Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life
2023 book by Anna Funder
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Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life is a book written by Australian author, Anna Funder. First published as a paperback and an eBook by Penguin Books on 4 July 2023[1] in the UK, the USA, and Australia, it was subsequently released in other countries, including France, Italy, Denmark, and Korea. Wifedom is a hybrid work that blends memoir, biography, and sections of biofiction seamlessly to interrogate the gender dynamics of Orwell’s first marriage.[2]
First edition cover | |
| Author | Anna Funder |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Penguin |
| Publication date | 4 July 2023 |
| ISBN | 9780143787112 |
In Wifedom, Funder uses letters discovered in 2005 from George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen, to her best friend from college to recreate the Orwells’ marriage. Eileen O’Shaughnessy was an Oxford-educated English graduate and writer who studied under J.R.R. Tolkien. She was also active in Spain during the Spanish Civil War,[3] working in propaganda at the Head Office of the International Labour Party while Orwell was in the trenches. Eileen also worked to support the couple financially during their marriage,[2] including during the war in London at the Department of Censorship, and she collaborated closely with Orwell on the writing of Animal Farm.[3]
Critical reception
Wifedom was an instant Sunday Times Bestseller on release in August 2023. Hailed as "electrifying" by Kirkus Reviews (starred review)[4] and "a spellbinding achievement" by the Financial Times,[5] Wifedom was a New York Times Notable Book of 2023[6] and named a Book of the Year by The Guardian, the Independent, the Economist, LitHub, the Telegraph, the Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times, and the Times.[6]
Robert McCrum, in The Independent called it "One of the most startling explorations of life-writing (Eileen’s, Orwell's, and Funder’s) in recent times . . . Wifedom is a genre-bending tour-de-force that resurrects an invisible woman, and relitigates the saintly image of the man she called 'Eric' . . . a moving, forensic act of biographical reconstruction."[7]
Sarah Bakewell in the New York Times described it as, "A virtuoso performance on the theme, adding personal memoir, some fictional reconstructions and a glittering sense of purpose."[8]
Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks called it "Simply a masterpiece. Here, Anna Funder not only remakes the art of biography, she resurrects a woman in full. And this in a narrative that grips the reader and unfolds through some of the most consequential moments—historical and cultural—of the twentieth century."[9]
Wifedom was BBC 4 Book of the Week.[10] It is being published in translation in many countries around the world.