Viking acquires story on Orwell’s 'forgotten' wife by Funder

Viking has acquired Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder, described as a genre-bending feminist text on the life of Eileen Orwell and the “sly ways” that women are made invisible – even today. 

Isabel Wall, editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights on an exclusive submission from Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency. US rights sold to Lexy Bloom at Knopf, Penguin Random House US, and ANZ rights to Nikki Christer at Penguin Random House Australia. Viking will publish Wifedom in hardback, audio and e-book in August 2023. 

The synopsis reads: “Looking for wonder and some reprieve from the everyday, Anna Funder slips into the pages of her hero George Orwell. As she watches him create his writing self, she tries to remember her own… When she uncovers his forgotten wife, it’s a revelation. Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s literary brilliance shaped Orwell’s work and her practical nous saved his life. But why – and how – was she written out of the story? Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder re-creates the Orwells’ marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War in London. As she rolls up the screen concealing Orwell’s private life she is led to question what it takes to be a writer – and what it is to be a wife.

“Compelling and utterly original, Wifedom speaks to the unsung work of women everywhere today, while offering a breathtakingly intimate view of one of the most important literary marriages of the 20th century.”

Wall said: "Wifedom is a blazingly original book about women, art and power; one that speaks to our present moment as much as it illuminates the past. It is a real privilege to publish Anna Funder, one of the most talented and inventive writers of our time.”

Funder added: “Looking for Eileen involved the thrill of reading Orwell on how power works. Finding her held the possibility of revealing how it works on women: how a woman can be buried, first by domesticity— and then by history.”