Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life

While Orwell is staying the sanatorium, Eileen visits as often as she can, but on one occasion, she asks Lydia to visit in her stead and bring Orwell some treats. Orwell embraces and kisses Lydia, which makes her uncomfortable, but she feels that it would be unkind to deny Orwell all intimacy in Eileen’s absence.

(Funder discusses the challenging choices available to women when a man makes an advance—both in Eileen’s time and in the present era.) After six months, Orwell’s doctors recommend a warmer climate, and the couple receives money from a friend so that they may travel to Morocco.

Funder conveys several experiences of her own, which are related to casual sexual advances by men who hold positions of relative power over her. She frames the discussion with an image of quicksand in a fairy-tale landscape in France. The first encounter involved a French teacher who promised her a kiss on her seventh birthday. She refused to return to French lessons, and her mother allowed her to quit without comment. The second encounter involved a teenage boy who caressed her leg when she was a pre-teen. The last encounter involved an older man at her parents’ party who grabbed her hand and put it on his crotch in front of everyone when she was 20. Although none of these experiences were traumatizing for Funder, they all underscore her understanding that at each stage of her life, various men felt comfortable enough to forcibly impose their sexuality on her.

When Eileen writes to her mother-in-law about Morocco, she comments that although the hotel is a brothel, Orwell does not seem to be aware of its oddity. They quickly rent a villa to escape the expense of the city. She writes to Norah about Orwell’s illness, saying initially that he does not have tuberculosis (TB) and then alluding to lies that Laurence told about the illness. She comments on the heat, the beauty, and the dirt of Marrakesh. (Funder compares Eileen’s witty description of the relation of flies and dead bodies with Orwell’s, arguing that Orwell took her perspective and wove it into his own writing.)

Eileen tells Norah about her own medical issues—bleeding and a massive headache—which seem to have resolved. Orwell’s health does not improve or worsen, and he is working on a new book. She worries about the imminence of World War II and mentions the totalitarianism sweeping Europe. She also comments on the varying levels of anxiety displayed by family and friends. She tells Norah that Kopp has gotten out of prison and wants to come stay with them, but that Orwell wavers over whether he wants to see Kopp.

Funder discusses Orwell’s tendency toward infidelity in his marriage to Eileen. After he finishes Coming Up for Air, they visit a mountain village for a vacation. While there, he engages in a sexual encounter with a young Moroccan girl.

Funder imagines Eileen pacing and waiting for Orwell’s return. In the dramatized scene, Eileen feels helpless in the face of Orwell’s insistence that he deserves this experience. Other biographers and some friends of Orwell and Eileen support the idea that Orwell had a one-night stand in Morocco, but whether the incident occurred with or without Eileen’s explicit permission remains in question.

Funder further describes an ongoing affair between Orwell and Lydia: a connection that was one-sided and did not include a sexual component. Funder believes that Orwell wanted Lydia because she refused to sleep with him and because she was Eileen’s close friend. Funder supports her hypothesis with Lydia’s account of Eileen arriving at Lydia’s, angry at Orwell for walking in the woods in Wallington with Brenda, the local schoolmistress he dated before marrying Eileen. She insists that his interest continues only because Brenda refuses to have sex with him.

Funder describes Orwell’s definition of “doublethink,” which features prominently in 1984, arguably his most famous work. Funder also reflects upon the expectations of the reader or the viewer of the artists’ private lives. She explains Orwell’s opinion on that topic, specifically regarding the lives of Dalí, Dickens, and Shakespeare. She argues that Orwell believed that no matter how objectionable the person may have been, the artist and the art remain separate. Funder relates to Orwell as a writer, explaining the experience of a book signing and reflecting on her knowledge that her own readers expect her to be the particular person suggested by her writing. She feels that she must inevitably fall short of their expectations. However, even if the art and artist are separate, the fact that Orwell used his position to break the rules of common decency in his life remains a problematic point.

At Greenwich, Eileen rests in the wake of uterine bleeding and pain. She has come to London to see a specialist about her health. Orwell comes in with his essay on the separation between art and artist, asking for clarification of her note. They talk about whether the bad behavior of the artist is negligible because of the quality of art, or whether it is a dark necessity for great art. The discussion of the essay demonstrates their intimacy and affection for one another, even in the atmosphere of infidelity.

Eileen picks strawberries and cans strawberry jam at the cottage in the summer. She has decided to spend the winter with Laurence and Gwen, although Orwell is still insisting on staying the winter at the cottage. She thinks of the work that he expects of her—the canning and picking and cleaning—even as he demands permission to sleep with other women. She has wanted children, but Orwell tells her that he is sterile, and the doctors confirm her uterine cysts do not prevent pregnancy. While she works, he coughs loudly upstairs and appears suddenly with a handkerchief on his mouth; he is suffering another hemorrhage. He is rushed to the hospital, and she follows the next day.

The doctors say that Orwell’s bleeding is not necessarily a bad thing and reassure him that he has plenty of time left. Eileen is worried about money and begins to investigate jobs related to the looming war. When war is declared, Laurence joins the army in the medical corps. Orwell says that he will join the war effort, but they are all aware that his health problems will prevent him from serving.

