Eileen: The Making of George Orwell

This is a welcome and long overdue biography of Orwell’s first wife. Many words have been written about his second spouse and widow Sonia, for many reasons, but Eileen has generally been neglected by writers down the years. Why? Well, Orwell and Eileen made a pact to destroy all correspondence between each other early in the relationship making it difficult for researchers to get a clear picture of the deeper relationship between them.The author has done a fine job, if sometimes, by necessity, slightly speculative of the influence of Eileen on George’s writing along with the question of their ‘open’ marriage and just what that amounted to.There is no doubt that they were devoted to each other and Eileen willingly took on a difficult, irritating and sickly genius, supporting and assisting him in every respect over their few, short years together.This may just have been one of the great literary marriages. She was certainly a match for him in most respects, even travelling out to Spain and up to the trenches to support him in the Civil War. She acted as his typist and de facto editor and may have even co-written much of Animal Farm with George.When he first met Eileen George told a friend that she was the girl he wanted to marry. He wasn’t wrong. The man was undoubtedly devastated by her untimely death which may have hastened his own early passing. Orwell has sometimes been called ‘saint like.’ Yet, there was another one at his side for his most productive and difficult years. Excellent and highly recommended book.

While I agree with a previous reviewer that parts of this biography, particularly those about her subject’s education and her experiences at the Ministry of Food, were unnecessarily detailed and boring, I found the rest of the book deeply interesting and moving. Eileen O’Shaugnessey may not have ‘made’ George Orwell, but there can be no doubt that she kept him alive, and directly saved his life at one point during the Spanish Civil War. Apart from that, she is a very sympathetic figure, both charming and, in so many ways, admirable. I found it almost unbearably poignant that she should have died just as she was taking joy in her adopted son, the love between her and Orwell was being reawakened, and he was finally about to receive the wide recognition for his work that they had both longed for.Other reviewers have also pointed out that Topp’s theories about her subject’s influence on Orwell’s writing are only conjectures, which of course is true, and some of her claims definitely seem far-fetched, but for the most part I found them plausible. She even convinced me that it could have been Eileen, not Sonia, who was the model for Julia in 1984.

I enjoyed reading this book. It was very clear and well researched. The author ‘wanted to bring Eileen out of the shadows’ and show her importance as his wife for ten years and her support in his creative works. It was immensely interesting to read. It also incidentally gave me a real feel of what it must have been like to live in London during the war years and the Blitz.

It is a very interesting book in itself. and also to better understand the life of George Orwell

I bought this book for my son who is a big George Orwell fan. He was really pleased with it.