The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris & Goodbye to Berlin

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The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris & Goodbye to Berlin

4.02 of 5 stars 4.02 · rating details · 3,743 ratings · 222 reviews

The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin make up this 1945 reissue of Christopher Isherwood's finest novels. Both are set in 1930s Berlin during the rise of Hitler. Based in part on the author's experience as an English tutor in Germany, each one is a theatric mélange of fact and fiction, a rousing and provocative intersection of history and fantasy. The Last of Mr. No

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Paperback, 398 pages

Published February 1st 1988 by New Directions Publishing Corporation (first published 1945)

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Oct 10, 2009 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is composed of 2 previously separately published stories: THE LAST OF MR. NORRIS which the author Christopher Isherwood, dedicated to his long-time friend W. H. Auden and GOODBYE TO BERLIN which was the basis of the play I AM A CAMERA and CABARET starring Liza Minnelli. I know some lines in that song but I had no chance of seeing neither the movie nor the play.

I bought this book at Fully Booked Greenhills at its full price (less than US$20) at postponed reading it for sometime. When On...more This book is composed of 2 previously separately published stories: THE LAST OF MR. NORRIS which the author Christopher Isherwood, dedicated to his long-time friend W. H. Auden and GOODBYE TO BERLIN which was the basis of the play I AM A CAMERA and CABARET starring Liza Minnelli. I know some lines in that song but I had no chance of seeing neither the movie nor the play.

I bought this book at Fully Booked Greenhills at its full price (less than US$20) at postponed reading it for sometime. When Ondoy struck, it also got wet from rain coming from window. So, when the typhoon left, I started reading this right away. The reason I bought this book is that it never showed up in any Booksale outlets have been visiting since the start of the year. Also this is in the 501 MUST READ BOOKS and among the TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST AMERICAN NOVELS OF THE 20TH CENTURY.

It was a good buy. I made the right decision of buying and reading this book. The fact that this book was written by CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD, who they say is perhaps the first major openly gay writer to be read extensively by a wider audience, gives my reading a different flavor. At first, I was expecting this to be similar to the gay memoir book I read last month, AMERICA'S BOY by Wade Rouse with Holocaust as a background for a dramatic impact. However, the gayness of the stories were limited into those characters being described as in a way that a gay would probably describe a man: detailed and with emphasis on the masculinity, etc. Also, the holocaust or the rise of Herr Hitler only came to the last 40 pages of the book specifically in the GOODBYE TO BERLIN. In other words, how ISHERWOOD presented the stories was totally different that what I would say most readers would expect. In short, this is not formulaic.

I am rating this with only 4 stars though because I was not amazed by the first story, THE LAST OF MR. NORRIS. The main protagonist, Mr. Norris was a stupid pathetic man. I could not understand how would he allow his secretary Schmidt harass him to no end. Can he just kill him? However, the second story, GOODBYE TO BERLIN was just brilliant! The character of Sally Bowles was like a clown-prostitute and her being naive and gullible is endearing (unlike the character of Mr. Norris in the first story). However, the character that I really enjoyed was Natasha especially in the scene where Christopher and Nastasha were dining in Natasha's home together with her family. I laughed and laughed at their banters particularly on the number of books that Christopher sold.

The last few pages of the second story were haunting as it describes Berlin during the rise of Adolf Hitler. It narrates what happened to the main main male characters, i.e., a Jew like Bernhard, a Nazi like Rudi, and himself Christopher, a communist. Each of those characters seems to dramatize to the reader how was Berlin during the rise of Adolf Hitler. With a number of Holocaust books I have read so far, this one gave me an idea what happened before Hitler killed the Jews. It added a star to my rating.

I have another book by Christopher Isherwood in my MARKED TO READ folder: his autobiography LIONS AND SHADOWS and I will read it when I need to have a gay perspective in my wonderful world of books.

