Christopher Isherwood





Christopher Isherwood

Author profile


born
August 26, 1904 in Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire, England, The United Kingdom

died
January 04, 1986

gender
male

genre


About this author

Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed. After his father was killed in the First World War, he settled with his mother in London and at Wyberslegh.

Isherwood attended preparatory school St. Edmund's, Surrey, where he first met W. H. Auden. At Repton School he met his lifelong friend Edward Upward, with whom he wrote the extravagant "Mortmere" stories, only one of which was published during his lifetime (a few others appeared after his death, and others were summarised in his Lions and Shadows). He deliberately failed his tripos and left Corpus Christi College, Cambridge without a degree in 1925.

In 1925 he was reintroduced to W. H. Auden, and became Auden's lite...more


Average rating: 4.00 · 9,170 ratings · 918 reviews · 85 distinct works
A Single Man
4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 avg rating — 3,517 ratings — published 1964 — 28 editions
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The Berlin Stories: The Las...
4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 2,244 ratings — published 1945 — 9 editions
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Goodbye to Berlin
3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 avg rating — 909 ratings — published 1939 — 35 editions
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Christopher And His Kind
4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 avg rating — 374 ratings — published 1970 — 12 editions
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Mr Norris Changes Trains
3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 avg rating — 352 ratings — published 1935 — 17 editions
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Prater Violet
3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 avg rating — 203 ratings — published 1945 — 17 editions
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Down There On A Visit
3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 avg rating — 137 ratings — published 1962 — 10 editions
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Meeting By The River
3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 avg rating — 110 ratings — published 1967 — 7 editions
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The World In The Evening
3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 92 ratings — published 1952 — 8 editions
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Lions And Shadows: An Educa...
3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 75 ratings — published 1938 — 10 editions
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More books by Christopher Isherwood…
“A few times in my life I’ve had moments of absolute clarity. When for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh. It’s as though it had all just come into existence.
I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.”
Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man

“Think of two people, living together day after day, year after year, in this small space, standing elbow to elbow cooking at the same small stove, squeezing past each other on the narrow stairs, shaving in front of the same small bathroom mirror, constantly jogging, jostling, bumping against each other’s bodies by mistake or on purpose, sensually, aggressively, awkwardly, impatiently, in rage or in love – think what deep though invisible tracks they must leave, everywhere, behind them!”
Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man

“But now isn’t simply now. Now is also a cold reminder: one whole day later than yesterday, one year later than last year. Every now is labeled with its date, rendering all past nows obsolete, until — later of sooner — perhaps — no, not perhaps — quite certainly: it will come.”
Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man

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