Extra: Fiction books about a wife in the 1960s (translated into Portuguese)

English version

Isabella Muir is fascinated by history, especially how Britain (and other countries) has changed since the end of World War II. She is using the information she is gathering to write fictional stories, like the Janie Juke Mysteries. At the beginning of this series, we get to know Janie Juke, who is newlywed and has just found a job at the mobile library. She is living in the 1960s, at a time when women were fighting for their emancipation at all levels. We can learn how difficult that fight was (and still is). Janie navigates prejudices of different sorts and overcomes them one by one, while solving different mysteries. Fortunately for Portuguese readers, some of these books are already translated.

Versão Portuguesa

Isabella Muir é fascinada por história, especialmente o quanto a Grã-Bretanha (e outros países) tem mudado desde o fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Aproveita a informação que vai reunindo para escrever histórias ficcionais, como os Mistérios de Janie Juke Mysteries. No início da série, ficamos a conhecer Janie Juke, que se acabou de casar e de conseguir um emprego na biblioteca itinerária. Vive na década de 1960, num tempo em que as mulheres lutavam pela sua emancipação a todos os níveis. Podemos constatar o quão difícil essa luta foi (e ainda é). Janie navega por entre diferentes tipos de preconceitos e ultrapassa-os um por um, enquanto vai resolvendo mistérios diversos. Felizmente para leitores portugueses, alguns destes livros já estão traduzidos.

BOOK 1: “The Tapestry Bag”

Janie Juke is settling in her married life and as a professional librarian. One day, she crosses paths with Zara, a good friend she hasn’t seen for many years. Their friendship is resumed and reinforced until Zara disappears without a trace. Janie applies all her detective skills to find out what happened.

Janie Juke está a adaptar-se à sua vida de casada e como bibliotecária profissional. Um dia, encontra Zara, uma boa amiga que ela não via há anos. A amizade delas é retomada e reforçada até Zara desaparecer sem deixar rasto. Janie aplica todas as suas competências detectivescas para descobrir o que aconteceu.

TRADUÇÃO para português: “O Saco de Viagem”. Disponível em:
BARNES & NOBLE: ebook | paperback
BOOKSHOP: paperback
BLACKWELL’S: paperback
WATERSTONES: paperback
KOBO: ebook
Quem mora na Austrália e no Reino Unido também pode procurar na app BorrowBox

BOOK 2: “Lost Property”

Janie Juke is pregnant and everyone is saying she should stop working and prepare herself for motherhood, but she doesn’t listen: she continues managing the mobile library as before. In the meantime, her reputation of solving mysteries spreads out and a stranger is willing to pay her for solving a puzzle that is connected to an old secret.

Janie Juke está grávida e toda a gente lhe diz que ela deve parar de trabalhar e preparar-se para ser mãe, mas ela não quer saber: continua a gerir a biblioteca itinerária como sempre. Entretanto, a sua reputação como solucionadora de mistérios espalha-se e um estranho está disposto a pagar-lhe para resolver um puzzle ligado a um velho segredo.

TRADUÇÃO para português: “Perdidos e Achados”. Disponível em:
BARNES AND NOBLE: ebook | paperback
BOOKSHOP: paperback
BLACKWELL’S: paperback
WATERSTONES: paperback
KOBO: ebook
Quem mora na Austrália e no Reino Unido também pode procurar na app BorrowBox

BOOK 3: “The Invisible Case”

Janie just became a mother and her Aunt Jessica is returning home after travelling through Europe for nine years. Luigi comes with Jessica from Italy and brings trouble with him: a person dies and he seems the culprit. Janie tries to find out the truth, but this time she has a little help from an unlikely ally.

Janie acabou de ser mãe e a sua tia Jessica está de regresso após ter viajado pela Europa por nove anos. Luigi acompanha-a desde Itália e traz sarilhos com ele: uma pessoa morre e ele parece ser o culpado. Janie tenta descobrir a verdade, mas desta vez ela tem a ajuda de um aliado improvável.

