Homage to Catalonia sold poorly; after seeing Arthur Koestler's best-selling, Darkness at Noon, about the Moscow Trials, Orwell decided that fiction would be the best way to describe totalitarianism.
hˈɑːmɪdʒ tə kˌæɾɐlˈoʊniə sˈoʊld pˈʊɹli; ˈæftɚ sˈiːɪŋ ˈɑːɹθɚ kˈoʊslɚz bˈɛstsˈɛlɪŋ, dˈɑːɹknəs æt nˈuːn, ɐbˌaʊt ðə mˈɑːskoʊ tɹˈaɪəlz, ˈɔːɹwɛl dᵻsˈaɪdᵻd ðæt fˈɪkʃən wʊd biː ðə bˈɛst wˈeɪ tə dᵻskɹˈaɪb toʊtˌælᵻtˈɛɹiənˌɪzəm.