After travelling to Spain at the end of 1936 with the intention of working as a correspondent for a British socialist newspaper, thirty-three-year-old George Orwell decided to join the Republican efforts to overturn Franco-s Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War. Having enrolled in the POUM militias, the young writer was soon forced to experience first-hand the hardships and dangers of trench warfare, before becoming involved in the Barcelona May Day street fighting and nearly being killed by a bullet on his return to the front line. Orwell-s initial idealistic dreams of a victorious fight against fascism were gradually tainted by doubt and disillusionment as the divisions and infighting within the Republican coalition became apparent.Part war memoir, part tract, part expos-Homage to Catalonia is a pivotal work in Orwell-s -uvre, and a key to understanding his political ideas and commitment to the socialist cause. Rejected by Orwell-s long-standing publisher, Gollancz, on political gro