TRADUÇÃO para português: “O Caso do Sr. Williams”. Disponível em:
BARNES AND NOBLE: ebook | paperback
BOOKSHOP: paperback
BLACKWELL’S: paperback
WATERSTONES: paperback
KOBO: ebook
Quem mora na Austrália e no Reino Unido também pode procurar na app BorrowBox

BOOK 4: “A Notable Omission”
TRANSLATION into Portuguese by ACPN: ongoing | expected in 2026
TRADUÇÃO para português: em progresso | previsto em 2026

Keyword: MARRIAGE | “Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life”, by Anna Funder

Anna Funder was aiming to write a book about her favourite author: George Orwell. Yet, when doing the research, she literally found Eileen Blair, Orwell’s first wife. She was hidden between the lines of Orwell’s writings and in the passive voice of his six biographies, all of them written by men. From here, Anna Funder started to paint a picture of how men erase “wives” and how women are led to believe that their role in life is to support men in their pursuits, without any recognition. The shocking reality is so amazingly and clearly described that it makes you think about what is happening around you. It is so obvious, yet not many people seem to notice.

Eileen graduated in English studies, took a post-graduation in Psychology, which was going to be turned into a Master’s degree, and had several jobs throughout her life. After getting married, she alone was responsible for the couple’s farm, with chickens and sheep, and the store at the front of the house. The farm and the store were not very profitable and the couple would permanently struggle with money. On top of this, Eileen took care of the house (cleaning, cooking) and edited and typed her husband’s writings. Meanwhile, Orwell spent his time trying to write something worth to be published (and failing) and chasing women to have sex with them (whether they wanted or not so much). His biographers, based on the letters written by Orwell, stated that Eileen had given her consent, as they had an open marriage. Anna Funder has her doubts, seeing this as a way to “excuse” Orwell of his sexual wrongdoings (to say it nicely).

When the Spanish Civil War broke off, Orwell decided to enlist without consulting his wife. In his mind, she would be at home, taking care of their affairs and waiting for him. He was wrong. Shortly after, Eileen found a way to go to Spain too, where she found a job with the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM). While there, she was fighting fascism and was persecuted by Stalinists. Compared to that, the life of Orwell at the front was a walk in the park.

Back home, Eileen had to find a job so the couple could have some money to live. She was employed by the Minister of Information, doing war censorship, which probably inspired Orwell for the writing of his book “1984”. By the way, the date was also inspired by a poem written by Eileen, when she was still single, entitled “End of the Century, 1984”. Yes, she wrote poetry as well. And she also co-wrote “Animal Farm”. Although her name does not appear on the cover of the book, it was her idea to write about farm animals as a metaphor to show how Stalinist regime really was (she would know about this very well). She also discussed every detail of the book with Orwell and typed it.

Wives helping their husbands writing fictional books, and being fundamental in their creative work, is nothing new. Iris Jamahl Dunkle wrote a book about Charmian Kittredge London, the wife of Jack London. Charmian was already a writer when she met Jack and helped him write some of his books while living many adventures with him. Despite her amazing life and her own published books, she is still known as the wife of Jack London. Iris Jamahl Dunkle also wrote a book about Sanora Babb, a force of nature who did in-depth research about the migrants in the USA during the Great Depression and wrote a book about it. However, John Steinbeck stole her notes and wrote “The Grapes of Wrath”. Sanora’s book was set to be published three weeks after, but it got cancelled because of Steinbeck. “Whose Names Are Unknown” was only published 65 years later.

The film “The Wife” is based on this reality. Although a total fictional story, we can see it could be a true one (maybe it is and we are still to discover it). Glenn Close plays the role of the wife of a man who has just been awarded the Nobel Prize of Literature. It turns out, as we learn at the end of the film, all his books were written by her. And yet, it was he who got published, who got famous, and who got recognition for high-quality books. Why did she accept that situation? She wanted to be published and read, but realized it was not going to happen because she was a woman.

Orwell’s wife got sick and endured that situation, bleeding profusely and in much pain, for five years. She had much to do: earning money to pay the bills and taking care of her husband so he could have all the conditions he needed to focus on his writing. Then, they adopted a baby boy and Orwell decided to go to continental Europe as a journalist. She was left alone, again. No one really knows why she took a drastic decision without telling anyone: to do an operation to solve her health issue with a medical doctor that was willing to operate her even though she was not fit for that. It was an especially risky operation, to which she indeed did not have the strength to endure, and she died on the operating table.

Later, Orwell recognised himself that he had not treated her very well. Why she did not divorce him is not clear. She proved that she could have found financial independence and she had the opportunity to marry another man. Georges Kopp, who she had met in Spain, loved her until she died, but she did not love him back. She dedicated her life to a man who cheated on her repeatedly, abandoned her at least two times, and did not acknowledge her, not even in his non-fictional writings. She was ignored and erased, and she also cancelled herself.

