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Summary: reverberates with Orwell's passion for equality and
Review: A vivid account of Orwell's experience as a militiaman in the Spanish Civil War, "Homage to Catalonia" reverberates with Orwell's passion for equality, justice and humanity. According to Orwell himself, "The Spanish Civil War and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democartic socialism, as I understand it."The events of that chaotic period clearly influenced Orwell enormously and within the pages of "Homage to catalonia" one can find the reasons why: "I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized life--snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.--had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class- division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master. One had been in a community where hope was more normal than apathy or cynicism, where the word 'comrade' stood for comradeship and not, as in most countries, for humbug. One had breathed the air of equality. I am well aware that it is now the fashion to deny that Socialism has anything to do with equality. In every country in the world a huge tribe of party-hacks and sleek little professors are busy 'proving' that Socialism means no more than a planned state-capitalism with the grab-motive left intact. But fortunately there also exists a vision of Socialism quite different from this. The thing that attracts ordinary men to Socialism and makes them willing to risk their skins for it, the 'mystique' of Socialism, is the idea of equality; to the vast majority of people Socialism means a classless society, or it means nothing at all."
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Summary: An unacknowledged masterpiece
Review: The Spanish Civil War was the defining moment of the 1930s for most European intellectuals. The impact of Franco's attempted coup was comparable to the effect of Pearl Harbour on Americans. For the first time, an illegal Fascist attempt to seize power had been stopped in its tracks by an armed working class. For many intellectuals (like the poet W.H. Auden), the brutality and cynicism often displayed of both sides caused them to swear off politics permanently. Orwell was not one of those - however, it opened his eyes to the dangers of Stalinist Communism as well as Fascism. One can see the seeds of '1984' and 'Animal Farm' in the account of the suppression of the Catalan 'Trotskyists'(so-called) by the Communist-controlled state. This experience made Orwell what he became - a socialist who thought that state-control might solve the problems of poverty, but who feared the tyranny such state-control would bring in its wake. Orwell never seemed to decide which he believed in the more - socialism or intellectual liberty, something which made him describe himself once as a 'Tory Anarchist'. He never came up with a solution to what could be called the key problem of the 20th century, however it is the way he posed the problem that is important. As someone who is the only author in English read by every dissident behind the old Iron Curtain, his place as a defender of freedom is secure. In another sense, this is a great book about the experience of men at war - to me it is as good as any of the memoirs that have come out of Vietnam or World War II like William Herr's 'Despatches' or William Manchester's 'Goodbye, Darkness'. It can be appreciated without understanding the political background at all. Probably among the greatest of Orwell's longer works - its ranks alongside 'Animal Farm' and possibly ahead of '1984'.
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Summary: The Spanish Civil War... Live!
Review: As a Spaniard, I have been deeply impressed by this book. My grandparents, who had to struggle for life during this period of Spanish history and somehow managed to survive, had told me many tales about the unjustice, suffering and madness of this war. When I first read this book, I could feel the same fears, the same confusion, the same pain. The book is superbly written and is really entertaining, despite the sad facts that it represents. I found especially interesting the description of the Barcelona fightings, as well as the detailed account of trench war. The two appendices are very enlightening regarding the fight among the various political organizations and the evidence that the Spanish republican government was completely abandoned by the rest of Western governments (something that we Spaniards had to suffer from for almost 40 years!) This book is a must-read!
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Summary: Are you a useful idiot who still belives in socialism?
Review: I am amazed that some (many?) of the reviewers claim that Orwell remained a socialist after his experience in Spain. I guess they just think it is intellectual to say they read the book, even if they didn't (or apparently any of his other works). This is a great book of this century - do your mind a favor and read it for yourself.
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Summary: Excellent book
Review: Very well written and very entertaining. One of the best Biographies/Memoirs I have read.
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Summary: A lost classic....The real Spanish Civil War
Review: I was surprised when I heard about this title and couldn't find it at any of my bookstores..I didn't find it until I went to Blackwell's( Book heaven) in Oxford on a trip. Orwell is one of the great writers and "Homage To Catatonia" needs to get more attention. The book shows Orwell gong to Spain as a journalist but than being drawn into the Republican fight against the fascists and joins the republican side. At the time the warfare is light and Orwell almost describes fighting as a joke but as time goes on the war goes to the streets and a regime of terror is released. I won't go in big detail but the main reason this book should be read is to show the not so glorious side of the republicans( the anarchists and communists often fighted on their own side) and the faults that led to Franco's winning. Last of all for Orwell's writing and to see where he got his ideas which would lead him to his later masterpieces. I will conclude this review by repeating what Timothy Garton Ash said "Anyone who wants to understand the twentieth century will still have to read Orwell"
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Summary: This book should be required reading!
Review: At a minimum, it should be required background for any class in which Animal Farm or 1984 are taught. I'm quite serious. Orwell's first-hand experiences in the Spanish Civil War, and the in-fighting on the Loyalist side, led him to form the views of the man who wrote the more famous works of fiction. However, those who read only Orwell's fiction tend to see only a condemnation of Communism (which is, at least in this country, too readily equated with socalism). They go away with a completely distorted view of the meaning of those stories, and of Orwell's perception on life. Homage to Catalonia is the truth behind the fiction. Read it.
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Summary: The real reason the "Republicans" lost in Spain...
Review: I respect George Orwell as a man who wrote what he perceived to be the truth even when it hurt his cause to do so. This book is a prime example. In it Mr. Orwell lays clear the effort of the left in Spain to win its civil war with Franco and why it failed. Since Orwell served as a soldier on the side of the "Republic" he can explain the nature of the forces, battles and their morale. What he portrays is a situation where the COMINTERN, under Stalin's direction, seized control of the political leadership of the Republic and destroyed the movement from within by its purges and demand of ideological purity (hard to comply with when the ideology changes monthly). Stalin fought it as an internal political struggle against "Trotskyites" rather than a democratic-socialist revolution. Orwell was a democratic-socialist and placed his emphasis on the democratic side of the equation. As a result, he loathed Stalin and his actions as nothing more than fascism dressed in the robes of socialism - hence, Animal Farm. Orwell is an easy man to like as Florence King pointed out, "he is every liberal's favorite conservative and every conservative's favorite liberal." Kelly Whiting
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Summary: Still powerful
Review: I don't want to add a note of bathos after the stirring "this-book-not-only-changed-my-life-it-became-my-life"-type reviews below but I bought this book at the airport after flying back from a conference in Barcelona. I read it in one sitting and am full of renewed respect for Orwell both as a man and a writer. What a cynical and apathetic age we live in. As a Londoner I found the conclusion when Orwell returns and describes his homeland as sleeping the "deep, deep sleep of England from which nothing will wake us but the roar of bombs" incredibly moving. A text that lives.
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Summary: Testament of decency
Review: Every time that I read something by Orwell I am struck by what a magnificent writer he is, and by what an honest and generous man he must have been. Everything that Orwell wrote is worth reading, and this book might well be his best. Orwell is a master of expository prose. His writing is very richly descriptive and yet stark, simple, and lucid. For instance, he writes of his first exposure to battle in Spain: "We were near the front line now, near enough to smell the characteristic smell of war - in my experience a smell of excrement and decaying food." Orwell was the best kind of socialist: a generous man genuinely concerned about equality and about ending the exploitation of the poor. And unlike most other left-wing intellectuals of his time, he was not content to write pamphlets from the confort of peace and affluence, nor did he ever allow his politics to blind him to the reality of how the ideals of socialism were betrayed by the ambition and pettiness of many of those who put it into practice.
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