Mein Katalonien. Bericht über den Spanischen Bürgerkrieg.
by George Orwell
published
May 1st 2003
(first published 1938)
by Diogenes Verlag
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binding
Taschenbuch, 286 pages
isbn
3257202148
(isbn13: 9783257202144)
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Read in March, 2008
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This is a masterpiece which brings history to life
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...more
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...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Tyler by:
Goodreads Reviewsrecommends it for: Journalists; Historians; Anarchists
If once you had walked into an egalitarian utopia of brotherhood, you could only have been in Catalonia, the sole territory on earth ever to try to implement anarchist principles. And you could only have been George Orwell.
The fight against fascism, though, first drew the English journalist into the Spanish Civil War. Homage to Catalonia details one of the most remarkable events in history -- a quest for freedom for which people all over the world came voluntarily to fight and die.
...more
The fight against fascism, though, first drew the English journalist into the Spanish Civil War. Homage to Catalonia details one of the most remarkable events in history -- a quest for freedom for which people all over the world came voluntarily to fight and die.
...more
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recommends it for:
journalists
Orwell left England in 1936 and spend six months fighting fascism in Spain - actually fighting fascism, like, throwing grenades and living in trenches, and being shot at, and crawling across 'no man's land' in the mud. He was a member of P.O.U.M., 'Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista', or the Workers Party of Marxist Unification. Orwell was not a Marxist, but a strident opponent of Franco's fascist forces. The book, like his 'Road to Wigan Pier', is a collection of Orwell's observations told...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
Anarchists, History Buffs
This is Orwell's best book. It's an inspiring account of his fight in the Catalonia region during The Spanish Civil War. Don't take my word for it just read his description of seeing the New Collectivised Barcelona for the first time...
"It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wa...more
"It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wa...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Deluded leftists.
A glimpse into a pocket of war as various conflicting powers (try to) take claim of a newly set anarchist state, following a popular uprising in 1936 Spain.
George Orwell conscientiously; and later coincidently, sets himself among the more anarchist faction (P.O.U.M), working his way through the ranks of a rag-tag organisation battling off Fascism (Franco), Communism (directed by Russia), the Nazis and British imperial interest.
Tedious and uneventful trench warfare add to the increasing p...more
George Orwell conscientiously; and later coincidently, sets himself among the more anarchist faction (P.O.U.M), working his way through the ranks of a rag-tag organisation battling off Fascism (Franco), Communism (directed by Russia), the Nazis and British imperial interest.
Tedious and uneventful trench warfare add to the increasing p...more
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Read in November, 2003
I’ve always liked George Orwell and I read Animal Farm and 1984 when I was in high school. I’m into politics, political theory (but I can’t formulate it), and ideological movements so George Orwell’s work will likely always appeal to me. I knew very little about this book going into it. I was taking a trip to Barcelona and some guidebook must have recommended it. So I bought it to read on the plane over to Spain. I really enjoyed it. There is just enough action in the book (conflic...more
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I read this book in college for a class called “Society and War.” At the time it immediately shot ahead of All Quiet on the Western Front as my favorite war book. (I’d only read a few at that point. By now I’ve read about thirty war books.) I now perceive the book as really good, but not great.
It’s great in the sense that Orwell takes a very pragmatic approach in describing the war, as opposed to the overly romanticized approach that is usually taken. He presents details in a ...more
It’s great in the sense that Orwell takes a very pragmatic approach in describing the war, as opposed to the overly romanticized approach that is usually taken. He presents details in a ...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
Literary readers, history readers, humanitarians, people who are politically jaded
As important as Animal Farm and 1984 are, Orwell was probably a better non-fiction writer than a fiction writer. In telling true events he is moved to outright explain his feelings and beliefs in perhaps less quotable, but far more important fashion than his fiction. You almost have to read his descriptions of the Spanish people in this book to truly appreciate the coldness of 1984's characters. Dealing with real people and real struggle he wrote his truly most memorable pas...more
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Read in January, 2003
very good book.
i love orwell's writing in general, and this not-as-well-known novel once again proves his ability to see things in a way that others do not.
of course, i LOVE LOVE 1984 - even it's dry, almost bleached writing style, which goes perfectly with the theme of the novel - and animal farm.
i love the idea of a journalist in the middle of war - we tend to think (should i edit that to "i think"? probably, but i've added this extra sentence so i think it can stay hah!)...more
i love orwell's writing in general, and this not-as-well-known novel once again proves his ability to see things in a way that others do not.
of course, i LOVE LOVE 1984 - even it's dry, almost bleached writing style, which goes perfectly with the theme of the novel - and animal farm.
