Homage to Catalonia
Ratings44
Average rating4
15
Ratings44
Average rating4
Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations fighting for the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War. The war was one of the shaping events on his political outlook and a significant part of what led him to write, in 1946, "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for Democratic Socialism, as I understand it."
Reviews with the most likes.
One sentence synopsis... Orwell's eyewitness account of the Spanish civil war is an invaluable piece of his personal experience but fails to provide broad, reliable analysis of the complicated politics informing the war. .
Read it if you like... “For Whom the Bell Tolls” or “Slaughterhouse-Five”. .
Further reading... “Capital” and other political writings help to better understand the ideologies that divided Spain so deeply.
I love history, but I tend to shy
away from war narratives; I get
lost in the details about weapons
and strategies. Homage to Catalonia
is a different kind of war narrative,
the story of a man who never glamorized
war (except, perhaps, when he enlisted).
I loved the chapters about day-to-day
life. I can just see the generals and
admirals telling Orwell, “Don't tell them
that!” I found myself wanting to post
chapters to young American men I know serving
in Iraq and asking if Orwell's experiences
in the Spanish Civil War rang true for them.
Recommended.
