Edition: First Paperback Edition
Binding: Paper
Publisher: Magnum Books, London
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780417027005ISBN:0417027001
Description: Very Good+ in Paperback. No Dustjacket. 4 x 7" A solid copy; ----------SATISFACTION GUARANTEED---------FAST, COURTEOUS SERVICE------ read more
Description: 1st edition. 339pp, 8vo. VG+/NF. Hardcover in DJ. Gray cloth, spine a little cocked (slanted). Ends of spine lightly bumped, affects book and DJ. Otherwise clean and tight, no chips or tears, no creases, no markings. read more
Edition: 1st ed.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux, New York
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780374312565ISBN:0374312567
Description: Book: Good. DJ: Very Good. 8vo. 339 pp. 5 3/4 x 8 1/2. Gray cloth covered boards, stamped in silver on spine. Spine is slightly cocked. Light wear. Glossy gray dj, very lightly worn. read more
Edition: First Edition, 1976
Binding: Hardbound Clothbinding
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, New York
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780374312565ISBN:0374312567
Description: Good in Good jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Inscription (Previous Owner's Name) 339 pp. Clean, unmarked pages. Dj shows minor wear. Binding slightly loose. Slightly cocked spine. read more
Edition: 1st Thus
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Discus/Avon, New York, New York
Date Published: 1977
Description: Very Good. No Jacket ( As published) Collectible. 4 1/4" x 7" 340 pp, browning, but clean and very lightly used. Light crease on spine. Front wrap features a drawing of Isherwood's tortured face by Don Bachardy. The book is tight & straight. Called "A brillian literary memoir by 'the best prose writer in English'" by Gore Vidal. A very nice collectible. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Cloth Covered Boards/Hard Back
Publisher: Eyre Methuen, London, UK
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780413371300ISBN:0413371301
Description: Book Good + Dustjacket Very Good. Ex-Library. 9 1/2" Tall. 252 pages. Dustjacket has some wear to spine-ends & corners. Tapes marks to boards. Flyleaf slightly wrinkly and remnants of pasted in library sheet, a few small library stamp. Contents clean & tidy. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Magnum, London
Date Published: 1978
ISBN-13:9780417027005ISBN:0417027001
Description: Very Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. 252pp. Paperback, small piece clipped from fep, otherwise in very good condition. 'Writing at a distance of nearly forty years from the earlier 'Christopher', Isherwood has succeeded in evoking a comically harassed figure in a tragic decade. ' read more
"I enjoyed this book as another snapshot of Berlin in the late 20s & 30s, Isherwood is amusing in his description of others and his own style of writing. Still, I am unsure if I like him as a writer. But W.H. Auden, whom he was close to, is one of my poetic heroes and Isherwood shares insight into Wynstan, is this book worth reading? hmmm, I think read his Berlin Stories thats a good place to start."
"Oddly enough, I read this after seeing cabaret but before reading the Berlin Novels.
It's a fascinating (partial) autobiography - at times embarrassingly, almost painfully personal and honest - but what would you expect from a skilled writer recalling life in Berlin with several other bright young literary stars at one of the most fascinating periods of its history?
The Christopher here is not the rather confused, bisexual and passive Christopher we know and love from Cabaret or the Berlin Novels. He's far deeper, far more angst-ridden, aware of his sexuality and also far more interesting in many ways. The joys of Bohemian life in Berlin with a small group of privileged and talented friends are juxtaposed to the sad and desperate realities of his relationship with a young German lover whose life seems increasingly threatened by the onset of Hitler and Nazism.
It's fascinating to read this alongside the fictional account he gives in the Berlin Novels and the even more fictionalised Cabaret film. The atmosphere and mores of contemporary Britain and America limited in some ways the plot of his novels but this tells a truer and often less flattering picture."
1. Clever switching between first and third person throughout. He'll say "I think that Christopher should have realized bla bla bla" when speaking about his current opinions and thoughts on himself in the past.
2. I had previously read "The Berlin Stories" and loved the way in which he described the "fictional" characters. In this work, he introduces them again but as actual people. It was funny to hear him admit that the girl upon whom "Sally Bowles" is based is somewhat warped in his memory, because of the version of her in the book, the version of her in the play, the version of her in the movies, and all of the actresses who have played her. No one is any less interesting, and it was good to meet the narrator of the stories- Isherwood was always very careful to leave himself (and mainly his homosexuality) out of the stories in order for the reader to better relate to him and the action.
3. There is very little plot, which some might have a problem with. The main action of the book is Isherwood traveling with his lover all over the world for several years, avoiding the oncoming war with Germany. The characters all react to this imminent danger in different ways, catastrophizing or genuine bravery or ignoring it entirely.
4. If you know anything of Isherwood's biography, the last passage of the book will just kill you. Especially if you ever get a chance to see the film "Chris and Don: A Love Story". I highly recommend it."
"If I were a dessicated pedant with no life I would write an article called "Christopher Isherwood as Pioneer of Metafiction," because in this memoir of 1930s Berlin he reflects constantly on the writing of "The Berlin Stories," shifting back and forth between his real-life friends and events and the fictional characters and events they inspired. It sounds tiresome but it really works, and is even comprehensible to someone who hasn't read "The Berlin Stories."
Because Nabokov lived, worked and set almost all of his Russian novels in 1920-30s Berlin, I'm accustomed to thinking of it as his ground, but Isherwood acquits himself admirably.
The cover of this edition is rather lame, a Herbert List photograph of a scrawny teen in tighty-whities, standing contrappasto in knee-deep water. Now, I realize that publishers cannot issue a book by a gay writer without a homoerotic cover image, but come on: Herbert List has better pictures...and there's always August Sander if you want great images of German society at the time."
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