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PARTISAN REVIEW
that he wasn't a good bet for me, both because he was quite a lot older
and because of his poor health." When she sat on Orwell's lap in a
crowded taxi, he confessed he was so excited by embracing her that the
passion went through him like an electric shock.
Orwell also proposed to Anne Popham, a young art student he
scarcely knew. (She later married Quentin Bell and edited Virginia
Woolf's diaries.) She told me about this bizarre episode. Orwell invited
her to tea, dismissed his son Richard and the nanny with "Go along,
now," and then told Anne: "Come and sit here. It will be more com–
fortable on the bed in the corner." Coming directly to the point, he
kissed and embraced her, and asked: "Do you think you could care for
me?" Since there was absolutely no courtship, wooing, or getting to
know him, Anne was deeply embarrassed and shocked by his proposal,
which seemed both precipitate and calculating. Feeling intensely uncom–
fortable, yet aware of his loneliness, she wriggled out of his arms and
gently rejected his offer. Neither of these young, pretty women saw
themselves as widowed stepmothers.
Orwell's relations with Sonia Brownell, who became his second wife,
developed in this context of desperation and fear of death. David Astor,
editor of
The Observer
and a loyal friend who'd helped Orwell in innu–
merable ways, told me about his deathbed marriage to Sonia-a bloom–
ing Renoir beauty with a gaunt EI Greco saint. I asked a number of
Sonia's friends to describe her role in Orwell's life. The moribund Orwell
was deeply in love with the gorgeous Sonia. But why did she agree to
marry him in 1949 after rejecting him in [945? Was she a devoted Flo–
rence Nightingale or a mercenary Kate Croy? Sonia herself was perplexed
about her motives and said: "The reasons why George married me are
perfectly clear. What aren't clear are the reasons why I married George."
Part of the complex answer must be that in
T
949 he was a rich and world–
famous author who made no sexual demands and would soon be dead.
Up to now I've always visited every place where my subjects lived and
traveled, believing that places have a magic influence on people's lives.
Since I'd spent several years in London in the [970S, I felt I knew
Orwell's London quite well. At the end of a trip in November
1998,
with a day to spare, I decided to go to Eton, which I'd not seen for many
years. Orwell's Eton years had been well documented, and
1
was just
going to pick up some local color. But my visit turned out to be a per–
fect example of how places, people, and documents all come together in
unpredictable ways.
On that beautiful fall day, I found the librarian, Michael Meredith,
who gave me a whirlwind tour of the College. He showed me the young
