Acquisitions (100): Mrs. Orwell

Anna Funder: Wifedom (2023)

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Anna Funder (2012)

Anna Funder: Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life (2023)
[Women's Bookshop, Ponsonby Rd - 6/11/2023]:

Anna Funder. Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life. Hamish Hamilton. London: Penguin Random House Australia, 2023.

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Eric Blair ['George Orwell'] (1903-1950)

George Orwell's Only Too Visible Life

For my birthday this year my wife Brownyn gave me a copy of the above biography (or 'counterfiction', as the author describes certain parts of it) of George Orwell's first wife Eileen Maud Blair [née O'Shaughnessy] (1905-1945).

As you can see from the listings at the bottom of this post, I have a longstanding fascination with Orwell. I started reading him at school (Down and Out in Paris and London) and devoured the whole of his collected Essays, Letters and Journalism in my late teens. Not to mention Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and all his other novels along the way.

I think, though, that my favourite among them might be the elegiac Coming Up for Air (1939).

George Orwell: Complete Novels (1976)

A few years ago I wrote a piece called "Orwelliana" about the purely bibliographical side of collecting Orwell. He's certainly one of the most relentlessly documented modern writers I know of: a 20-volume complete works on top of endless editions and re-editions of each of the nine canonical books, not to mention a plethora of more-or-less themed selections from his miscellaneous essays and journalism ...

George Orwell: Complete Works ed. Peter Davison (1998)

A number of more troubling issues have come to light more recently, though. Certainly Anna Funder's book casts worrying sidelights on his behaviour with women (his tendency to pounce on them during nature walks, for instance).

Even more striking, perhaps, is the successful way in which the massive role that his first wife played in his Spanish Civil War experiences was largely written out of his classic book Homage to Catalonia (1938). That was, admittedly, fairly standard for reporters and travel writers at the time: Graham Greene's Journey Without Maps (1936) being one obvious example.

It's rather perturbing to see how carefully this pretence of Orwell's sole agency in all aspects of his life - not just his engagement in the war, but even more minor matters such as his attempts to run a village shop, grow crops keep animals, and type a seemingly neverending stream of articles and reviews - has been kept up in the long row of biographies and critical books about him.

Nor can one attribute this tendency solely to the fact that almost all of their authors are men, given that the same tendency is clearly visible in Rebecca Solnit's more recent, ruminative monograph Orwell's Roses:

Rebecca Solnit: Orwell's Roses (2021)

The two books inevitably invite comparison. Solnit casts Orwell in the gentle light of an agrarian sage, tending his garden in the midst of catastrophe. Funder, also an admirer of Orwell, has been forced, reluctantly, by her researches to recognise in him also a neglectful and deceitful husband: one whose initial respect for his wife's abilities and intellect was gradually submerged by an obsession with literary glory and a compulsive taste for trysts with their mutual friends.

John Lee: Rebecca Solnit (1961- )

Which is true? Perhaps both. Perhaps neither. One thing's for certain, our collective need for Orwell to act as a kind of political conscience for the rest of us has led to some very calculated omissions and elisions in all previous accounts of this very human, and (it would now appear) very flawed man.

I think all readers of Orwell would like to believe that this newly revealed - albeit visible all along between the lines had we only troubled to look - insufferable side of him is not the whole of the man. There are, for example, such heartfelt (if poorly written) verses as "The Italian Soldier Shook My Hand" (1939):

Your name and your deeds were forgotten
Before your bones were dry,
And the lie that slew you is buried
Under a deeper lie;

But the thing that I saw in your face
No power can disinherit:
No bomb that ever burst
Shatters the crystal spirit.

Is that enough to restore the balance? Perhaps, in future, we will have to content ourselves with regarding "Orwell" as a more composite entity than we'd hitherto supposed: certainly the style and even the subject matter of his writing improved markedly from 1936 onwards, with the advent of his sophisticated, Oxford-educated wife.

The inspiration for all his major works - with the possible exception of Animal Farm, which seems to have been largely constructed and planned by Eileen - remains with George. She was clearly very much more than an editor and typist for the 'great writer' her husband aspired to become, however.

For a long time I used to attribute Eileen's comparative invisibility in the Orwell story to the machinations of his second wife, Sonia Brownell / Orwell. Judging from Anna Funder's book, however, I was completely wrong about this. Sonia did her very best to live up to the role of literary widow and 'guardian of the flame' which had been assigned to her. The relegation of Eileen to the sidelines was accomplished long before she came on the scene.

Orwell wrote far less after Eileen's death in 1945 than he did before. And what he did write (Nineteen Eighty-Four, above all) showed a tone of bitterness and despair which had not been so evident in his work before.

