Orwell is still a hero to the left in Britain, and in many ways his reputation was formed by Homage to Catalonia. He went to Spain to document the events of the Civil War and almost immediately volunteered to fight.
To anyone of the left, the Spanish Civil War was a dark, dark time. Almost entirely because of interference from Moscow and incomprehensible Stalinist (i.e. anti-Trotskyist) dogma, the organic socialist and anarchist movements were thoroughly purged and damaged to such an extent that Franco’s victory was assured. Worse, Stalin did not learn from this mistake and ended up weakening the Soviet Army so much that he came within an inch of being defeated by Hitler.
Orwell felt the brunt of this ridiculous infighting, since he was a member of one of the proscribed organisations, the POUM. On returning from the front with a serious injury, the after effects of which would eventually kill him, he found himself plunged into a world of incomprehensible internecine street battles.
Disillusioned with the entire situation, and in genuinely mortal danger if he were to be arrested, he fled the country in disgust.
The narrative is told in Orwell’s celebrated clear journalistic style, although it is not as free of blemishes as his acolytes would have you believe (’past history’ is a tautology, for example). His style is laudable in some senses – it’s extremely easy to read – but in others one wishes for slightly more pungency; for a more stylish style in other words.
That said, Homage to Catalonia is a compelling and personal account of a desperately frustrating period in European and world history.
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