{"product_id":"9781582432441","title":"The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell","description":"\"Praising \u003ci\u003eThe Girl from the Fiction Department\u003c\/i\u003e is easy. The hard part is figuring out what to praise first.\" —\u003ci\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe portrait of George Orwell's second wife drawn by his biographers is a travesty. Determined to set the record straight, her friend Hilary Spurling, herself an acclaimed biographer, reveals the whole story of Sonia Orwell's sad and splendid life. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Beautiful, intelligent, and idealistic, but also, as she grew older, belligerent and intimidating, Sonia was the model for Julia, heroine of Orwell's \u003ci\u003e1984\u003c\/i\u003e. Her friends and admirers included W.H. Auden, Lucian Freud, and Frances Bacon. She was Cyril Connolly's indispensable assistant on the influential literary magazine \u003ci\u003eHorizon\u003c\/i\u003e during the 1940s and in the '60s she co-edited the groundbreaking four-volume collection of Orwell's nonfiction writings. Nonetheless, she has most frequently been depicted as mean and mercenary. Spurling portrays the real Sonia Orwell in all her generous, spirited, ferocious, and self-doubting complexity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor Biography: Hilary Spurling is a prize-winning biographer whose books include \u003ci\u003eIvy: The Life of Ivy Compton Burnett, The Unknown Matisse\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eLa Grande ThŽrse\u003c\/i\u003e. She is a regular book reviewer for the \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Counterpoint Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47048013250800,"sku":"9781582432441","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781582432441_p0.jpg?v=1763794979","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781582432441","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}