George Orwell’s writing has always resonated with Anna Funder. During a particularly overwhelming period in her life she returned to it for comfort, and stumbled upon a key part of his history that was neglected by Orwell and his numerous biographers - the role his wife played in both his life and his writing.
Anna Funder’s resulting book, Wifedom, is a genre-blending re-imagining of the life of Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy. Funder muses on the double burden of women’s labor, even in today’s society, and the magic trick of “wifedom.”
I recently spoke with her about Eileen’s influence on Orwell, how women have been written out of history, and more.
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Wifedom was published by Knopf.
Marginalia was produced at KMUW Wichita and is part of the NPR Podcast Network.
- Mark Statzer and Torin Andersen - engineers
- Haley Crowson & Lu Anne Stephens - editor
- Haley Crowson & Katie Lanning - producer
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