Back Orwell in Spain Save as PDF
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Brand Page
  3. Orwell in Spain
  4. Orwell in Spain
  5. Introduction
  6. Editorial Note
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. Orwell’s Journey to Spain, December 1936
  9. Extract from ‘As I Please’, 42 [The Journey to Spain]
  10. Jennie Lee to Margaret M. Goalby, 23 June 1950: Orwell’s Arrival in Barcelona
  11. Orwell in Spain, December 1936
  12. Eileen Blair to Leonard Moore
  13. ‘British Author with the Militia’
  14. Eileen Blair to her mother
  15. To Eileen Blair
  16. Extract from letter from Eileen Blair to Leonard Moore
  17. Eileen Blair to Dr Laurence (‘Eric’) O’Shaughnessy
  18. Extract from letter to Victor Gollancz
  19. Orwell’s Wound
  20. To Cyril Connolly
  21. Eileen Blair to Dr Laurence (‘Eric’) O’Shaughnessy
  22. Escape from Spain
  23. BARCELONA 13TH JULY, 1937
  24. Charles Doran
  25. Homage to Catalonia
  26. X
  27. ‘Spilling the Spanish Beans’
  28. Eileen Blair to John McNair
  29. George Kopp to Dr Laurence O’Shaughnessy
  30. Translation of letter written in Spanish by George Kopp to Lieutenant-Colonel Burillo,7 Chief of Police, Barcelona
  31. George Kopp to Eileen Blair
  32. Review of The Spanish Cockpit by Franz Borkenau; Volunteer in Spain by John Sommerfield
  33. To Rayner Heppenstall
  34. ‘Eye-Witness in Barcelona’
  35. Abstracts of Reports on the Spanish Civil War in the Daily Worker and News Chronicle, 1936–7
  36. To Amy Charlesworth
  37. To Charles Doran
  38. Unpublished Response to Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War
  39. To Geoffrey Gorer
  40. Review of Red Spanish Notebook by Mary Low and Juan Brea; Heroes of the Alcazar by R. Timmermans; Spanish Circus by Martin Armstrong
  41. To H. N. Brailsford
  42. Review of Storm Over Spain by Mairin Mitchell; Spanish Rehearsal by Arnold Lunn; Catalonia Infelix by E. Allison Peers; Wars of Ideas in Spain by Josée Castillejo; Invertebrate Spain by Josée Ortega y Gasset
  43. H. N. Brailsford to Orwell
  44. To H. N. Brailsford
  45. Review of The Tree of Gernika by G. L. Steer; Spanish Testament by Arthur Koestler
  46. To the Editor, Time and Tide
  47. To Raymond Mortimer
  48. To Stephen Spender
  49. To Geoffrey Gorer
  50. ‘Notes* on the Spanish Militias
  51. To the Editor, The Times Literary Supplement
  52. Sir Richard Rees to Orwell
  53. To the Editor, The Listener
  54. Review of Spain’s Ordeal1 by Robert Sencourt; Franco’s Rule [anonymous]
  55. Review of The Civil War in Spain by Frank Jellinek1
  56. Review of Searchlight on Spain by the Duchess of Atholl1
  57. To the Editor, Manchester Guardian
  58. To Yvonne Davet
  59. To Raymond Postgate
  60. Orwell made two copies of this summary of the article in La Flèche of 14 October 1938, by L.-P. Foucaud.
  61. Review of The Church in Spain, 1737-1937 by E. Allison Peers; Crusade in Spain by Eoin O’Dujfy1
  62. To Frank Jellinek
  63. ‘Release of George Kopp’
  64. ‘Caesarean Section in Spain
  65. To Yvonne Davet
  66. Review of Hotel in Flight by Nancy Johnstone
  67. Review of The Last Days of Madrid by S. Casado, translated by Rupert Croft-Cooke; Behind the Battle by T. C. Worsley
  68. Review of The Spanish Dilemma by E. Allison Peers; A Key to Victory: Spain by Charles Duff
  69. Extract from War-time Diary
  70. Review of The Forge by Arturo Barea,1 translated and with an introduction by Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell2
  71. Extract from letter to Partisan Review
  72. Extract from BBC Weekly News Review for India, 22 [Comparison with the Spanish Civil War]
  73. ‘Looking Back on the Spanish War’ [1942?]
  74. Proposed BBC Broadcast on the Spanish Civil War
  75. Review of Spain in Eclipse, 1937–1943 by E. Allison Peers; Behind the Spanish Mask by Lawrence Dundas
  76. Extract from ‘As I Please’, 10 [How the lie becomes truth]
  77. ‘The Eight Years of War: Spanish Memories’
  78. Review of An Interlude in Spain by Charles d’Ydewalle, translated by Eric Sutton
  79. Review of The Clash by Arturo Barea1
  80. Orwell’s Pamphlet Collection
  81. A summary of letters from and to David Astor, 4 and 5
  82. Further Reading

Mr. Duff’s book is at any rate a corrective to Professor Peers’s, even if, like some others of the Victory Books, it is a little too easily optimistic. It is a vigorous plea for support of the Spanish Republicans, both as part of the general defence of democracy and because of the strategic importance of the Spanish peninsula. When one remembers how during the past three years we have been deluged with books on the Spanish war, mainly from a pro-Government angle, it might seem that the familiar Popular Front viewpoint is hardly worth re-stating. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The policy of Danegeld is still being followed towards Franco Spain, and there is no sign that the general public grasps even now what this suicidal policy must mean. Worse still, influence has been brought to bear on the press to prevent free criticism of the Spanish question. All through the winter of 1939-40 Italy was flattered and supplied with war materials, with the result, foreseen by every thinking person, that Italy came into the war against us in the spring. It is just possible that this might not have happened if the Italian danger had been freely publicized at the time. And so also with Spain. If the ordinary newspaper-reader can be brought to understand that Franco Spain is not neutral, is venomously hostile towards England and directly under the control of Germany, then it is at any rate conceivable that our policy may be changed by force of public opinion.

Mr. Duff is certainly right in saying that we should support the Spanish Republicans. Where it is impossible to follow him is in the way he proposes to set about it. He is actually advocating that we should invade Spain through Portugal, making use of the fact that Portugal is friendly to Britain! It does not seem to occur to him that the Portuguese Government might not remain friendly if such an invasion took place.

Meanwhile, Dr. Negrín is grudgingly allowed to remain in England on condition that he ‘takes no part in politics’. Franco’s seizure of Tangier is sleekly explained away by Mr. Butler,2 and friendly talks are being exchanged with the Spanish Fascist Government at the same time as Súñer3 is in Berlin and Republicans like Zugazagoitia are being shot in jail. How to reconcile all this with a war against Fascism’ is a little difficult to see. The best hope lies in the rapid enlightenment of public opinion, and towards that Mr. Duff’s book should help. I wish it, therefore, a larger sale than on purely literary grounds it deserves.

1. In August 1939, Russia and Germany signed a Non-Aggression Pact. The countries were therefore allies from the outbreak of war in September 1939 (when both invaded Poland) until Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.