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Mar 11, 2008 Tutti rated it 4 of 5 stars

The collecting of short stories/ charachter reflections by an aspiring writer, ex-pat, English teacher is a familiar account of adaptation and cross-cultural investigation although is set in one of the most fecund periods in modern history.
A chronicle of Berlin in 1932- 34 and the precursory atmosphere that would lead into the offical sanctioning of genocide which was the establishment of Nazi Germany.The works are diary excerpts and accounts of interactions with accquaintances published retrosp...more

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Mar 14, 2009 Lenoir rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, memoirs

I have to clarify with my 3 star rating that this is an average because it is really two different books in one. The first one is The Last of Mr. Norris. If I were reviewing that one alone I would have given it only 2 stars. It is about a man (the author I presume but he used a pseudonym) who rents a room in a flat in Berlin (early 1930s, pre-Hitler) and runs around with communists. He gets involved with Arthur Norris who is a very likable criminal with a fondness for dominatrixes. It's a nice s...more

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Jul 26, 2007 Kevin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Isherwood's own thoughtful, gentle, fallible nature, which the reader understands and idnetifies with immediately, stands in haunting contrast to the ominous changes taking place in Berlin during his stay there (1930-1934). For me, at least, the novel brings home--in a deeply personal way--how uncertain the political outcomes were as late as 1932; and then, how swiftly and crushingly the tides shifted. It also gives names and personalities to people--Nazis, communists, politcal know-nothings, an...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Sketchbook rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ishyvoo was at the Right place (or izzit: Wrong place)
at the right time. BBC-tv's newest, "Christopher and His Kind,"
is combo of the 2. A curio--.

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Jul 22, 2012 Ms.pegasus rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in German culture

Recommended to Ms.pegasus by: other books I've read about 1930's.

Shelves: memoir, nonfiction, history

THE BERLIN STORIES is a composite of two works, the short fictional work, THE LAST OF MR. NORRIS, and the autobiographical fragment, GOODBYE TO BERLIN. I confine my review to the diaries.

Christopher Isherwood turns an unflinching eye on Berlin from 1930-1933. It is a diary of his stay and the cross-section of society he encounters as he roams between his lodgings in a claustrophobic hovel to the hedonist dens around the city. Both the people and the scenery are described with such magnification...more THE BERLIN STORIES is a composite of two works, the short fictional work, THE LAST OF MR. NORRIS, and the autobiographical fragment, GOODBYE TO BERLIN. I confine my review to the diaries.

Christopher Isherwood turns an unflinching eye on Berlin from 1930-1933. It is a diary of his stay and the cross-section of society he encounters as he roams between his lodgings in a claustrophobic hovel to the hedonist dens around the city. Both the people and the scenery are described with such magnification of detail the reader is both repulsed and mesmerized. With the wisdom of hindsight, we become convinced we are witnessing the tipping point in the year 1930.

The most memorable character we meet is Sally Bowles. Barely 20, she lives off the allowance sent by her parents who believe she is traveling with a girlfriend. Though not a native Berliner, this glamorous bit of cafe life floatsam entertains us with her emotion-charged fantasies. In his landlady's parlor, Isherwood recalls: “Sally told some startling lies, which she obviously for the moment half believed...” It is a life that celebrates ephemeral gaiety without thought of any consequence at a time when the political climate is filled with nothing but consequence.

Another memorable character is Bernard Landauer, the serious and reticent cousin of one of Isherwood's student. Landauer is a jew, a prominent manager of Landauer's department store. He is a puzzle to Isherwood, at once both reserved and warmly hospitable. When he confides that he has been receiving death threats, Isherwood voices all the usual politely soothing words. Bernard reflects fatalistically: “The Nazis may write like schoolboys, but they're capable of anything. That's just why they're so dangerous. People laugh at them, right up to the last moment....” (p.179) This was in the spring of 1932. By May of 1933 we learn he is dead. Our shock and regret is as much from the way we learn about it as the event itself. Isherwood overhears the gossip of two Austrians in Prague. “'He's dead....Heart failure!' The Austrian shifted uneasily in his chair....'There's a lot of heart failure,' said the fat man, 'in Germany these days.' ….'If you ask me,' said the fat man, 'anyone's heart's liable to fail, if it gets a bullet inside it.'” (184) It's part of a conversation that's both perceptive and callous simultaneously.

Not all of the diary is riveting material. I could have done without the 1931 summer with Peter and Otto. However, it does serve as an introduction to the Nowak family Isherwood later lodges with. It also allows us to glimpse the ferrety doctor on the island who offers the unsolicited observation that Peter has a “criminal head.” His remedy is discipline. “These boys ought to be put into labour-camps.” (89). So much for the voice of “respectability.”