He was, I remain convinced, a great writer - though not, it seems, a particularly nice guy, especially latterly. It does him no disservice to acknowledge how large a debt he owed to his first wife. It is, however, more than somewhat disquieting that it's taken till now for this buried truth to resurface.

Robert Capa: Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, Spain (September, 1936)

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Orwell in Burma (1920s)

Eric Blair [George Orwell]
(1903-1950)

Books I own are marked in bold:

Novels:


1. Burmese Days (1934)
   • Burmese Days. 1934. Ed. Peter Davison. 1998. London: The Folio Society, 2001.
2. A Clergyman's Daughter (1935)
   • A Clergyman's Daughter. 1935. Ed. Peter Davison. 1998. London: The Folio Society, 2001.
3. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
   • Keep the Aspidistra Flying. 1936. Ed. Peter Davison. 1998. London: The Folio Society, 2001.
4. Coming Up for Air (1939)
   • Coming Up for Air. 1939. Ed. Peter Davison. 1998. London: The Folio Society, 2001.
5. Animal Farm (1945)
   • Orwell and Politics: Animal Farm in the Context of Essays, Reviews and Letters Selected from The Complete Works of George Orwell. 1945, 1998. Ed. Peter Davison. Introduction by Timothy Garton Ash. Penguin Modern Classics. London: Penguin, 2001.
6. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
   • Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript. Ed. Peter Davison. Preface by Daniel G. Siegel. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Limited / Weston, Massachusetts: M & S Press Inc., 1984.
   • Nineteen Eighty-Four. 1949. Ed. Peter Davison. 1987. A Note on the Text. 1989. Introduction by Ben Pimlott. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2000.
   • Nineteen Eighty-Four. 1949. Ed. Peter Davison. 1998. London: The Folio Society, 2001.
7. The Complete Novels (1976)
   • Burmese Days / A Clergyman's Daughter / Keep the Aspidistra Flying / Coming Up for Air / Animal Farm / Nineteen Eighty-Four. 1934, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1945, 1949. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Limited / Octopus Books Limited, 1976.
   • The Complete Novels: Burmese Days / A Clergyman's Daughter / Keep the Aspidistra Flying / Coming Up for Air / Animal Farm / Nineteen Eighty-Four. 1934, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1945, 1949, 1976. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2000.

Non-fiction:


8. Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
   • Down and Out in Paris and London. 1933. Uniform Edition. 1949. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., 1951.
   • Down and Out in Paris and London. 1933. Ed. Peter Davison. Introduced by Michael Foot. London: The Folio Society, 1998.
   • Orwell and the Dispossessed: Down and Out in Paris and London in the Context of Essays, Reviews and Letters Selected from The Complete Works of George Orwell. 1933, 1989, 1998. Ed. Peter Davison. Introduction by Peter Clarke. Penguin Modern Classics. London: Penguin, 2001.
9. The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
   • The Road to Wigan Pier. 1937. Uniform Edition. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., 1959.
   • The Road to Wigan Pier. 1937. Ed. Peter Davison. London: The Folio Society, 1998.
   • Orwell's England: The Road to Wigan Pier in the Context of Essays, Reviews and Letters Selected from The Complete Works of George Orwell. 1937, 1989, 1998. Ed. Peter Davison. Introduction by Ben Pimlott. Penguin Modern Classics. London: Penguin, 2001.
10. Homage to Catalonia (1938)
    • Homage to Catalonia, & Looking Back on the Spanish War. 1938 & 1953. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
    • Homage to Catalonia. 1938. Ed. Peter Davison. London: The Folio Society, 1998.
    • Orwell in Spain: The Full Text of Homage to Catalonia with Associated Articles, Reviews and Letters from The Complete Works of George Orwell. 1938, 1998. Ed. Peter Davison. Introduction by Christopher Hitchens. Penguin Modern Classics. London: Penguin, 2001.
11. Collected Non-fiction (1980)
    • Down and Out in Paris and London / The Road to Wigan Pier / Homage to Catalonia / Essays and Journalism: 1931-40 / Essays and Journalism: 1940-43 / Essays and Journalism: 1944-45 / Essays and Journalism: 1945-49. 1933, 1937, 1938, 1968. London: Martin Secker & Warburg Limited / Octopus Books Limited, 1980.

