Tag: George Orwell

Wifedom

by Derelict Space Sheep on December 29, 2023 in 42 Word Reviews • 0 Comments

Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life

by Anna Funder (Knopf, 2023)

audiobook read by Jane Slavin & Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood (Bolinda, 2023)

The reconstructed biography of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a remarkable woman whom the patriarchal gatekeepers, when not omitting her altogether, render anonymous as merely George Orwell’s wife. Funder confronts the historical record to wrest Eileen’s due back from oblivion. Orwell himself emerges greatly diminished.

Orwell’s Cough

by Derelict Space Sheep on December 17, 2016 in 42 Word Reviews • 0 Comments

Orwell’s Cough: Diagnosing the Medical Maladies & Last Gasps of the Great Writers

by John Ross (Oneworld, 2013)

Whereas the medical diagnoses alone would have made for a much shorter book, (Dr) Ross has used the subject of medicine as a unifying theme by which to biograph and contextualise a dozen famous writers, astutely dissecting their lives and (squalid) times.