Homage to Catalonia

Homage to Catalonia

  • by George Orwell
  • Narrated by Frederick Davidson
  • 8 hrs and 25 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
4.31 (359
Ratings.
)

Publisher's Summary

In 1936, George Orwell went to Spain to report on the civil war and instead joined the P.O.U.M. militia to fight against the Fascists. In this now justly famous account of his experience, he describes both the bleak and the comic aspects of trench warfare on the Aragon front, the Barcelona uprising in May 1937, his nearly fatal wounding just two weeks later, and his escape from Barcelona into France after the P.O.U.M. was suppressed. As important as the story of the war itself is Orwell's analysis of why the Communist Party sabotaged the workers' revolution and branded the P.O.U.M. as Trotskyist, which provides an essential key to understanding the outcome of the war and an ironic sidelight on international Communism. It was during this period in Spain that Orwell learned for himself the nature of totalitarianism in practice, an education that laid the groundwork for his great books Animal Farm and 1984.

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What the Critics Say

"[A] triumph.... The audio presentation adds a new dimension to a text which is required reading for any student of the Spanish Civil War." (AudioFile)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

Excellent book, marred by narration

It goes without saying that an Orwell book comes recommended, and HOMAGE TO CATALONIA is indeed a fascinating account of the politics and lived experience of the Spanish Civil War. But the narration, while not the worst I have heard on audible, detracts from the overall experience. He fails to convey the irony and bemusement of the text, and as others have remarked, the accent doesn't sound right.
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- Kirby

A must for all who respect Orwell

I've always had a profound respect for Orwell and both 1984 and Animal Farm greatly influenced me when I read them for the first time in my teens. I had always intended to read Homage to Catalonia but I'm in my 40's and just now got around to this great work. If you want to understand Orwell you must read/listen to this book. As much as I respect Orwell, I've always profoundly disagreed with his anarchist/socialist political beliefs. This work has greatly helped me to understand his political beliefs and to reconcile 1984 & Animal Farm with these beliefs.

Regarding the narrator, this is the second book I've listened to narrated by Frederick Davidson (Quo Vadis was the other) and I find him very hard to take. His snobbish--bordering at times on effeminate--British accident is a real turn off to my ear. I find it very hard to believe Orwell spoke anything like this and the irony of the anarchist/socialist anti-bourgeois Orwell having his first hand account of his experience in the Spanish Civil War being narrated by such a voice is pretty hard to take. On the positive side, even though the British accent is pretty strong, the narrator is very understandable to an American ear so I quickly found myself ignoring the accent as I became engrossed in the work.
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- Thomas Phelan

Book Details

  • Release Date: 03-19-2009
  • Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
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