Homage to Catalonia

This is the story of one man's experiences, one man who went to Spain with an intellectual sympathy for socialist doctrine and came back after eight belief in its necessity. Because this writer is English, because he is typical of many, and because he happens to be a great writer and reporter, this book is the most exciting for readers of any book on Spain that has yet appeared. In December, 1936, Orwell enlisted in the P.O.U.M. militia and fought on the Aragon front till April, first in a Spanish company, then with the I.L.P. contingent. On leave in Barcelona during the May fighting, he gives an eye-witness account of what really happened. Then he went back to the front, was wounded, declared medically unfit, and returning though Barcelona to England narrowly escaped arrest as a counter-revolutionary! Orwell tells his story with a wealth of detail, the fighting and trench-warfare, the May confusion, the revolutionary fervour and its suppression, the political conflict, the nature of Communist policy, the role of the Anarchists, and many other things. His book is thrilling, authoritative, persuasive, not only for its first-hand material but for its elucidation and interpretation.