Eileen gets a job in the Censorship Department, which supports them financially for the next two years. (This fact is ignored by Orwell and his biographers.) Orwell is rejected for military service due to his health and returns to the cottage for the winter while Eileen stays in London to work and help Gwen. Eileen finds the work dull; she is bogged down in details while sifting through various news from the front. It is possible that her work inspired the ominous Ministry of Truth in 1984.

After leaving the cottage in January with Eileen’s help, Orwell tries to return in March but ends up moving to London full-time. After another bought of illness, he and Eileen move to a terrible flat that is primarily paid for by Eileen’s work, with only a little help from Orwell’s various freelance jobs. When he starts to work for Horizon, he meets two women with whom he likely has affairs. Eileen worries about Laurence, trying to discern what is happening as the war rages and Hitler gains more ground each day.

Laurence is killed in Flanders at the bombing at Dunkirk. Reports from those present say that he refused to take cover and died before he could be transported to a hospital. Eileen stays with Gwen and her son, sorting through reports of his death.

According to her friends, one of whom is a psychotherapist, Laurence’s death throws Eileen into a serious depression. Although Orwell writes about the sense of doom in London, he neglects to mention Laurence’s death or Eileen’s internal struggle. Lydia has reported multiple times that Eileen depended on her brother above all others.

On his birthday, Orwell writes a letter to Brenda. He writes that he has permission from Eileen to pursue Brenda, and that if the world is ending via the war, he hopes that she will consider him again. Funder argues that Orwell’s claim of having Eileen’s permission is likely taking Eileen’s frustration or anger out of context; she questions whether he genuinely received her blessing to pursue another woman. Brenda never sleeps with Orwell, and she writes later in life that he was a sadist and did not particularly like women.

Eileen works full-time while Orwell joins the Home Guard in St. John’s Wood, where he delights in wearing the uniform and feeling useful; however, he demonstrates less-than-expert command of weaponry. There is a suggestion that he engages in some sort of romantic or sexual relationship with the teen boy involved in the Guard. Eileen receives a letter from Georges Kopp, the only one she keeps, in which he expresses his concern for her happiness and tells her all the things he thinks she would love about France.

As bombs destroy parts of London and constantly threaten Eileen and Orwell along with everyone they care about, Eileen seems to have lost all sense of self-preservation. Over the several months of attacks, they seek respite from the city in Wallington, but there is still massive paranoia not just from the Nazi threat, but from Trotsky’s assassination, which renews worries about communist threats.

After returning to London, Eileen gets very sick and experiences bleeding and pain so severe that she is unable to leave her bed for a month. On the first day she feels better, she writes to Norah, using humor to cloak the severity of her illness and the imminent death of her mother. Later, after her mother’s death, she uncharacteristically shows her depression, saying that she would like to see Norah but cannot, primarily because of Orwell. Lydia remarks of Eileen during this time that she attempted to comfort her friends by saying she didn’t care if she died.

Orwell begins an affair with a woman named Inez Holden that will last 10 years. He tells her that he has permission from Eileen to pursue the affair, but when Eileen accompanies them to dinner, Inez feels a sense of tension from Eileen. Orwell’s other biographers agree that Eileen and Orwell had an open marriage, but Funder believes that this claim is merely an excuse to protect Orwell’s image. Furthermore, she argues that portraying Eileen’s tolerance of the affairs as tacit permission furthers the patriarchal acceptance of infidelity and the sexual abuse of women.

Eileen quits her job because Orwell finds full-time work at the BBC. He produces radio plays and pieces on art and leisure for Southeast Asia and India. He does a good job, and is likely helped by Eileen. Socially, he continues to pursue multiple affairs in addition to Inez. He pursues and likely sleeps with several secretaries at the BBC, as well as with Stevie Smith, a freelance scriptwriter, and Hetta Crowse, a writer and a sculptor. Funder shows that Orwell’s biographers dismiss these affairs either as gossip or as something that Orwell just happened to do. She observes that such omissions simultaneously erase Orwell’s unethical acts and the women themselves.

Eileen is conscripted to work at the Ministry of Food for the war effort. She works with Lettice Cooper, who will later write a novel based on Eileen and her life. Eileen is good at the job and grows close with Lettice, telling her stories about Orwell and his lovers. Lettice supports Lydia’s report that Eileen cautions those she loves not to care if she dies.

Orwell writes literary criticism that alienates his friends, most notably H.G. Wells. After publishing a scathing critique of Wells, Eileen and Orwell are evicted from Wells’s garage flat. They move into a ground-floor flat, and Orwell’s niece and nephew have pleasant memories of Eileen casually cooking pastry during this time. To try to save the friendship, Eileen invites Wells over for dinner. Wells insists on eating food that upsets his digestion and writes a letter expressing his rage at the insult.

Orwell leaves the BBC and works as an editor at the Tribune for a short time, but he is notoriously bad at this job because he cannot bring himself to reject the hopeful submissions he receives. He has an affair with his secretary, which causes a huge fight between Orwell and Eileen. After the fight, Orwell goes to Wallington where Lydia is staying and tries to force her to have sex with him.

Eileen convinces Orwell to write Animal Farm rather than penning an critical essay about Stalin during this politically dangerous time. The novel is a real departure from Orwell’s typical style; it is a satirical fable featuring an ensemble of animal characters rather than a realistic novel centered on an autobiographical protagonist. Funder—like many of Eileen and Orwell’s friends—argues that Eileen collaborated on the book and claims that much of its refreshing humor and psychological acumen is due to her influence.