Homage to Catalonia in Never too Late to Read Classics

Apr 13, 2009 Chrissie rated it liked it

Shelves: bio, spain, 2014-read, classics, history, kindle

I find the Spanish Civil War confusing. Repeatedly I am given different interpretations and different explanations of the events. I have tried to get some understanding by reading many different books. This book is another added to all the others. I have found no one book that explained it all, with a clear overview.

This book cannot be considered an explanation of this war; it was published nine months after Orwell left Spain, and so the war was still not over. He was there from December 1936 to I find the Spanish Civil War confusing. Repeatedly I am given different interpretations and different explanations of the events. I have tried to get some understanding by reading many different books. This book is another added to all the others. I have found no one book that explained it all, with a clear overview.

This book cannot be considered an explanation of this war; it was published nine months after Orwell left Spain, and so the war was still not over. He was there from December 1936 to June 1937. The book is instead about his own personal experiences - his time fighting on the Aragon front (Huesca, the Alcubierre Ridge and Monte Oscuro),his participation in the Barcelona street-fighting(May 1937) caused by internecine party conflicts, his return to the front where he was shot in the throat by a sniper and finally his hurried escape from Spain, thoroughly disillusioned with what he had seen and experienced and party politics in general. He went there to fight against the "Fascists"; he went there to fight for independence and to express solidarity with the working class. He fought with the POUM, Worker's Party of Marxist Unification which had Trotsky affiliations, but he was never interested in party politics.

Orwell makes an attempt to collect all discussion of party politics in one separate chapter (in some books an appendix). But to understand the war you have to understand the politics, so I disliked this separation. I was lucky enough to be reading on a Kindle so I could continually look up the numerous acronyms in Orwell's telling. Although the Spanish Civil War can for simplification be seen as a fight between Franco, the Fascists’ attempt to overthrow the Republican Government under Caballero, the Republicans were not a homogeneous group. They were supported by socialists, anarchists and communists, but there was fighting between these groups too and between different communist groups. Stalin and his supporting communists backed the Republicans with military aid but at the same time were fighting the Trotsky communists. Western countries had their own interests in the outcome. The political discussion is not particularly clear: Orwell does not clearly distinguish between the different communist affiliations! Still, I am glad I read the book, to learn a little bit more.

The split between the different sections of the book were for me disruptive. They read almost ad separate essays. How did I react to each? The first part depicting the front was interesting. As with all books depicting trench warfare, the combatants' real war is often more a fight against hunger and lice and rats and cold and lack of supplies and bad planning. Lack of organization was endemic in Spain. The real problem was rarely the enemy! In Barcelona we are shown an eye view of the street fighting. There is a lot of fighting in this book, and his neck wound experiences made me uncomfortable. Finally, the escape from Spain - well, it was sort of exciting.

Three stars.

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Feb 11, 2021 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it really liked it

Shelves: bios-memoirs, history, nonfiction, war, read-in-2021

I have always been fascinated by the many writers who volunteer to go into a war zone to write about it and send information into the world. And, of course, the Spanish Civil War is one war I knew nearly nothing about until introduced to it by Hemingway. So, finding this book was a happy accident, and I am inspired by Orwell's commitment to his convictions. This man was willing to fight for what he believed in.

In Homage to Catalonia we read about his experiences fighting in the war, with many ti ...more

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Jul 27, 2013 Korneel Vanhie rated it really liked it

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Orwell gives an interesting view on the Spanish civil war (of which I honestly didn't know much) with a fascinating description of it's day to day live, the politics and handling by the press.
It's a quick read with a really nice flow to it leaving you ( despite the subject ) half the time with a smile on you face :) ...more

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Jun 12, 2022 Alexander rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, history

I've always liked Orwell's books, and their influence on modern thinking, however Homage to Catalonia was something very different from something like 1984. It's a memoir of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and I pretty much read it in a single sitting on a transatlantic flight. It was very engrossing. I found his writing style to be a much more prominent part of this book, when compared to something like Animal Farm, which focuses on allegory and metaphor. I loved some of the devices ...more

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Jul 28, 2016 Mary Paul rated it really liked it

A really great book to read here in Barcelona and a fascinating book politically and historically, especially where we are in the US and Europe these days. More people should read books like this- it's not even very long, and some parts, especially the last few pages, are so haunting. A very different side of Orwell. ...more

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