Sonia Mary Brownell(25 August 1918 – 11 December 1980), better known asSonia Orwell,was the second wife of writerGeorge Orwell.Sonia is believed to be the model forJulia,the heroine ofNineteen Eighty-Four.[1][2]
Sonia Orwell | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Sonia Mary Brownell 25 August 1918 |
| Died | 11 December 1980(aged 62) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Archivist |
| Known for | The Orwell Archive |
| Spouses | |
| Relatives | Richard Blair(adoptive stepson) |
Sonia worked with theInformation Research Department(IRD), a propaganda department of the BritishForeign Office,which helped to increase the international fame ofAnimal FarmandNineteen Eighty-Four.With her support, the IRD was able to translateAnimal Farminto over 16 languages,[3]and for British embassies to disseminate the book in over 14 countries for propaganda purposes.[4]Soon after her husband's death, Sonia sold the film rights toAnimal Farmto a pair of movie executives, unaware they were agents of the AmericanCentral Intelligence Agency(CIA). This deal resulted in the creation of the propaganda filmAnimal Farm(1954),which became the first feature length animated film made in Britain.[5]
Early life
editBrownell was born inCalcutta,British India,[6]the daughter of a British colonial official. Her father died when she was four years old.[7]When she was six, she was sent to the Sacred Heart Convent inRoehampton(now part ofRoehampton University), in England. She left at 17 and, after learning French in Switzerland, took a secretarial course.[7]As a young woman, Brownell was responsible for transcribing and editing the copy text for the first edition of the WinchesterLe Morte d'Arthur,as assistant to the eminent medievalist atManchester University,Eugène Vinaver.[citation needed]
Orwell
editBrownell first met Orwell when she worked as the assistant toCyril Connolly,a friend of his fromEton College,at the literary magazineHorizon.After the death of his first wifeEileen O'Shaughnessy,Orwell became desperately lonely. On 13 October 1949, he married Brownell, only three months before his death fromtuberculosis.
George Orwell's friends, as well as various Orwell experts, have noted that Brownell helped Orwell through the painful last months of his life and, according toAnthony Powell,cheered Orwell up greatly. However, others have argued that she may have also been attracted to him primarily because of his fame.[6]Orwell biographerBernard CricktoldThe Washington Posthe did not think that Brownell "had much influence on his life" and asserted that "it was more or less an accident that they married."[8]
Nineteen Eighty-Four
editT. R. Fyvel,who was a colleague and friend of George Orwell during the last decade of the writer's life, and other friends of Orwell, have said that Sonia was the model for Julia, the heroine ofNineteen Eighty-Four,the "girl from the fiction department" who brings love and warmth to the middle-aged hero, Winston Smith.[9]
As Orwell wrote inNineteen Eighty-Four,"the girl from the fiction department... was looking at him... She was very young, he thought, she still expected something from life... She would not accept it as a law of nature that the individual is always defeated... All you needed was luck and cunning and boldness. She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead."
Archivist
editTogether withDavid AstorandRichard Rees,George Orwell's literary executor, Brownell established the George Orwell Archive atUniversity College London,which opened in 1960.[10]
Brownell was fiercely protective[6]of Orwell's estate and edited, withIan Angus,The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell(4 volumes, Secker & Warburg, London, 1968).
After Orwell
editBrownell marriedMichael Pitt-Riversin 1958,[6]and had affairs with several Britishpainters,includingLucian Freud,William ColdstreamandVictor Pasmore.Her marriage to Pitt-Rivers ended in divorce in 1965. She also had an affair with the FrenchphenomenologicalphilosopherMaurice Merleau-Ponty,whom she described as her true love;[11]she hoped he would leave his wife for her.
Brownell had several godchildren and was very close to some of them. Her godsonTom Grosshas written inThe Spectatormagazine that "although Sonia had no children of her own, she became almost like a second mother to me."[12]
Sonia was also close friends with many writers and artists, includingPablo Picasso,who drew a sketch in her honour, which he marked "Sonia."[13]
Death
editBrownell died penniless in London of abrain tumourin December 1980, having spent a fortune trying to protect Orwell's name and having been swindled out of her remaining funds by an unscrupulous accountant.[14]
Her friend, the painterFrancis Bacon,paid off her outstanding debts. At her funeral, Tom Gross read the same passage fromEcclesiastes,chapter 12 verses 1-7 about the breaking of the golden bowl, that she had asked Anthony Powell to read at Orwell's funeral thirty years earlier.[15]
References
edit- Notes
- ^"Dedicated follower of passions".The Guardian.19 May 2002.
- ^"The Widow Orwell".The New York Times.15 June 2003.
- ^Rubin, Andrew N. (2012).Archives of Authority: Empire, Culture and the Cold War.Woodstock: Princeton University Press. p. 40.
- ^Mitter, Rana (2005).Across the Block: Cold War Cultural and Social History.Taylor & Francis e-library: Frank and Cass Company Limited. p. 117.
- ^Senn, Samantha (2015)."All Propaganda is Dangerous, but Some are More Dangerous than Others: George Orwell and the Use of Literature as Propaganda".Journal of Strategic Security.8(3): 149–161.doi:10.5038/1944-0472.8.3S.1483.ISSN1944-0464.JSTOR26465253.S2CID145306291.
- ^abcdDiski, Jenny(25 April 2002)."Don't think about it".London Review of Books.24(8): 32–33.Retrieved21 September2015.
- ^abLewis, Jeremy (19 May 2002)."Review: The Girl from the Fiction Department and Orwell's Victory".The Observer.Retrieved21 September2015.
- ^Epps, Garrett (3 June 1981)."The Orwell Myth".The Washington Post.Retrieved16 May2019.
- ^Fyvel, T. R.(1982).Orwell: A Personal Memoir.London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 3.ISBN9780297780120..
- ^"Orwell Papers: Sonia Orwell (Blair) papers".AIM25.2015.Retrieved21 September2015.
- ^Spurling (2002).
- ^Spurling (2002),p. 131.
- ^Spurling (2002),p. 2.
- ^"Tim Carroll 'A writer wronged'".The Sunday Times.Timesonline.co.uk. 15 August 2014.Retrieved14 May2014.
- ^Spurling (2002),p. 175.
- Reynolds, Jack (2008).Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts.Stockfield: Acumen Publishing. p. 5.ISBN9781844651160.
- Bibliography
- Kermode, Frank(11 August 2003)."The Horizon Girl".The New Republic.Retrieved21 September2015.
- Spurling, Hilary(2002).The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell.London: Hamish Hamilton.ISBN9780241141656..
Further reading
edit- Sylvia Topp:Eileen: the making of George Orwell,London: Unbound, 2020,ISBN978-1-78352-708-3