Sonia Orwell

2021-05-21T03:39:06Z

24.113.233.249: sentence

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sonia M. Orwell
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Sonia Mary Brownell
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1918|8|25}}
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1980|12|11|1918|8|25}}
| death_place = [[London]], [[England]]
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| occupation = Archivist
| years_active =
| known_for = The Orwell Archive
| notable_works =
| spouse = [[George Orwell]]<br />[[Michael Pitt-Rivers]]
}}
'''Sonia Mary Brownell''' (25 August 1918 – 11 December 1980), better known as '''Sonia Orwell''', was the second and latter wife of writer [[George Orwell]], whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair. Sonia is believed to be the model for Julia, the heroine of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/may/19/georgeorwell.biography |title= Dedicated follower of passions |website=The Guardian|date=19 May 2002}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/books/the-widow-orwell.html|title= The Widow Orwell |website=The New York Times|date=15 June 2003}}</ref>

Sonia is an important figure in the history and study of Cold War propaganda, as her collaboration with the [[Information Research Department]] (IRD), a secret propaganda wing of the British [[Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office|Foreign Office]], helped to increase the fame of ''[[Animal Farm]]'' and ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. With her support, the IRD was able to translate ''Animal Farm'' into over 16 languages,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rubin|first=Andrew N.|title=Archives of Authority: Empire, Culture and the Cold War|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2012|location=Woodstock|pages=40}}</ref> and for British embassies to disseminate the book in over 14 countries for propaganda purposes.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mitter|first=Rana|title=Across the Block: Cold War Cultural and Social History|publisher=Frank and Cass Company Limited|year=2005|location=Taylor & Francis e-library|pages=117}}</ref> Soon after her husband's death, Sonia sold the movie rights to ''Animal Farm'' to the American [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA). This deal resulted in the creation of the propaganda film [[Animal Farm (1954 film)|''Animal Farm'' (1954)]], which became the first feature length animated film made in Britain.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Senn|first=Samantha|date=2015|title=All Propaganda is Dangerous, but Some are More Dangerous than Others: George Orwell and the Use of Literature as Propaganda|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26465253|journal=Journal of Strategic Security|volume=8|issue=3|pages=149–161|issn=1944-0464}}</ref>

==Early life==
Brownell was born in [[Calcutta]], [[British India]],<ref name="lrb.co.uk">{{cite journal |url= http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n08/jenny-diski/dont-think-about-it |title=Don't think about it |first=Jenny |last=Diski |author-link=Jenny Diski |journal=[[London Review of Books]] |date=25 April 2002 |volume=24 |number=8 |pages=32–33 |access-date=21 September 2015}}</ref> the daughter of a British colonial official. Her father died when she was four years old.<ref name="theguardian.com">{{cite web |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/may/19/georgeorwell.biography |title=Review: The Girl from the Fiction Department and Orwell's Victory |first=Jeremy |last=Lewis |work=[[The Observer]] |date=19 May 2002 |access-date=21 September 2015}}</ref> When she was six, she was sent to the Sacred Heart Convent in [[Roehampton]] (now part of [[Roehampton University]]), in England. She left at 17 and, after learning French in Switzerland, took a secretarial course.<ref name="theguardian.com"/> As a young woman, Brownell was responsible for transcribing and editing the copy text for the first edition of the Winchester ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', as assistant to the eminent medievalist at [[Manchester University]], [[Eugène Vinaver]].{{cn|date=March 2021}}

==Orwell==
Brownell first met Orwell when she worked as the assistant to [[Cyril Connolly]], a friend of his from [[Eton College]], at the literary magazine ''[[Horizon (magazine)|Horizon]]''. After the death of his first wife [[Eileen O'Shaughnessy]], Orwell became desperately lonely. On 13 October 1949, he married Brownell, only three months before his death from [[tuberculosis]].