Caroline Criado Perez showed how women are systematically ignored and erased through hard data. In daily life, in workplaces, in health care issues, in public life, everywhere there are numbers proving that women are discriminated against systematically, like they do not exist, like they are a kind of weird man. Adequately, the book is called “Invisible Women”.

Sources:

** YOUR WORDS AND IDEAS **

By Isabella Muir | On 25 February 2026 at 15:50
Absolutely fascinating article about women, literature, and bravery, with reminders throughout that perceptions and accepted ‘norms’ need to be constantly challenged and questioned! Roughly half the world’s population is female, and yet we are often squeezed into a forgotten corner.

By Words in Ideas | On 26 February 2026 at 12:40
Thank you, Isabella! Indeed, we should read more authors like these women to realise how much of such ‘norms’ are man-made. It’s really eye-opening!

This article is part of the THE INTREPID BOOK SOCIETY series

The Intrepid Book Society is a fictional book club. Every month, a book (or more) is recommended and/or discussed according to a keyword.

Keyword: MARRIAGE | Divorce as a change of course

Photo by Björn Austmar Þórsson – Retrieved from Pexels

“Divorce” comes from the Latin word divertere, meaning “to separate”. Back in the day, this word would be used in different contexts, for example, when a river would find a fork and would be separated in two, each branch finding its own new way. It is a beautiful metaphor: a married couple reaches a fork in life and each one decides to flow in different directions. A marriage, like a river, is born and runs down a path, overcoming all kinds of obstacles. Some reach the sea together, some are divided.

The process could run very smoothly if it were not for the law. At the beginning, in Roman times, for example, people would get married and get divorced very easily. Everything was valid, even marriages between brother and sister and between two men. In reality, women were not very well regarded and their main function was to give birth to children and take care of the household (slaves would do the heavy work, though). They were also used by men (their fathers or brothers) for making alliances. They were part of the family, “property” of the owner of the household. This idea has endured over time.

“Husband” comes from the Old Norse word husbondi, a combination between hus, meaning “house”, and bondi, meaning “dweller”. Together, these words would mean “master of the house”. Thus, men were the owners of the house, while the women married to those men were responsible for managing it. It was a team work… except, women were a kind of servants, who served without pay. Love was not important, what was important was for women to provide children.

Men were in charge of their household, and also the whole society. Thus, it is no wonder that the law was written to favour them. In terms of divorce, men were given the right to treat women as they would please (all kinds of violence included) and to divorce them whenever they pleased. If women wanted to divorce men… they would have to jump through a series of hoops, get humiliated and would lose the custody of their children. And it would take ages. One river branch was definitely bumpier than the other. The book “Anna Karenina”, by Leo Tolstoy, portraits exactly how dramatic the situation could become.

Nowadays, “divorce” refers to the legal separation of a couple, the dissolution of a marriage. Couples living together but not legally married do not get divorced, they breakup. Or split. The same for couples who were not living together, actually. “Go in different directions” is an expression often used in these situations, which matches the river metaphor. Is it easier to “breakup” than to “divorce”? Maybe not. The couple in question still have to divide their shared possessions and the custody of their children, if that is the case. It can get messy, even nowadays with more balanced (but not 100%) laws.

Life is very dynamic and, like the rivers, individuals craft their own valleys. Some rivers go alone to the sea, others get together with another river, and then they separate again. Sometimes, the intersection between the rivers creates a pattern the more entangled as they come closer to the sea. Other times, rivers change direction halfway and go alone to its final destination. It all depends on what the river finds in its way. They do not have a predefined route, just adapt and react to the obstacles they encounter.

A divorce is not seen as something positive, even if only for the emotional suffering that is implied. And it is not just couples who get divorced. Today, as in the past, this word can be used when there is a separation of something that used to be together or should be together. For example: the government has divorced from its country’s reality. Here, it is implied that the government has taken a different path from its country’s population, which it shouldn’t. In this case, the situation can be dramatic.

Sources:

This article is part of the WORD CHRONICLES series

Word Chronicles are articles where the meaning of words, concepts, and perceptions are discussed.

