Wifedom by Anna Funder was an interesting read and it made me realise the years I studied history at university was all bullshit. Funder uses six letters by George Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, to write a 420 page biography and drip, drip, drip acid on his reputation.

Funder claims she’s a fan of Orwell’s. Thank fuck she’s not a fan of mine. Funder writes in the murky light of the #MeToo revelations, where as she states in the opening pages, men are ‘arseholes’.

It’s a sweeping generalisation which is a rock-solid fact according to the Madam Defarges of the Fairfax and Guardian presses. Men’s crimes range from rape and domestic violence to not doing enough housework.

It’s a clever ploy by Funder, a successful upper middle-class writer from Sydney’s eastern suburbs, to target Orwell, who attacked the totalitarian nature of the state and its various apparatus to crush freedom.

Funder is peeved because Eileen was written out of Orwell’s life, by Orwell and half a dozen male biographers. It must have come as a shock to Funder to find that Sylvia Topp, had written a biography, ‘The Making of George Orwell’, which focused heavily on O’Shaughnessy and her role in the marriage, three years before her.

The problem is that six letters ain’t going to cut it in a biography of 420 pages. Thank God Funder is a fiction writer because most of the narrative is descriptive passages from Funder’s imagination, based loosely on previous biographies and public sources.

Orwell was English and a product of his time. What he knew about women could be etched in 72 point bold on the head of a pin. He was until the publication of ‘Animal Farm’, church mouse poor. England was poor. He knew he didn’t have long to live and was utterly possessed in getting the novels published. Eileen was instrumental in editing Animal Farm and should have got more recognition for that.

She also looked after him, washed his clothes, fed him while he banged away at the typewriter. The reason why she wasn’t acknowledged more was because she didn’t write ‘1984’ (she was dead), ‘Animal Farm’, ‘Down and Out in Paris’, ‘Keep the Aspidistra Flying’, ‘Coming up for Air’, ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’, ‘Politics and the English Language’ and more.

There’s ridiculous conjecture that Eileen contributed to 1984. Check out ‘We’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

Orwell became fairly famous towards the end of his life as he was wracked with TB, but it was nothing compared to his fame in the 60s and 70s, when the young Boomers picked up is works.

Orwell was no saint. None of us are. We are flawed creatures. It’s a pity we have to wade through Funder’s prurient and acid-filled prose to realise that.

If she really wanted to stick her nose in another marriage, she could have examined the breakdown and divorce of Alison Summers and Peter Carey’s 20-year relationship, which was a shocker. The problem is Funder would probably be sued by one or both because they’re still alive and can defend themselves.