Wifedom

Reviews

A marvelous book . . . I just loved it all, and have a permanently marked-up, dog-eared copy on my shelf for the next generation. Simply, a masterpiece. Here, Anna Funder not only re-makes the art of biography, she resurrects a woman in full. A strikingly original study that casts Orwell in new light. Deeply perceptive, it is testament to forgotten wives of famous men everywhere. An utter triumph, and nothing short of a miracle Wonderful, unexpected and exciting from beginning to end Astounding... A profoundly essential, significant and groundbreaking work... a work of love for both Eric and Eileen Reminiscent of Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts or Julian Barnes's The Noise of Time . . . a riveting biography that not only rediscovers Eileen and paints a picture of a volatile period of history but also poses questions about what we value in art. A brilliant hybrid of biography, memoir and literary detective work, which demonstrates how patriarchy allows men to exploit women's unpaid services. Funder brings Eileen to life through her letters, supported by forensic re-reading of male-authored biographies and Orwell's classics about tyranny and truth. Full of keen psychological insight and eloquent prose, WIFEDOM shines Wifedom is both an immovable and an irresistible book, an object and a force . . . another great and important narrative of oppression and covert suppression. It's hard to think of many other contemporary writers with such an acute eye for writing into the absences in the historical record. George Orwell's first wife emerges vividly from Anna Funder's new book . . . welcome and necessary, returning life to a woman who was gifted, vivid, complex and highly intelligent, who gave up her own ambitions in the furtherance of her husband's Funder is the perfect writer to integrate Orwell's legacy. She, too, has devoted her writing life to the subject of surviving tyranny. Furious and fascinating Taylor's updated life will send readers back to Orwell's compelling visions of state power and surveillance with fresh appreciation. Still, it is Funder's evocation of Eileen's fugitive life that haunts this reader's imagination. It is a spellbinding achievement An extraordinary blend of forensic historical detective work and evocative fiction, as well as snatches of memoir. It not only writes O'Shaughnessy back into the story but also questions how far we've really come in terms of gender equality. To read about O'Shaughnessy is to fall in love with her 'Anna Funder is a premier-league writer who can roll fiction, reportage, criticism and memoir into glinting prose, her sentences like handheld treasures you keep turning over, admiring for their graceful contours and crafted precision' Audaciously brilliant Electrifying... a genre-melding hybrid that allows Eileen's likeness to be partially recovered through her own words and the testimonies of those who remembered her, as well as reimagined in fictional passages to flesh out the gaps in the record... Wifedom is a vital portrait of a woman whose unseen work was instrumental in the creation of books that became cornerstones of 20th century literature, the extent of her contribution impossible to measure, obscured as it is by the role of "wife" In this rattlingly fierce book, Anna Funder sets out to unmask the "wicked magic trick" by which Eileen O'Shaughnessy Blair has been made to disappear... readers will be simply thrilled - and shaken - by this passionately partisan act of literary reparation A genre-bending tour de force... After Funder, we will never look at this writer or his work in the same way again. Nor should we. This study of George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen – whom his books never name – is fresh, original and immersive, thanks to the award-winning author of Stasiland. Astonishing... Wifedom is no less than the rescue of a remarkable woman from the deliberate ellipses of default male history. A moving biography with the pacing of a novel. Funder, author of Stasiland, her prizewinning account of the East German secret police, takes six letters written by Eileen O’Shaughnessy, George Orwell’s first wife, as the imaginative springboard for a deep dive into their relationship and her impact on his writing and legacy. A haunting, tragic and revealing book A tremendous book written with such brilliance, honesty, humour and wisdom. I loved the hybrid writing throughout and the way Funder weaves the personal and the political and the literary to bring Eileen to life, filling in the gaps that history, which is often his-story, has systematically forgotten. A bravura analysis of female invisibility Truly wonderful... Anna Funder has written another brilliant human portrait. Electrifying... Daring in both form and content, Funder's book is a nuanced, sophisticated literary achievement Expand reviews