Homage To Catalonia was Orwell’s last book of non-fiction. Published in 1938, some 6 months after his involvement in the Spanish Civil War as a soldier on the side of the socialists, the book was not a big success. The initial print run of 1500 copies had still not sold out at Orwell’s death in 1950.
Two Themes of Homage to Catalonia
In essence, the book has two themes. One, Orwell’s experiences as a soldier. And secondly, how disgracefully the war was reported in the press. Falsehood after falsehood was peddled in the newspapers of the day.
Orwell is especially scathing of writers far away from the war writing blatant mistruths, having made no attempt to verify by personal experience what they wrote about. Orwell himself did immerse himself in the war to really try and get at the truth of the matter, through his own eyes.
Indeed, in Homage To Catalonia he even begs the reader not to believe what he writes, but to make up their own mind. Writes Orwell:
"In case I have not said this somewhere earlier in this book I will say it now: beware of my partisanship, my mistakes of fact and the distortion inevitably caused by my having seen only one corner of the events. And beware of exactly the same things when you read any other book on this period of the Spanish war."
On the subject of bad reporting, and whipping up hatred when far from the battle, Orwell describes the paradoxical situation of the most virulent bile coming from those furthest from the fighting.
"One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting."
And again:
"The people who write that kind of stuff never fight; possibly they believe that to write it is a substitute for fighting. It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no true patriot never gets near a frontline trench, except on the briefest of propaganda-tours. Sometimes it is a comfort to me to think that the aeroplane is altering the conditions of war. Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecedented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him."
The Boredom of War
As for Orwell’s descriptions of being at war, they are a mixture of hardship, filth and boredom. He confesses to not really being exposed to any of the horrors of war, even though he is shot through the neck.
"When we went on leave I had been a hundred and fifteen days in the line, and at the time this period seemed to me to have been the most futile in of my whole life."
Guiltily, Orwell describes his motives for leaving Spain.
"But my motives were mainly selfish. I had an overwhelming desire to get away from it all; away from the horrible atmosphere of political suspicion and hatred, from the streets thronged by armed men, from air-raids, trenches, machine-guns, screaming trams, milkless tea, oil cookery, and shortage of cigarettes – from almost everything that I had learnt to associate with Spain."
This is not to say that Orwell saw war as necessarily a bad thing. He was given to romantic moments.
"It was like an allegorical picture of war; the trainload of fresh men gliding proudly up the line, the maimed men sliding slowly down, and all the while the guns on the open trucks making one’s heart leap as guns always do, and reviving that pernicious feeling, so difficult to get rid of, that war is glorious."
Orwell grumbles about how most of the Spanish population couldn’t give a fig about the civil war raging around them. The same thing happens in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The Proles just go about their business and are unaffected by all the horrors around them. Winston Smith works for the party, and he suffers horribly. It seems that anyone who involves themselves in politics by necessity is involved in some type of violence, as Orwell himself was. He said he promised himself he would kill a fascist during the Spanish war.
Homage to Catalonia is perhaps not the most interesting of Orwell’s non-fiction work. The political descriptions of the Spanish Civil War can sometimes be difficult to follow, and the war itself Orwell found to be boring and futile. The book is for the most part quite dry, and lacks the vitality and interest of a lot of Orwell’s other writings.
Homage to Catalonia (1938) is published by Penguin Modern Classics. ISBN:-13978-0141183053
Chris Saliba - Chris Saliba is a freelance writer. Read more of his workplace articles at chrissalibafreelancewriter.blogspot.com
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