Essays & Articles:


12. Inside the Whale and Other Essays (1940)
13. Critical Essays [aka 'Dickens, Dali, and Others', 1958] (1946)
14. Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays (1950)
15. England Your England and Other Essays [aka 'Such, Such Were the Joys'] (1953)
16. A Collection of Essays by George Orwell (1954)
17. The Orwell Reader, Fiction, Essays, and Reportage (1956)
18. Selected Essays [aka 'Inside the Whale and Other Essays', 1962] (1957)
19. Collected Essays (1961)
20. Decline of the English Murder and Other Essays (1965)
21. Collected Essays, Letters and Journalism of George Orwell. Ed. Ian Angus & Sonia Brownell. 4 vols (1968–1970)
    1. An Age Like This, 1920–1940 (1968)
       • The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Vol. 1: An Age Like This, 1920–1940. Ed. Ian Angus & Sonia Brownell. 1968. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1970.
    2. My Country Right or Left, 1940–1943 (1968)
       • The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Vol. 2: My Country Right or Left, 1940–1943. Ed. Ian Angus & Sonia Brownell. 1968. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977.
    3. As I Please, 1943–1945 (1969)
       • The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Vol. 3: As I Please, 1943–1945. Ed. Ian Angus & Sonia Brownell. 1969. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
    4. In Front of Your Nose, 1945–1950 (1970)
       • The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Vol. 4: In Front of Your Nose, 1945–1950. Ed. Ian Angus & Sonia Brownell. 1970. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978.
22. Orwell: The War Broadcasts [aka 'Orwell: The Lost Writings']. Ed. W. J. West (1985)
    • The War Broadcasts. Ed. W. J. West. 1985. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987.
23. Orwell: The War Commentaries. Ed. W. J. West (1985)
    • The War Commentaries. Ed. W. J. West. 1985. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987.
24. Funny, But Not Vulgar, and Other Selected Essays and Journalism (1998)
    • Funny, But Not Vulgar, and Other Selected Essays and Journalism. Illustrated with photographs by Bill Brandt et al. London: The Folio Society, 1998.
25. My Country Right or Left, and Other Selected Essays and Journalism (1998)
    • Reportage: My Country Right or Left, and Other Selected Essays and Journalism. Illustrated with photographs by Bill Brandt et al. London: The Folio Society, 1998.
26. Essays. Penguin Classics. Introduction by Bernard Crick (2000)
27. Essays. Everyman's Library. Ed. John Carey (2002)
    • Essays. Ed. John Carey & Peter Davison. Everyman's Library, 242. A Borzoi Book. New York: Alfred A. Knopf / London: Penguin Random House UK, 2002.
28. Orwell: The Observer Years (2003)
29. Why I Write. Penguin Great Ideas Series (2005)
30. Books v. Cigarettes. Penguin Great Ideas Series (2008)
31. All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays. Ed. George Packer (2008)
32. Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays. Ed. George Packer (2008)
33. Some Thoughts on the Common Toad. Penguin Great Ideas Series (2010)
34. Decline of the English Murder. Penguin Great Ideas Series (2009)
35. Seeing Things as They Are. Ed. Peter Davison (2014)
36. On Jews and Antisemitism. Ed. Paul Seeliger (2023)

Pamphlets:


37. The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius. Searchlight Books No. 1 (1941)
38. [with Victor Gollancz, John Strachey, et al.] Betrayal of the Left (1941)
39. "Culture and Democracy" [made up of "Fascism and Democracy" & "Patriots and Revolutionaries"]. In Victory or Vested Interest? (1942)
40. James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution (1946)
41. The English People (1947)

Poetry:


1. Awake! Young Men of England (1914)
2. Kitchener (1916)
3. Our Minds Are Married, but We Are Too Young (1918)
4. The Pagan (1918)
5. Suggested by a Toothpaste Advertisement (1918–1919)
6. The Photographer (1920)
7. The Wounded Cricketer (1920)
8. Poem from Burma (1922–1927)
9. The Lesser Evil (1924)
10. Romance (1925)
11. Dear Friend, allow me for a little while (c.1927)
12. When the Franks Have Lost Their Sway (c.1927)
13. Ballade (1929)
14. A Dressed Man and a Naked Man (1933)
15. Sometimes in the Middle Autumn Days (1933)
16. Summer-like for an Instant (1933)
17. On a Ruined Farm Near the His Master's Voice Gramophone Factory (1934)
18. A Happy Vicar I Might Have Been (1935)
19. A Little Poem (1935)
20. St Andrew’s Day, 1935 (1936)
21. Ironic Poem About Prostitution (c.1936)
22. The Italian Soldier Shook My Hand (1939)
23. As One Non-Combatant to Another (1943)
24. My Love and I (?)


