‘Homage to Catalonia’ is perhaps the seminal work in English about the Spanish Civil War. Written in Orwell’s admirably spare yet wonderfully evocative prose, it’s a searingly honest book, almost a rite of passage. It talks of the realities of the trenches and of the politics and of the feelings.
George Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’ was first published in 1938 and is a first-person narrative relating his personal experiences as an infantry soldier fighting on the Republican side of the conflict, from December 1936 through June 1937 in or near Catalonia and Aragon.
In December, 1936, George Orwell leaves his English home for Spain, a country in the midst of a brutal civil war. Like most international observers, Orwell sees the war in Spain as a struggle between democracy and Fascism. He volunteers to fight on the side of the Republicans (a coalition of pro-democracy, leftwing parties) against the Nationalists (a conservative, Catholic, rightwing group led by General Franco).
Upon his arrival in Barcelona, he is amazed to find that a large-scale social revolution has taken hold in the city. Communist and Anarchist flags hang on all the buildings, shops have been collectivised, and everyone treats each other with an air of perfect equality. The bourgeois, it seems, have all but disappeared, and the working class appear in complete control of the city. The atmosphere of equality and freedom that reigns strengthens Orwell’s conviction that he has made the right decision to fight for such a noble cause.
He soon joins the POUM militia, a Marxist group affiliated with the Anarchists, and is sent to the front…