Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life by Anna Funder

6 reviews

khakipantsofsex's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Misogyny, Rape, Death, Terminal illness, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Racism, and Grief

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

 Wifedom was an engagingly written but infuriating read, deliberately so. It looks at the life of Eileen O'Shaughnessy, otherwise known as the wife of George Orwell. The focus is particularly on their marriage, her contributions to his life and career, and the way he and his biographers have undervalued and erased those contributions. Funder also considers her own writing career and marriage and comments more generally on the unpaid and unrecognized labour of women. I found her arguments based on newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend plus informed, considered speculation to be plausible and persuasive. I was left questioning exactly what Eileen, clearly intelligent and well-educated, a go-getter with support from friends and family, saw in Orwell and why she remained with him. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Sexism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual assault

leanneymu's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A fascinating biography of Eileen Blair, George Orwell's first wife, who was written out of his story by subsequent biographers of Orwell, despite the fact that she did LOADS of the work to ensure that Orwell was able to write his masterpieces. I love books that restablished maligned women, and this book is a magic trick, essentially re-instating the reputation of a women who was vanished out of history by the systematic misogeny of 1930s-40s England. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, War, Blood, Rape, and Sexual harassment

minniepauline's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Funder’s book is extremely well-researched, thoughtful and thought-provoking. She cares deeply about her subject and it comes through on every page. She writes with the beauty of a novelist, or maybe a poet. But what she has surmised (which is set apart from the rest of the text) fits well with the evidence, as well making me cry in various places. I would love to see this book make the Women’s Prize shortlist. And thank you to the Women’s Prize for putting it on your first even nonfiction longlist, which is how it fell into my hands.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Sexism, War, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual assault

rhi_'s review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Death, Terminal illness, and Medical content

Moderate: War, Blood, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, Sexual assault, and Abandonment

nanc_282's review against another edition

informative sad medium-paced

4.0

It’s difficult to read this book and not think about all the literary men and the unacknowledged work of the women in their lives, Dorothy Wordsworth, Mary Shelley,
Who listen, edited, organised a household to create space for men to write. For me, the real success of this book, is to look at the life of Eileen Blair and consider how her ‘Wifedom’ under pinned George Orwell’s literary career. 
It’s impossible not to have to reconsider Orwell’s legacy in view of what this book reveals.
Anna Funder’s autoethnographic sections are excellent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Medical content, Misogyny, and Infidelity

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, and Chronic illness