At the height of the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell served from 1936-1937 as a private for the POUM, the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification, an anti-Stalinist communist party. Seriously wounded in action and betrayed by the Communist Party, Orwell and his wife, Eileen, narrowly escaped arrest and returned to England in early summer 1937. Homage to Catalonia is Orwell’s moving account of his experiences during this period, capturing both his commitment to socialist ideals and his criticism of the Communists in Spain.