Keyword: MARRIAGE | “Wife” in different languages

If you look for films, TV series, or books with “wife” as a keyword, you will have a lot to choose from. There are titles for all tastes. Whatever the title is, it is clear what “wife” means: a woman who has acquired a new social status after marrying. Such a woman can also be called “spouse”, although “wife” is most widely used.

So, a married woman is a wife. This “transformation” does not happen in other languages. For example, in German, a married woman is still a woman (frau). The same is true for Latin-based languages: femme (in French); moglie (in Italian); mujer (in Spanish); mulher (in Portuguese). In these languages, “wives” can also be called “spouses” in more formal contexts: épouse (in French); sposa (in Italian); esposa (in Spanish); esposa (in Portuguese). “Spouse”, and its direct translations, come from the Latin spondeo / sponsus, meaning “a promise to marry”. This word is valid both for women and men, with the appropriate masculine/feminine change.

In some film/tv series/book titles, the translation is quite straightforward. For example, “The Story of My Wife” can be translated as: “Die Geschichte meiner Frau” (in German); “L’histoire de ma femme” (in French); “Storia di mia moglie” (in Italian); “La historia de mi mujer” (in Spanish); “A História da Minha Mulher” (in Portuguese).

But things can get complicated very fast… For example, how to translate “The Good Wife”? If you translate “wife” to its usual translation as “woman”, “The Good Woman” can be either married or single. However, in this case, the fact that she is married is essential for the story. Therefore, the title has to reflect her social status. One option is to maintain the title in English and not translate it at all, which was what countries like Ecuador, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Sapin did. Another option is to change the title in some way:

In Brazil, they opted for a mix title: “The Good Wife: Pelo Direito de Recomeçar” [The Good Wife: For the Right to Start Over Again”].
In French Canada, they changed the title slightly: “Une femme exemplaire” [An exemplary wife/woman], which is very similar to the original title.
A similar option was used in Uruguay, but using the other possible word for “wife” (“spouse”): “La esposa ejemplar” [The exemplary spouse].

Changing the title entirely is another option, which was what they chose to do, for example, in the title “The Time Traveler’s Wife”. In many countries, this film was translated as “I will always love you”, focusing on time and not on the wife. This is interesting. There are many English titles like this: “The Zookeeper’s Wife”, “The Preacher’s Wife”, “The Bishop’s Wife”, “The Serial Killer’s Wife”, “The Astronaut’s Wife”, among others. Yet, in non-English speaking countries, the tendency is to choose a different title, more tuned with the story itself and not focused on the wife and whom she is married to.

“Wife” and “woman” have the same origin: Old English wif, meaning “human female”. “Wife” is connected to an expression meaning “a woman in a legal relationship” while “woman” is like a kind of “female man”. Nordic languages follow the same logic and they have the same distant origin, but have evolved differently. In French, “femme” comes from the Latin femina, meaning female, and, in the other Latin-based languages, the word originates from the Latin word mulier, meaning “woman”, especially “married woman”. “Frau” follows exactly the same logic. In Italy, “wife” can also be called “donna”, which comes from the Latin word domus, meaning “house”. Therefore, “donna” is the “mistress of the house” (her house as a married woman).

Therefore, in reality, a “woman” is a “married woman”. Unmarried women are usually called “girls”, assuming that only young women are unmarried. This is valid for the other languages here analysed. This situation is reflected in women’s titles in society: if single, they are called Miss, Fräulein, Mademoiselle, Signorina, Señorita, Menina; and if married they are called Mrs, Frau, Madam, Signora, Señora, Senhora.

We can see that the words to designate women are rooted in the patriarchal system: their destiny was to get married and take care of their home and children. Therefore, they had two statuses: girls (as children, thus, unmarried) or women/wives (married). Unmarried women were unheard of or did not make sense. Or they were witches. Or spinsters, who were not well regarded in society. Or they would become nuns. Or, at the beginning of the 20th century, they were considered hysterical and locked up in madhouses.

Nowadays, more and more women are choosing not to get married and actually having a professional career. There are those who do not marry and just get together. Therefore, the concept of “woman” in all these languages is changing. It is not equivalent to “married woman” any more and women are becoming persons by themselves, not existing as a “wife/woman” of a man. Maybe new words were needed, but we have to work with what we have…

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This article is part of the BRINGING ACROSS series

“Translation” in different languages comes or is based on the meaning of two similar Latin words which convey the idea of transferring something from A to B… “bringing across”. Every month, a translation challenge is presented according to a keyword.