Trivia / Homage to Catalonia

• Creator Backlash: Moderately. His opinions on the conflict continued to evolve after the first edition of the book was published, which led to some alterations in subsequent editions. He originally opined that the war could've been won had it been branded as a fight for revolution rather than a defense of democracy, believing it would've generated a global response and attracted more followers willing to fight. He later realized this notion was rather naive and the actual reason they lost was that the Fascists had a modern, well-equipped army while their own side simply didn't.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: Not for Orwell, but for the Spanish Civil War itself; historians generally regard the text as mostly accurate and informative but dislike how it has become the story of the war, noting that the May Days crisis was hardly the most important event of the war as Orwell makes out.
• Write Who You Know: Orwell's commander in the POUM, Georges Kopp, possibly inspired the character of O'Brien in Nineteen Eighty-Four; see this biography excerpt.