Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell

...was one of these, and Homage to Catalonia is his story of the Spanish Civil War. It begins in December 1936 when Orwell arrives in Barcelona, ready to be trained for the front line. Orwell wanted to fight Fascism desperately and he was overjoyed to find himself in Barcelona, in the middle of a revolution, where the bootblacks were equal to the generals, where people called each other "comrade" and where he could try to make a difference. To him the ...
...Perhaps curiously, I find Homage to Catalonia an uplifting book to read, joyful even. It is so open, sincere and honest. I think too that despite its age, despite the way that the story of this Spanish struggle against the fascist was soon overshadowed by the world conflict that followed, it has an enormous freshness, partly borne from that direct honesty, but also peculiar to those all-too-rare times that the best of writers choose to tell you about ...

jillmurphy 24.07.2002 (21.11.2003) · Read full review
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Review of Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell

...remained a committed socialist. Homage to Catalonia is Orwell's personal account of the war and of his entire experience in Spain as well as an ingenious political essay. The book follows a chronological narrative from Orwell's initial stay in Barcelona during his 'training', through his time on the front to his eventual fleeing of the country and political repression. There are also two appendices explaining some of the background of the various ...
...whilst he was in Spain. Homage to Catalonia is keenly observant of both the excitement and the boredom of war-I really got the feeling of sitting in the trenches or in Barcelona with the lengthy periods of boredom, just keeping yourself going followed by short bursts of terror. Orwell is uncompromising in his report of soldier life and captures a rare portrait of ordinary men on the front line. He has a keen eye for small details and this brings ...

flyingllamas 30.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell

...people are flung into jail. This is brutally honest. Homage to Catalonia is at once a joyful and heartbreaking portrayal of the war and the surrounding political machinations. It is, ultimately, a joyous affirmation of the inner strength of common people and their will to fight against insurmountable odds. ...

drewish 29.11.2004 (24.12.2004) · Read full review
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Review of Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell