Mrs. Orwell

Eileen Blair, wife and partner of George Orwell, is brought out of her husband’s shadow in this riveting graphic novel, which follows the couples’ tireless campaign to expose difficult political truths through art. The Roaring Twenties are over, fascism is on the rise across Europe, and the dream of a workers’ paradise is all but dead. But in the midst of these turbulent times, a love story unfolds—one that will forever reshape our political language and how we view the future. Mrs. Orwell follows poet Eileen Blair and her husband, George Orwell, as they forge the professional and romantic partnership that will eventually bring us Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. From a honeymoon fighting in the Spanish Civil War to narrow escapes from Stalin’s agents and the London Blitz, the Blairs’ campaign against fascism brings them face-to-face with some of the greatest threats of the 1930s. But while George struggles to make his voice heard despite political censorship, Eileen must fight to preserve her own voice within a marriage that threatens to consume her. This sweeping account of Eileen Blair’s brief but dazzling life casts a light on a long-overlooked figure and her persistent defense of that most beloved, most vulnerable principle: the power of the pen.