinary things.

4/5

I knew nothing about George Orwell which is one reason why I requested this book to review. I did know of Anna Funder having met her at a book event in London quite a few years ago. Although I only read Stasiland earlier this year.

I love her writing style and this is a brilliant insight into the life of Eileen the quiet wife of Orwell.

I started this book without having a lot of knowledge about George Orwell nor his wife but the premise of this novel really intrigued me. I loved how the author fused factual, fictional and personal experiences so seamlessly together, in her quest to bring Eileen’s identity out from obscurity. It is an incredibly frustrating and infuriating book, more so due to how present Eileen was in Orwell’s life and how influential she was, and yet she has been erased into anonymity – particularly through the many different biographies of Orwell’s life. A book that will leave the reader with lots to ponder and contemplate, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to review this ARC.

Wifedom wasn't what I expected, I expected an insight in to the life of one of the many behind the scenes women left out of the history of their more famous husbands and partners. What I read made me look and think very hard about my own life and what I accept as a wife / partner in a modern relationship!! Eileen O'Shaughnessy gives up her independance and dreams to help the man she loves fulfil his. I love how Anna Funder uses Eileen's letters to build up her story and searches through Orwells biographies to find the missing details, and comparing her sacrifices to the many still made by women.
Despite Anna's revelations I am now inspired to take another look at George Orwell's novels.

Wifedom will touch a nerve with all readers, regardless of their sex and should be read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Wifedom.

Wifedom opens the curtain on Eileen Blair - the woman behind the writing and success of George Orwell. Anna Funder has a unique take on biography in this book as it’s a mix of research, biography, and fiction, and the author clearly did her work to bring this wonderful woman to life.

As is the case with many successful men of the 19th and 20th century, much of the perceived brilliance of Mr Orwell is owed to his wife. Not only did Mrs Orwell run their farm and shop, she also typed up and edited Orwell’s writing, and held paid jobs herself. She also cared for their adopted son and nursed him while he was sick with TB, while she herself suffered in illness until her death at the young age of 39.

This book is a wonderful homage to the life of Mrs Orwell but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy the style of writing and mix of writing styles in this book. Ultimately I want a book that is enjoyable to read and for me this one fell flat in that regard. However I enjoyed the message behind it and commend its importance in bringing this woman’s story to the public.

This is a fascinating yet heartbreaking book. It completely changed my view of George Orwell (Eric Blair). Probably like most readers, I saw him as a socialist writer with the bravery to literally fight for his principles in the Spanish Civil War. But the truth is that a lot of his success was down to the support and unfailing dedication of his wife Eileen. Orwell never seemed to notice her input and certainly didn’t seem to appreciate it. Others noticed that his writing improved after his marriage but accepted it was because she was taking care of the household issues leaving him free to write but it was so much more than that. Her death is so indicative of her view of herself and his attitude towards her and it is so tragic. Ms Funder certainly gives her back her place in Orwell’s life and more importantly, her own place and lays out Eileen’s bravery.

All of Orwell’s biographies cut back on Eileen’s position in Orwell’s life even to the point of denigrating her. As Ms Funder says, "…just as patriarchy allowed Orwell to benefit from his wife’s invisible work, it then allowed biographers to give the impression that he did it all, alone."

When Orwell was fighting in Spain, Eileen was also working in Spain and just as much at risk. In fact there was an attack on the office she worked in and Orwell said, "20 or 30 armed assault guards began shooting people on the street." He finds out that "all was well and nobody had been shot." He means that Eileen is okay - "nobody" is his wife!

After Eileen died, maybe Orwell finally realised the part she had played in his success but instead of reflecting on that, he went out and proposed to four women within months of her death, to fill the gap.

This is not a biography of Eileen. Well, it is, but it is also so much more. Ms Funder has given Eileen a voice while recognising the level of invisibility of many women and the society that allows it. A beautiful book, an honest book, and a genuinely moving read.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley

The Orwell we meet in Anna Funder’s Wifedom doesn’t have much to recommend him, not least in his treatment of his wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a woman who has largely been written out of Orwell scholarship – although, as it turns out, she was enormously influential on his writing, and amazingly supportive of him. She has been largely ignored by Orwell biographers, but is here brought centre stage – a position she obviously deserves to occupy. The book is part conventional biography and part fiction, sometimes indeed speculative fiction, with Funder’s very particular take on the Orwells’ relationship. She also puts herself and her life into the narrative, and digresses frequently about marriage in general, about relationships between men and women, and about the “patriarchy”. This combination makes for a multi-layered approach which I found satisfying and illuminating. Early on Funder states that she is not trying to bring Orwell down, as she is a great admirer of his work, but my goodness, she certainly does indeed bring him down. He demonstrates very few redeeming features in this insightful and perceptive exploration of his life with Eileen – and other women, on whom he had a habit of “pouncing”. Compulsively readable, this is a marvellous book and one that at long last so brilliantly gives Eileen O’Shaughnessy her place in the sun.