One final excerpt from Isherwood's lens demonstrates his ability to set a scene. “But the real heart of Berlin is a small damp black wood – the Tiergarten. At this time of the year the cold begins to drive the peasant boys out of their tiny unprotected villages into the city, to look for food and work. But the city, which glowed so brightly and invitingly in the night sky above the plains, is cold and cruel and damp. Its warmth is an illusion, a mirage of the winter desert.” (187)

Isherwood is an acute observer and fine writer. The evidence is the resonance we still feel for the characters and time he writes about here.(less)

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Feb 21, 2012 Margaret rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book has been on my "To Read List" for some time. Over the years, I've read about Germany on the eve of war (In the Garden of the Beasts, "Winds of War") and numerous books on the holocaust (Schindler's List, Number the Stars, The Diary of Anne Frank, War and Remembrance).

What I have missed, however, have been books that deal with Germany post WWI during the 20's and the early 30's before the Nazi's took hold. The dynamics in Germany during that time are fascinating. They had an explosion...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Meg rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fairly quick and easy read - none the less it was extremely interesting. These books deal with the author's life in a very bohemian Berlin during the end of the 1920s and the start of the 1930s. As such, it was a very interesting cultural read, because I am always interested in the geopolitical happenings of this era and less of the cultural happenings. So we meet a dominatrix prostitute, bisexual men and loose women and no one bats an eye - not the way I usually think of this time period. How...more

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Jan 13, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed both both stories. As with most readers, I think Goodbye to Berlin was better than The Last of Mr. Norris (which I read after The Berlin Stories). I read The Berlin Stories shortly after In the Garden of the Beasts and was hoping to get more color on Berlin during the late Weimar and early Nazi era. I think Isherwood is very good on character description and provides a sense of the living conditions his characters experienced. However, I was hoping for more on the politics of the era....more

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Nov 12, 2011 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading these is like peeking into another world. Funny, tawdry, sad, touching, frightening...Berlin circa 1930 was a tough place to be if you weren't rich, or otherwise didn't entirely fit into the confines of social norms. Isherwood's writing never really gets dull, although the Goodbye to Berlin portion of this collection slows down a bit. Even that section, which is based on real-life events, he manages to structure as he might a fictional narrative.

At first I was tempted to say it was the c...more

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Nov 03, 2011 Tommy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is split into two separate "books" with the second being more of a collection of short stories with overlapping characters and timelines.

Sally Bowles, who shows up in the second book, is by far the most engaging character in the book and truly a joy to read with an energy and laissez faire attitude seen in few characters. The closest parallel I can think of would be Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Apparently the real life woman Sally Bowles was based upon was not nearly as frivol...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Vikki Marshall rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Isherwood includes two stories in this compilation of his life in Berlin from 1929-1933. In “The Last of Mr. Norris” we meet the quirky and flamboyant character Sally Bowles (later adapted into Liza Minnelli’s part in “Cabaret”) she is one of many nonconformists that reside with Isherwood in a cheap boarding house. Berlin becomes its own character, a charming city of complex political changes with a shady and immensely hungry nightlife. At the heart of the story is the secretive and scheming Mr....more

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Sep 09, 2010 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mr. Isherwood's famed views of life in early thirties Berlin, to a great extent autobiographical, done in two books: The Last of Mr. Norris, and Goodbye to Berlin. To me, a mixed bag. I found The Last of Mr. Norris somewhat boring; one wonders how anyone could have kept company with such a pathetic human being as Mr. Norris. After a hundred plus pages of keeping company with him, without much else going on, it all becomes a little tiresome. So, why didn't Mr. Norris become tiresome to Mr. Isher...more