i love the idea of a journalist in the middle of war - we tend to think (should i edit that to "i think"? probably, but i've added this extra sentence so i think it can stay hah!)...more
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Read in March, 2008
Having just read another book on the Spanish Civil War that left me a little turned off of reading it was nice to come back with this. Orwell has crafted an amazing memoir of his time in the Spanish trenches, and he pulls no punches with his side or with the fascists. After reading Trilling's preface I wasn't expecting the moments of brilliance in the book, there are certain sentences that I would kill to have written myself (I have no particular love for the idealised 'worker' as he appears i...more
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Read in January, 2008
This was the best Orwell I've read by far had to give 1984 only 4 stars to note the difference). Went a long way towards explaining the West's obsession with stifling anti-capitalist movements... to the point where they allied with Stalinists to do so. The book reveals the common enemy of Capitalists and Stalinists... Anarcho-Syndicalists which to Orwell's mind offer the best hope for democracy in advanced societies. Britain held warships off the coast of Barcelona ready to pound it in the ev...more
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A great starter for anyone interested in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell intersperses a laborious historical account with his own experiences at the front. Schooling yourself on the Spanish Civil War is a daunting task unless you're gassed up on some mythical Anarchist grandfather tales (differentiating the political parties alone is tougher than keeping track of the characters in The Brothers Karamazov)but Orwell gives you just enough personal to whet your appetite for the political, and visa ve...more
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Read in January, 1967
recommends it for:
People Who Love The English Language
When the ridiculous and dishonest 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' is moldering and forgotten 'Homage To Catalonia' will still be read. Orwell is the most honest writer of the 20th century. His bleak, stark prose is more effective than the flashy stylists that were more popular at the time. His account, first of the endless trench warfare and then of the fighting in Barcelona as the Stalinists purged the anarchists encompasses the true story of what happened in Spain during the Civil War. This is not a...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
anarchist history buffs
I said to my friend Stephanie that this is a "boys book." She laughed and said, "I am glad that a highly literate person can classify something as a boys book" (kind of like how I also called some art I saw "weird"). I really like his explaination of the political situation in Spain, but I care less about the fighting, mud and guns. I think people should read it to get a picture of what war is like and how absurd it is (okay, there's a lot of books to speak to th...more
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Read in February, 2001
recommends it for:
History lovers and journalism fans
Book-length journalism is the hamburger steak of Orwell diet. It doesn't present with elegance, but if you like the taste it won't matter. Homage to Catalonia is a near diary of Orwell's volunteer service with the Republic of Spain against Franco's fascist nationalism.
The Spanish Civil War has been called "the dress rehersal for WWII", but Orwell's perspective reveals both the special accent of its warfare and the universality of its language. He is famously not alone, as Hem...more
The Spanish Civil War has been called "the dress rehersal for WWII", but Orwell's perspective reveals both the special accent of its warfare and the universality of its language. He is famously not alone, as Hem...more
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Read in July, 2008
Orwell's Catalonia is a muddy, cruel, destructive place, yet he feels somehow nostalgic for it. His prose is clear and vivid as always, but in this book it feels slightly more personal than in say, Nineteen Eighty-Four. The boredom of war is conveyed here better than in any book or film I've encountered, but so is the violence. Orwell's account of being shot in the neck is brilliant and disturbing. I felt palpable relief when he and...more
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Read in December, 2007
Having enlisted and fought in the anti-fascist militia, Orwell is perhaps the only English-speaking journalist to have written cogently about the Spanish Civil War from both a worm's eye and bird's eye perspective. His chapters alternate between characteristically vivid accounts of life at the front (on the one hand), and broader analyses of the political conflict among the anti-facist parties (on the other). His account of the pro-government Communist party's acts of suppression, slander, imp...more
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This is a detailed account of Orwell's experiences in Spain during the Spanish Civil war of the 1930s. Initially, Orwell travelled from England to Barcelona with his wife only to report on the war. However, once there, he could not help getting involved, and joined the war to support the socialist government that was under siege by General Franco's fascist faction. He admired the egalitarian society and feeling of brotherhood that pervaded Barcelona at the time and felt that the Spanish had so...more
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A pretty different dispatcher of war, but also such incredible unsparing prose. Perhaps no more so than in this scene of a Republican trying to convert a Fascist with buttered toast:
"Sometimes, instead of shouting revolutionary slogans he simply told the Fascists how much better we were fed than they were. His account of the Government rations was apt to be a little imaginitive. 'Buttered toast!'--you could hear his voice echoing across the lonely valley--'We're just sitting down to butt...more
"Sometimes, instead of shouting revolutionary slogans he simply told the Fascists how much better we were fed than they were. His account of the Government rations was apt to be a little imaginitive. 'Buttered toast!'--you could hear his voice echoing across the lonely valley--'We're just sitting down to butt...more
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