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A review by savaging
Homage to Catalonia by Lionel Trilling, George Orwell
4.0
I held myself tight as I dove into this book, all the battles and politics and men men men, and of course Orwell won't refer to his wife by any other name than "my wife." And then despite it all Orwell won me over. Mostly by being humble and confused.
Orwell went to Spain to fight the Fascists. He joined a left-wing Marxist militia which then later becomes the target of the right-wing Marxists (Stalinists). Spoiler alert: then everything is awful.
Here's his summary of his time there:
"This war, in which I played so ineffectual a part, has left me with memories that are mostly evil, and yet I do not wish that I had missed it. When you have had a glimpse of such a disaster as this -- and however it ends the Spanish war will turn out to have been an appalling disaster, quite apart from the slaughter and physical suffering -- the result is not necessarily disillusionment and cynicism. Curious enough the whole experience has left me with not less but more belief in the decency of human beings."
I really liked this edition, which takes the two 'political analysis' chapters and puts them at the end, where they don't interrupt the narrative flow (this is what Orwell wanted with later editions). I liked the foreword by Adam Hochschild but hated the bloviated introduction by Lionel Trilling.
Orwell went to Spain to fight the Fascists. He joined a left-wing Marxist militia which then later becomes the target of the right-wing Marxists (Stalinists). Spoiler alert: then everything is awful.
Here's his summary of his time there:
"This war, in which I played so ineffectual a part, has left me with memories that are mostly evil, and yet I do not wish that I had missed it. When you have had a glimpse of such a disaster as this -- and however it ends the Spanish war will turn out to have been an appalling disaster, quite apart from the slaughter and physical suffering -- the result is not necessarily disillusionment and cynicism. Curious enough the whole experience has left me with not less but more belief in the decency of human beings."
I really liked this edition, which takes the two 'political analysis' chapters and puts them at the end, where they don't interrupt the narrative flow (this is what Orwell wanted with later editions). I liked the foreword by Adam Hochschild but hated the bloviated introduction by Lionel Trilling.