42. George Orwell: The Complete Poetry. Ed. Dione Venables (2015)
    • The Complete Poetry. Ed. Dione Venables. Preface by Peter Davison. UK: Finlay Publisher for the Orwell Society, 2015.

Edited:


43. College Days/The Colleger (1917)
44. Election Times (1917–1921)
45. Talking to India, by E. M. Forster, Richie Calder, Cedric Dover, Hsiao Ch'ien and Others: A Selection of English Language Broadcasts to India (1943)
46. Voice, 1-6: Poems broadcast by Orwell, Mulk Raj Anand, John Atkins, Edmund Blunden, Venu Chitale, William Empson, Vida Hope, Godfrey Kenton, Una Marson, Herbert Read, and Stephen Spender.
47. [with Reginald Reynolds] British Pamphleteers, Volume 1: From the 16th Century to the 18th Century (1948)
    • [with Reginald Reynolds] British Pamphleteers. Volume 1: From the 16th Century to the French Revolution. London: Allan Wingate, 1948.

Collections:


48. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 20 vols. Ed. Peter Davison with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison. 20 vols. [Rev. ed., 2000-2002] (1986-1998)
    1. Down and Out in Paris and London (1933)
    2. Burmese Days (1934)
    3. A Clergyman's Daughter (1935)
    4. Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
    5. The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
    6. Homage to Catalonia (1938)
    7. Coming Up for Air (1939)
    8. Animal Farm (1945)
    9. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
    10. A Kind of Compulsion: 1903–1936
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 10: A Kind of Compulsion: 1903–1936. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2000.
    11. Facing Unpleasant Facts: 1937–1939
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 11: Facing Unpleasant Facts: 1937–1939. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2000.
    12. A Patriot After All: 1940–1941
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 12: A Patriot After All: 1940–1941. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2002.
    13. All Propaganda Is Lies: 1941–1942
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 13: All Propaganda Is Lies: 1941–1942. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2001.
    14. Keeping Our Little Corner Clean: 1942–1943
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 14: Keeping Our Little Corner Clean: 1942–1943. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2001.
    15. Two Wasted Years: 1943
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 15: Two Wasted Years: 1943. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2001.
    16. I Have Tried to Tell the Truth: 1943–1944
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 16: I Have Tried to Tell the Truth: 1943–1944. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2001.
    17. I Belong to the Left: 1945
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 17: I Belong to the Left: 1945. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2001.
    18. Smothered Under Journalism: 1946
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 18: Smothered Under Journalism: 1946. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2001.
    19. It Is What I Think: 1947–1948
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 19: It Is What I Think: 1947–1948. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2002.
    20. Our Job Is to Make Life Worth Living: 1949–1950
        • Davison, Peter, with Ian Angus & Sheila Davison, ed. The Complete Works of George Orwell. 20: Our Job Is to Make Life Worth Living: 1949–1950. 1998. London: Secker & Warburg, 2002.
49. The Lost Orwell: Being a Supplement to The Complete Works of George Orwell. Ed. Peter Davison (2006)
    • Davison, Peter, ed. The Lost Orwell: Being a Supplement to The Complete Works of George Orwell. London: Timewell Press Limited, 2006.

Letters & Diaries:


50. Diaries. Ed. Peter Davison (2009)
    • Diaries. Ed. Peter Davison. Harvill Secker. London: Random House, 2009.
51. A Life in Letters. Ed. Peter Davison (2010)
    • A Life in Letters. Ed. Peter Davison. 2010. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 2011.
52. George Orwell: A Life in Letters and Diaries. Ed. Peter Davison (2011)

Secondary:


53. Buddicom, Jacintha. Eric and Us: A Remembrance of George Orwell. London: Leslie Frewin Publishers Limited, 1974.
54. Stansky, Peter, & William Abrahams. The Unknown Orwell. 1972. A Paladin Book. Frogmore, St. Albans, Herts.: Granada Publishing Limited, 1974.
55. Stansky, Peter, & William Abrahams. Orwell: The Transformation. 1979. A Paladin Book. Frogmore, St. Albans, Herts.: Granada Publishing Limited, 1981.
56. Crick, Bernard. George Orwell: A Life. 1980. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
57. Coppard, Audrey, & Bernard Crick. Orwell Remembered. Ariel Books. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1984.
58. Wadhams, Stephen, ed. Remembering Orwell. Introduction by George Woodcock. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984.
59. Solnit, Rebecca. Orwell's Roses. London: Granta Books, 2021.
60. Anna Funder. Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life. Hamish Hamilton. London: Penguin Random House Australia, 2023.

Orwell Quotes

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• category - English Prose (post-1900): Authors

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