Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply Brilliant , 6 Dec 2006
This book is truly essential reading for anyone interested in the Spanish Civil War, or for that matter anyone with an interest in war, Communism, Socialism, Anarchism or in Literature. Orwell's account of the Spanish Civil War is more than just a brilliant account of life in a civil war, it is a first hand account of the horrors of Stalinism, and Orwell's experiences in Spain explain why he later wrote his best known works, 1984 and Animal Farm, to warn of the dangers which he knew so well.
The book starts out recounting Orwell's experiences of arriving in Spain as an eager volunteer wanting to help fight Fascism. He is shocked to discover the disorganisation and inefficiency of the Republican militias. The book then goes on to give a telling account of the boredom of trench warfare, where the naïve Orwell wants to be able to kill at least one Fascist to do his part in the struggle for freedom, but ends up mainly having to contend with lice, rats and the freezing weather.
This alone might make for an interesting read, but the book really comes into its own in the latter chapters, where Orwell describes the struggle going on within the Republican controlled region of Spain. A wounded Orwell returns to Barcelona, where the Stalinists who have seized control of the government turn on their political rivals. Orwell is well placed to describe the May fighting between the Stalinist police who wish to enforce state control and the idealistic anarchists who want to defend their revolutionary gains.
Following the government victory, Orwell's small political party the POUM is made a scapegoat for the fighting and is outlawed. A stunned Orwell is forced to go on the run from the very Republic for which he had been so willing to risk his life. This makes for a damning indictment of totalitarianism that is still capable of gripping and infuriating the reader generations after the events described. Orwell shows that he is one of the finest writers in the English language, and this is probably his finest work, deserving to be read by all.
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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why did it take me 31 years to read this, 24 Jul 2003
No, I am not that slow a reader. I have a confession. I tend to prefer fiction, am sceptical about autobiographies and cringe at travelogues. Quite simply I nearly fell off my perch reading this book. I picked up Homage to Catalonia after reading Anthony Beevors history of the Spanish Civil War. I cannot emphasise how much enjoyed these books. Beevor is interesting and educational...I learnt a lot. Orwell...wow! Lucid, vivid, charmingly naive (and aware of it). Ultimately beautiful. Ever wonder why Barcelona has Placa George Orwell? Read this an find out. Read this book to find out what REAL anarchists stand for (actually read both Orwell and Beevor.
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33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Informative on all fronts except the conjugal, 22 Jan 2003
I first read Homage to Catalonia in the final year of my degree course as required reading for a course on the Spanish Civil War. Orwell's account is well written, descriptive and remarkably fair handed. It also scores over most other accounts as it is written entirely from his own experiences and is a useful counter to academic studies. For a newcomer to the topic the acronyms he bandies around are bound to be confusing, not even an entire chapter on background quite gets around this problem. However this follows from the confusing nature of the subject matter itself rather than Orwell's handling of it. Orwell had the fortune, or misfortune, to be in Barcelona during the May Days when the Stalinists in the Republican Government turned against their own. It is Orwell's experiences here that prevent this from being merely a routine exercise in decrying the horrors of war. His scathing account of the Stalinist Terror in Spain was the reason this book was long ignored by the European Leftist intelligentsia, as yet unprepared to come to terms with the moral failings of the Soviet Union and prey to Soviet propaganda. So successful was Soviet propaganda in this respect in the west that the history of the Spanish Revolution remained largely unwritten until the 1970s. Orwell was one of the very few to buck this trend (see also Borkenau, "The Spanish Cockpit") and was vilified as a result.
Homage to Catalonia is a homage to the anarchist revolution, "the first time I had seen a town where the working class where in the saddle" and a requiem for its inevitable darkening and ultimate overthrow. For those who see the war in terms of communism/liberalism versus fascism he provides a much needed balance. Infact there is very little about fascism in this account as it did not impinge directly on Orwell's experience at all. There is also much that is either humorous or strange in this book as befits an account of a time when communists were ruling in the name of the middle classes. In order to evade the secret police Orwell must sleep rough like a beggar but spend his days in restaurants and cafes like a respectable bourgeois gentleman. There is also a marvellous scene where the dreaded secret police ransack his house but are far too gentlemanly to kick his wife out of bed so leave it untouched. Which leads me to my major question with the book. What on earth did Mrs Orwell make of it all? She was clearly a loyal women following her husband at every turn but we never even find out her name. Some more personal comment on her role might have been nice but I guess Orwell isn't really writing that sort of a book.
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