Eileen by Sylvia Topp;

Eileen by Sylvia Topp;

Author:Sylvia Topp;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783527502
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 2)
Published: 2019-09-23T00:00:00+00:00


Buying furnishings for the villa was a necessary activity that first month, and one that was fun for them both. While Orwell filled six pages of a tiny, separate ‘Marrakech Notebook’ with lists of comparative prices of local products, from ‘camel’ to ‘common wine’ to ‘second-hand axe-head’ to ‘Canadian apples’,31 Eileen concentrated on ‘grass & willow chairs,’ ‘a bed & several camel-hair couvertures’, and ‘essential crockery & some chessmen’.32 Apparently, on quiet evenings after dinner at the villa, they planned to play chess, though neither of them mentioned their comparative skills. Eileen also shopped for some ‘exquisite white clay mugs with a very simple black design inside’33 and ‘some decent rugs as we want them to take home’.34

One acquisition they disagreed about was one of the three massive copper trays on Orwell’s shopping list. As Eileen complained to Marjorie, Orwell was so excited by their move to the villa that he was ‘even buying things for the house, including a copper tray four feet across that will dominate us for the rest of our lives’.35 There is no mention of whether this tray made it to the villa, let alone back to England. Another somewhat peculiar shopping choice was recorded by Orwell on 25 September: ‘Bought two turtle doves this morning.’36 Eileen approved of this acquisition, telling Norah, with apparent enjoyment, when they were finally settled in the villa, ‘We also have two doves. They don’t lay eggs but if they think of it will doubtless nest in our pillows as they spend most of the day walking about the house – one behind the other.’37

The couple clearly were hoping to recreate their beloved Wallington cottage right there in the desert of Morocco, since, as Orwell explained to Common, ‘I simply have to have a bit of garden and a few animals.’38 Eileen added, ‘We shall also have goats who will be physically as well as emotionally important.’39 And before they even moved into the villa, Eileen joked to their friend Geoffrey Gorer, ‘[Eric] is also carpentering – there is a box for the goats to eat out of & a hutch for the chickens though we have no goat yet & no chickens.’40 When they later acquired some animals to make use of the goat box and the chicken hutch, Orwell told his diary lovingly, ‘The goats are gentle with each other & do not quarrel over food. Were taken to the house in paniers one on each side of a donkey,’41 while the dozen chickens were ‘crammed together in two small baskets, then sent on donkey back’.42

Finally, on 15 October, it was time to move into the villa. Eileen described the house as having ‘a large living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom & a kitchen’, so it somewhat resembled their cottage back in England, but there was also ‘a sort of observatory on its roof which will be good to work in’.43 And of course that extra bedroom invited the idea of visitors, as was their constant custom back home.



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