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Homage to Catalonia
by: George Orwell

Off The Bookshelf's Price: $44.95

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Used Price: $23.98
Third Party New Price: $28.32

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Audio Cassette
EAN: 9780786102983
ISBN: 0786102985
Label: Blackstone Audiobooks
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
Number Of Items: 6
Publication Date: 1997-08
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Studio: Blackstone Audiobooks
Sales Rank: 1572752

Related Items:

The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939

Editorial Review:

Product Description:
In 1936, Geroge Orwell went to Spain to report on the Civil War and instead joined the P.O.U.M. militia to fight against the Fascists. In this now famous account, he describes both the bleak and the comic aspects of trench warfare. 6 cassettes.

Amazon.com Review:
"I wonder what is the appropriate first action when you come from a country at war and set foot on peaceful soil. Mine was to rush to the tobacco-kiosk and buy as many cigars and cigarettes as I could stuff into my pockets." Most war correspondents observe wars and then tell stories about the battles, the soldiers and the civilians. George Orwell--novelist, journalist, sometime socialist--actually traded his press pass for a uniform and fought against Franco's Fascists in the Spanish Civil War during 1936 and 1937. He put his politics and his formidable conscience to the toughest tests during those days in the trenches in the Catalan section of Spain. Then, after nearly getting killed, he went back to England and wrote a gripping account of his experiences, as well as a complex analysis of the political machinations that led to the defeat of the socialist Republicans and the victory of the Fascists.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Orwell ...revolutionary time capsule.
My mother spent a frightful childhood in revolutionary Barcelona near the cathedral "Sagrada Famila"...FAI(anarchist)territory. Orwell's account is extremely close to what my mother recounts.

She recounted to me the compulsory closed fist salute she had to give in front of the local church (turned party headquarters) and her frightened crawling across the kitchen floor as bullets flew between the closely billeted militas every night. A horrible period of history...the precursor to WWII.

Orwell did not let ideology hamper his account of the facts. There is more detail than dialectic materialism in "Homage".

My mother's family were secret members of the Flange who issued false costa rican visas, mostly to clergy who were forced to work in their backyard ... Read More

Rating:

- Orwell re-visited
Homage to Catalonia is Orwell at the zenith of his journalistic style--brutally candid in its description of the battlefield and the politics of the Spanish Civil War in which he participated as a volunteer foot soldier against the military insurgency. The Civil War was, of course, a prelude to WWII and while this is clearly adumbrated in Orwell's vivd descriptions of the antagonists, he could not have anticipated the future conflagration. It is a "must read" not only for those interested in the politics of the conflict but also for anyone desiring a candid insight into the plight of the combatants.

Rating:

- A Supplement and an Obituary
"Homage to Catalonia" has long passed from the shelf for current events to the shelf of primary historical sources. No one can study the Spanish Civil War without encountering it. On that basis, it's a five-star book; all primary sources should get five stars. As a reading experience, it's not without weaknesses, which the earlier review by H. Schneider examines cogently. I refer you to that review.

Today's newspapers (7-11-08) carried extended obituaries for David Smith, who died in Berkeley, CA, at age 95. Mr. Smith was one of the only 30-some veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the volunteer contingent of Americans who joined the republican cause in Spain to stop fascism before World War II. The defeat of the republican forces, due at least partly to their own turmoils ... Read More

Rating:

- Homage, Take 2: what about Aragon?
After re-reading Catalonia, some 20 years after my first encounter, I am disappointed. I do not think that this is Orwell's best work. It has many of his strengths, mainly the elegant, efficient and straightforward prose that he developed so impressively, but there are some flaws. Main flaw in my view is the fact that the main political theme has become dead and irrelevant. Stalin died some decades ago, the Soviet Empire collapsed, we don't need to dig in the little details of their abominable strategies any longer. Of course we can't blame Orwell for the fact that his concerns are not ours any more. But it shows that the book was not timeless in the sense of surviving its immediate subject, as his other non-fiction did.
Second main weakness of the book: the narration of the Barcelona ... Read More

Rating:

- Might be his best work
he's realy got an amazing way of turning a phrase. if you are at all interested in the Spanish Civil War this book is a great introduction.

Books : Homage to Catalonia