In 1936 George Orwell travelled to Spain to report on the Civil War and instead joined the fight against the Fascists. This famous account describes the war and Orwell’s own experiences. Introduction by Lionel Trilling.

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Homage to Catalonia

“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”     George Orwell  is one of my favourite writers.  1984  and  Animal Farm  were game-changers for me when I first picked them up at 12 years old, and they fostered an interest in politics that would stay with me for the rest of my life.  Homage to Catalonia  never quite affected me in the same way, but I decided it was time to do a reread of it as an adult. In July, I will be visiting Catalonia-- again, my first time doing so as an adult --so it seemed especially appropriate.  Orwell is a great writer, but it's just a shame that the material here is not that exciting. I found it interesting reading about how his experiences fighting Franco and the fascists during the Spanish Civil War shaped his personal and political beliefs; it's just that his extensive detailing of trench life is repetitive and largely uneventful.  The place where Orwell was stationed actually saw very little action. He describes a bunch of raggedy boys stood around shivering in the cold, smoking any cigarettes they could get hold of, and mostly just waiting for something to happen.  All Quiet on the Western Front  documents trench warfare - the filth, the cold, the rats - and it is a far more compelling account. Here, it gets quite tedious, even with Orwell's accessible and conversational style.  It's not just a memoir, though. He also attempts to explain the history of the conflict, and separate out the different groups involved. He explains how the Anarchists and Communists were in conflict with one another but were, in this case, technically on the same side against Franco. How well Orwell understands this history is not clear, and his explanation of all the political differences is rather convoluted (he packs a lot of information into a couple of chapters), especially when he turns his attention to the trade unions involved.   What it is possible to gather from the complex web that Orwell portrays is that the political landscape at this time was a complete mess. He often uses his trademark humour to comment on the ridiculousness of the war, and it was indeed a ridiculous situation. I did some outside reading on the Spanish Civil War, and it is easy to see why Orwell's two chapters of background info are lacking. It was such a complex conflict that had in part been building for close to a hundred years.  One of my favourite aspects of the book - and, in truth, probably why I like Orwell quite a lot - is that he never really portrays any person as his enemy. His enemy remains fascism throughout. He speaks highly of those he meets and claims that while his memories of Spain were "most evil" he had “very few bad memories of Spaniards.” He was, as far as I can tell, a humanist. And in the midst of all that chaos, that was no small thing.   Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  Youtube

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