This is a very thought-provoking book and goes well beyond the remit of a biography of Orwell's wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy. Much as in the style of Doireann NiGhriofa's wonderful 'A Ghost in the throat', it combines the experience of the protagonist with that of the author to show the commonality across the ages.

This book is a welcome addition to the genre of gender politics, and the comparisons show that, in some ways, gender inequality still exists, with one huge exception. The fact that this book is written and should, and I'm sure will, have a wide readership is a testament to progress in itself.

There is anger and a passion running through the writing, which gives a thrilling edge, and while I'm sure there may be too much speculation for some due to the limited amount of primary material, this is a compelling read which has much to say - and says it well.






Thank you, NetGalley for the ARC

While I found some parts of the book extremely interesting, I was a bit disappointed overall. Anna Funder says she wanted to write a book about Eileen O'Shaughnessy because Orwell himself as well as his biographers had mainly left her out of the story, but a big part of the book is more about Orwell and how insensitive he was to Eileen and horrible to other women than about Eileen herself.

There are valuable aspects to Wifedom, insomuch as it shows how important Eileen's input was to Orwell's works, and how his masterpieces would basically not have existed as we know them without Eileen's assistance both in practical and editorial terms, and yet she was rarely mentioned by Orwell and the men who wrote about him, let alone acknowledged for it. The most interesting part of the book is probably where Anna Funder shows in meticulous details how Orwell edited Eileen's presence out of Homage to Catalonia despite her being there all along doing important work for the POUM.

I noticed at least one inaccuracy (Orwell was born in India, not in Burma), and was totally unconvinced by what Anna Funder writes about Eileen and Orwell's sex life, which is pure speculation. I think she contradicts herself on this question, by positing a passage written in the third person by Orwell late in life was autobiographical: he wrote in it about a man whose wife demanded too much sex, while the rest of Wifedom demonstrates that Orwell spent most of his marriage looking for sex elsewhere. Although Eileen was obviously not overjoyed by his constantly chasing other women and he was clearly a boor by throwing it in her face, it doesn't seem to have crossed Anna Funder's mind that she might have let him simply because her health issues – that were most probably severe endometriosis – made sex rarely enjoyable for her. I find this possibility much less of a stretch of the imagination than Anna Funder's endless speculations on the question, although we'll never know as that's exactly what these are: speculations.

So not uninteresting in some ways, but too speculative to my liking. It's true that Eileen only left a few letters so it's not exactly much to go by, but more than anything else, reading Wifedom made me feel like reading Eileen, the biography by Sylvia Topp, for a better sense of perspective.

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.

This is an interesting book written where other biographers have failed. Whilst George Orwell and his legendary prose are in the people’s hearts and minds little has been written about his first wife. This book changes that and shows the amount of influence she had on his life and work.

A very powerful and gripping story that is difficult to read in some parts but worth sticking with. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

'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.

Powerful and necessary biography of a woman whose story has long been overlooked. So grateful for the chance to read this book!

Unfortunately i did not enjoyed this book and had to DNF. I just did not enjoy the writing style and i had to put it down.

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.

Anna Funder is angry: rightly and justifiably so. In this searing biography of George Orwell's first wife Eileen, Funder shows how successive (male) biographers have through laziness or sexism or as products of the patriarchy written Eileen out of the narrative of Orwell's life when she deserved huge credit for keeping his show on the road, for bolstering his ego, for correcting and enhancing his manuscripts and so much more.
Funder uses her own life and marital example to show how little things have changed. She and many of her friends carry the majority of domestic chores and responsibilities even though they work and achieve in their own right.
This is a sad and all too familiar story brilliantly told. Funder admires Orwell as a writer but decimates him as a man whilst acknowledging that the author is a product of a system.
Thank you net galley for an advance copy.

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.