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 to [[Anthony Powell]], cheered Orwell up greatly. However, others have argued that she may have also been attracted to him primarily because of his fame.<ref name="lrb.co.uk"/> Orwell biographer [[Bernard Crick]] told ''[[The Washington Post]]'' he did not think that Brownell "had much influence on his life" and asserted that "it was more or less an accident that they married."<ref>{{cite news|last=Epps|first=Garrett|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1981/06/03/the-orwell-myth/081c83d8-20de-484e-bc4d-fcdc83587a85/|title=The Orwell Myth|work=The Washington Post|date=3 June 1981|access-date=16 May 2019}}</ref>

==''Nineteen Eighty-Four''==
[[T. 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 of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', the "girl from the fiction department" who brings love and warmth to the middle-aged hero, Winston Smith.<ref>{{cite book |first=T. R. |last=Fyvel |author-link=T. R. Fyvel |title=Orwell: A Personal Memoir |page=3 |location=London |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |year=1982 |isbn=9780297780120}}.</ref>

As Orwell wrote in ''Nineteen 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==
Together with [[David Astor]] and [[Richard Rees]], George Orwell's literary executor, Brownell established the George Orwell Archive at [[University College London]], which opened in 1960.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=5089&inst_id=13&nv1=browse&nv2=person |title=Orwell Papers: Sonia Orwell (Blair) papers |work=[[AIM25]] |year=2015 |access-date=21 September 2015}}</ref>

Brownell was fiercely protective<ref name="lrb.co.uk"/> of Orwell's estate and edited, with [[Ian Angus (librarian)|Ian Angus]], ''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell'' (4 volumes, Secker & Warburg, London, 1968).

==After Orwell==
Brownell married [[Michael Pitt-Rivers]] in 1958,<ref name="lrb.co.uk"/> and had affairs with several British [[Painting|painter]]s, including [[Lucian Freud]], [[William Coldstream]] and [[Victor Pasmore]]. Her marriage to Pitt-Rivers ended in divorce in 1965. She also had an affair with the French [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] philosopher [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], whom she described as her true love;{{sfnp|Spurling|2002}} she hoped he would leave his wife for her.

Brownell had several godchildren and was very close to some of them. Her godson [[Tom Gross]] has written in ''[[The Spectator]]'' magazine that "although Sonia had no children of her own, she became almost like a second mother to me."{{sfnp|Spurling|2002|p=131}}

Sonia was also close friends with many writers and artists, including [[Pablo Picasso]], who drew a sketch in her honor which Picasso marked "Sonia."{{sfnp|Spurling|2002|p=2}}

==Death==
Brownell died penniless in London of a [[brain tumor|brain tumour]] in 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. Her friend the painter [[Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon]] paid off her outstanding debts. At her funeral, Tom Gross read the same passage from [[Ecclesiastes]], 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.{{sfnp|Spurling|2002|p=175}}

==References==
;Notes
{{reflist}}
* {{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Jack |title=Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts |location=Stockfield |publisher=Acumen Publishing |year=2008 |page=5 |isbn=9781844651160 }}
;Bibliography
* {{cite journal |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/the-horizon-girl |title=The Horizon Girl |journal=[[The New Republic]] |first=Frank |last=Kermode |author-link=Frank Kermode |date=11 August 2003 |access-date=21 September 2015}}
* {{cite book |first=Hilary |last=Spurling |title=The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell | year=2002 |location=London |publisher=Hamish Hamilton |isbn=9780241141656 }}.

==Further reading==
* Sylvia Topp: ''Eileen : the making of George Orwell'', London : Unbound, 2020, {{ISBN|978-1-78352-708-3}}

{{George Orwell}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orwell, Sonia}}
[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:1980 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
[[Category:Deaths from brain tumor]]
[[Category:People from Kolkata]]
[[Category:George Orwell]]
[[Category:People educated at Woldingham School]]
[[Category:Muses]]

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Sonia Orwell