Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14095 in Books
• Published on: 1980-10-22
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Amazon.com
"I wonder what is the appropriate first action when you come from a country at war and set foot on peaceful soil. Mine was to rush to the tobacco-kiosk and buy as many cigars and cigarettes as I could stuff into my pockets." Most war correspondents observe wars and then tell stories about the battles, the soldiers and the civilians. George Orwell--novelist, journalist, sometime socialist--actually traded his press pass for a uniform and fought against Franco's Fascists in the Spanish Civil War during 1936 and 1937. He put his politics and his formidable conscience to the toughest tests during those days in the trenches in the Catalan section of Spain. Then, after nearly getting killed, he went back to England and wrote a gripping account of his experiences, as well as a complex analysis of the political machinations that led to the defeat of the socialist Republicans and the victory of the Fascists.

From AudioFile
Homage to Catalonia is a triumph. The book lends itself to audio, not just because of Orwell's clear, reflective reporting on the Spanish Civil War, but also because of his superb descriptive powers. The observational passages leave the listener with lasting impressions of Spain and the Spanish character, and indeed the character of the war itself. Frederick Davidson makes a fine reader. He sounds convincingly as Orwell might have sounded, even to the occasional use of French-accented Spanish pronunciation. The audio presentation adds a new dimension to a text which is required reading for any student of the Spanish Civil War. A.D.H. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Autobiographical account by George Orwell of his experience as a volunteer for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, published in 1938. Unlike other foreign intellectual leftists, Orwell and his wife did not join the International Brigade but instead enlisted in the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista; POUM). The book chronicles both his observations of the drudgery of the daily life of a soldier and his disillusionment with political infighting and totalitarianism.

Customer Reviews

If It Weren't Orwell, It Would Be Five Stars
This is one of the most complete and well-thought-out reports of the Spanish Civil War written in the English language. Considering the importance of international fighters in the war (debatable, but certainly in a political sense, noteworthy), and the effect of the war on socialist myth in the latter half of the 20th century, it is a book not to be missed by anyone interested in either World War II, modern socialism, communism, and/or anarchy, Spain, or George Orwell.

The personal narrative was wonderful and typically vivid Orwell. His complaints about the politics going on behind the scenes, however, were sometimes dull. He admits (repeatedly) that he is biased and perhaps does not know all of what is going on. However, after reading _The Battle for Spain_, I got the sense that his complaining was actually very revealing from an historical perspective.

I read _Homage to Catalonia_ and then _The Battle for Spain_ to get a basic idea about the Spanish Civil War, which I had previously known mainly through punk-rock songs and revolutionary anthem anthologies. I wish I had read them the other way around, though. Although I think this book is indispensable for English-speaking people to understand the Spanish Civil War, it is also a narrow view and very biased (as most works on the subject are). If it were anyone else, my expectations would be lower and I would probably have given it five stars. But compared to other Orwell works (including _Down and Out_) I would give it four.

Homage to Catalonia
A European with some sense of history (i.e. the preconditions of our present life) cannot do without reading this book.

Homage to Catalonia: Reality Swats Myth
The Spanish Civil War has long been a myth-like legend of the inherent good in man unifying to fight against the inherent evil. Orwell exposes how the petty impulses of humanity undermined the leftist coalition of communists and anarchists, leading to internecine struggles which brought ideological cousins to take the blood of one another, something that history shows to have led to the defeat of the Spanish resistance to fascism and the rise of Franco's state. It is a lesson that should be learned by today's leftists who neurotically mimic the same stupidity, pitting Trotskyists against Stalinists, and Communists against Anarchists. Historically, the greatest enemy of the far left has been the far left itself. Perhaps if more leftists read this book, they would resist these petty impulses?

Orwell's book is clearly written and conveys with clarity the images of war and human folly. It is a moving story of personal sacrifice and disappointment. It proved to be as prophetic about the future of Europe as 1984 proved to be prophetic about our own time. I would recommend this book for all ages.