Homage to Catalonia

I sometimes fear we shall never wake till we are jerked out of it by the roar of bombs.

In 1936, George Orwell volunteered as a soldier in the Spanish Civil War. In Homage to Catalonia, first published just before the outbreak of World War II, Orwell documents the chaos and bloodshed of that moment in history and the voices of those who fought against rising fascism.

His experience of the civil war would spark a significant change in his own political views, which readers today will recognise in much of his later literary work; a rage against the threat of totalitarianism and control.

About the author

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950). A renowned journalist, essayist, critic and novelist, he is best known for his novels Animal Farm and 1984, and his work remains influential to this day.