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Jul 13, 2010 Rhonda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, modern-fiction, politics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have long postponed reading Christopher Isherwood for some odd reason or another. I think it was because I never really discovered that there was a lot of attention given to them in book discussions over the years. Nevertheless, I have learned what I was missing.
I have always been fascinated by Berlin, mostly because it has always seemed a bit out of the ordinary. Germans themselves are an odd combination of pure rigor and gaiety, something which doesn't make much sense until you experience it...more I have long postponed reading Christopher Isherwood for some odd reason or another. I think it was because I never really discovered that there was a lot of attention given to them in book discussions over the years. Nevertheless, I have learned what I was missing.
I have always been fascinated by Berlin, mostly because it has always seemed a bit out of the ordinary. Germans themselves are an odd combination of pure rigor and gaiety, something which doesn't make much sense until you experience it. One day they are yelling at you about leaving the wrong waste can by the driveway or not cleaning your windows and the next day they are inviting you for a beer or some schnapps.
Still Isherwood's Berlin is the one which gave us Cabaret and the first thing I noticed, this after four selections, is that only "Berlin Stories" was well named. Other than this, he had, apparently no talent for naming his books. Even when they were altered, as for the American market, they were less than satisfying titles.
For example, the Last of Mr. Norris would seem to be a story about the demise of a man, but it isn't. Nor does this character disappear forever. Still it is a lovely novel about Isherwood's relationships, closely paralleling his diaries of the early 30's. I enjoyed the story about the politics most, discussing early flirtations with communism, despising the heavy handed tactics of the Nazis, the surprisingly ineffective right wing conservatives. It was strange to see this and then oddly see the Nazis rise to power even after the communists held power briefly.
I found the underworld gaiety mildly interesting, although one gets the feeling that there was quite a bit more of illicit sex than is described. While we are treated to some mild S&M, fetishism and even hints of homosexuality, one gathers that Isherwood himself was more involved than he indicates. It isn't that he doesn't make it subtly clear he is a rump ranger, but that he appears to be one of the most naive persons on the planet, combined with a stubborn streak the size of Vermont. I never understood why he was doing anything, apart from trying to please a friend. It all seemed very restrained.
As a result, one never gets quite why the title character is doing anything: he is merely present and fills in the scenes but it is maddening to read about someone with commitment issues of any kind AND less passion about anything happening around him. Perhaps the title of his play, I am a Camera , suggests what he may have been all about. Simply put, while all the other characters are somewhat vibrant and real, the narrator is dull as dishwater. He gives English lessons and does translations, but that's about it. He is interesting around others but never seems interesting in and of himself. Hence while the book is fascinating in its insight to the era, it lacks the dimension to make it truly a good read.
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Nov 16, 2012 Esther rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was browsing at the massive Newberry Library used book sale a couple of summers ago and picked this up out of the pile. Oh Christopher Isherwood, hmm always meant to get round to trying him out. As I dithered the man browsing next to me said 'Oh god those stories are fantastic, you have to get that. In fact I'll buy it for you if you want.' Well before you raise an eyebrow, he was probably in his 70s and the books were priced at 50 cents each. But well with such a heartfelt endorsement I had t...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Bryan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 100-all-time-novels

I have finished my first book of 2011, or is it my first two books? The Berlin Stories is two books combined into one; The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye Berlin. While the two are not directly linked, they do have a common narrator, boarding house and landlady (all the essentials to a great story).

Book one follows the narrator (presumably the author) on a trip from his native England, on the train, to Berlin, where he shares a berth with the odd, yet intriguing Arthur Norris. The story explores...more I have finished my first book of 2011, or is it my first two books? The Berlin Stories is two books combined into one; The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye Berlin. While the two are not directly linked, they do have a common narrator, boarding house and landlady (all the essentials to a great story).

Book one follows the narrator (presumably the author) on a trip from his native England, on the train, to Berlin, where he shares a berth with the odd, yet intriguing Arthur Norris. The story explores their relationship in inter-war Berlin where they become involved with the local communist party, while Hitler and the Nazis rise to power in the background. Arthur Norris is simply a great character. I liked him, but wasn't sure why, and I loathed him for the same reasons. I found him inexplicably interesting and mysterious, and didn't know what to make of him until the end. At times he seemed as if he would fit right into a Le Carre spy novel, while at other times he seemed as if he could double for Willy Loman. Add a little political intrigue into the mix and you get quite a story.

The second book follows a bit of a different format. While it still revolves around the same narrator, almost all the supporting characters are different. The second book reads more like a diary or journal, with six different entries, each about people the narrator spends him time with in Berlin. Most famous of these is no doubt Sally Bowles, who Liza Minnelli won an Oscar for portraying in "Cabaret," but there's also his relationship with Peter and Otto, a gay couple struggling with their relationship in a soon-to-be-Nazi-run Germany, and Natalia Laundauer, a wealthy Jewish heiress, who's family isn't prepared for the fate we all know now they must have met. Like Arthur Norris from the first story, the characters in the second book are so well written and developed. They all at times seem oddly likable, but strangely repugnant.

