Homage to Catalonia

by George Orwell, Jaron Murphy (Introduction)

Overview

In 1936 Eric Blair, a novelist, critic and political satirist known by the pseudonym George Orwell, went to Spain to write about the Spanish Civil War. This book is his eyewitness account of that conflict. Nothing written since is as moving and alive with the terrors and triumphs of that time past. Orwell battled totalitarianism through his novels ANIMAL FARM and 1984, but for immediacy and passion nothing surpasses this chronicle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781804172469
Publisher:	Flame Tree Publishing
Publication date:	01/09/2024
Series:	Essential Gothic, SF & Dark Fantasy
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	285,632
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

George Orwell, the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, was born in Bengal, India, in 1903. He was educated at Eton and became a policeman in Burma. After leaving the police, he began to investigate the poverty in India and Europe which shaped his thinking about equality, money and power. His great works, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four are a product of his hatred of totalitarianism in all its forms and he was as critical of Stalin in the 1930s as he was ready to fight Fascism in the Spanish Civil War. His legacy of writing and political thought is much admired today. He died of tuberculosis in 1950.

Dr. Jaron Murphy (Introduction) is a Senior Lecturer in Communication, Journalism and Literature at Bournemouth University. An award-winning journalist, he holds a DPhil in Literature from the University of Oxford. In 2018, he appeared on the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) list of most respected journalists following research by Cardiff University which asked journalists working in the UK and Ireland ‘which living journalist they felt most embodies the values of journalism that they respect and adhere to’. His scholarship on Orwell includes the chapter ‘Orwell the Journalist’ for the impending Oxford Handbook of George Orwell (OUP). In 2022, he was Chair of the judging panel for the UK-wide Young Journalist's Award sponsored by the Orwell Society and National Union of Journalists. The panel included Orwell's son, Richard Blair, who is Patron of the Orwell Society.
George Orwell, the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, was born in Bengal, India, in 1903. He was educated at Eton, became a policeman in Burma but suffered and studied poverty. His great works, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, are a product of his hatred of totalitarianism. His legacy of writing and political thought is much admired today.
Dr. Jaron Murphy is Principal Academic in Communication, Journalism and Literature at Bournemouth University. An award-winning journalist, he holds a DPhil in Literature from the University of Oxford. His scholarship on Orwell includes the chapter ‘Orwell the Journalist’ for the impending Oxford Handbook of George Orwell (OUP).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
Chronology
Homage to Catalonia
Explanatory Notes

Editorial Reviews

"A crucially important book. Without [Homage to Catalonia] there would have been no Animal Farm and no Nineteen Eighty-Four - works of fiction that, like the reality that preceded them, focus on the terrifying consequences of authoritarianism for the individual mind." - The Guardian

"A wise book, one that once read will never be forgotten." - Chicago Sunday Tribune

"No one except George Orwell ... made the violence and self-dramatization of Spain so burning and terrible." - New York Times

"One of Orwell's very best books and perhaps the best book that exists on the Spanish Civil War." - The New Yorker

From the Publisher

Homage to Catalonia is a triumph. The book lends itself to audio, not just because of Orwell's clear, reflective reporting on the Spanish Civil War, but also because of his superb descriptive powers. The observational passages leave the listener with lasting impressions of Spain and the Spanish character, and indeed the character of the war itself. Frederick Davidson makes a fine reader. He sounds convincingly as Orwell might have sounded, even to the occasional use of French-accented Spanish pronunciation. The audio presentation adds a new dimension to a text which is required reading for any student of the Spanish Civil War. A.D.H. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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