I'm torn as to what to think of this book. When I finished reading, my first thought was no doubt that I had enjoyed reading it, but when I look back, I'm not exactly sure why. The first story was quite interesting, especially as the two get more and more involved with the communist party, all while Hitler is rising to power, but the second story didn't really have any story, nor any conclusion. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy the second half, it just didn't seem to have any real point. As I mentioned earlier, it was more a series of diary entries, which when I think about it, is exactly how it was intended. I've always thought that a great story is what make me enjoy a book, but here the story wasn't the best part, rather it was the characters and the setting, both so well written, I couldn't help but get wrapped up in the period.

But I think what I enjoyed the most was the writing style. More Hemingway than Woolf, Isherwood writes more like a storyteller, and less like a psychiatrist. Instead of 'philosophical introspection' (a term I once saw used to describe boring, modernist novels like To the Lighthouse), he uses a more direct style of prose; describing the character and their actions, instead of their inner thoughts about their actions or other characters. Combine this with his interesting characters, and Isherwood gave me an excellent read.

It was also interesting to read this book, knowing what was to happen in Germany and the world in the years following its publication. When published in 1935, although the Nazis were in power, the war was yet to start, the world was unaware of the atrocities that were to occur. While many of the characters in both books doubt war will ever happen, the narrator is less certain, predicting not only war, but ethnic mass murder. If only Neville Chamberlain had thought that way, things might have turned out very differently.

You can read my other reviews at http://readingalltimenovels.blogspot....(less)

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Apr 11, 2013 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: most readers

Recommended to Holly by: seeing the movie "Caberet"

Shelves: favorite-fiction, fiction

Christopher Isherwood's writing is truly lovely, rich with empathy for characters but not sentimental, neither overwrought nor vapid. His Sally Bowles, while somewhat stereotypically drawn as the damaged naif, is deservedly the best loved character in "Goodbye to Berlin". Her inability to love whilst longing to be loved, her kindliness and offhand cruelty, her essential sadness and silliness all serve to make her familiar even as we are repulsed by her. 'Goodbye to Berlin' is essentially Isherwo...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Sabrine Faragallah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Reading this book was part of my secret desire to travel back in time to my Freshman year at college, where we were asked to read The Berlin Stories prior to our orientation week. I have a fairly good memory of the books I have read in my life dating back to middle school, but for some reason, I had a hard time remember reading this one…

Now, 17 years later it was bittersweet to read the thoughts and emotions of the young and impressionable Bradshaw, who we understand to be Isherwood, in “The Las...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Dusty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

Dear Mr. Isherwood, how is it that we haven't before been introduced? Unlike several other reviewers, I actually adored both novels assembled in this volume. In fact, I may even slightly prefer the oft-panned The Last of Mr. Norris, for although Mr. Norris is obnoxious, his narrative coheres in ways that Goodbye to Berlin does not (and it provides a better glimpse of dear Frl. Schroeder). Of course, I don't mean to knock Goodbye, either, for it's a lovely array of vignettes with some exceedingly...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Lord Beardsley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read2011

The first time I read this was about ten (!!!) years ago, when I was in my late-teens/early 20s. I had just seen 'Cabaret' for the first time, pined after living a life as divinely decadent as Fraulein Sally Bowles, and wanted to further revel in it. Even though I considered myself well-versed in double entendres involving gay shennanigans, I think I missed half the meaning of most of this book.

Re-reading this again with a queer sub-text as well as a much more informed background knowledge of Is...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Liz rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: time-s-top-one-hundred

The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood.

I'm desperate to finish "Time's Top One Hundred Books" This only being only the 23rd I've completed, and unfortunately it is hard to find many of the listed. This one, I had to bargain for. I had to fight my way to get my hands on the ONLY copy in the province thanks to library rules. But I got it, and I'm so happy to say I did.

The Berlin Stories is actually two novels in one : Goodbye to Berlin & Mr Norris Changes Trains.
Both are set in Berlin, du...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cambridge-classic-book-club

I fell in love with Isherwood earlier this year when I read "A Single Man." So I couldn't resist when the book club chose The Berlin Stories. Even though I was vastly overcommitted I did it anyway. And I'm glad.

It's not as dark as so much pre-WWII writing is. That's because most pre-WWII writing was written post-WWII and takes a look at the oncoming darkness head-on. With Isherwood it really seeps in so slowly you don't notice.

It is a very youthful book, full of the kind of blase naivete that is...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Teresa Esteban rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brit-lit, interwar-period

I read this book because I knew Cabaret was inspired on "Goodbye to Berlin" and also after watching the movie "Christopher and His Kind".
This book gives an overview of Berlin during the early 30's. What's interesting is that it was written during that period (first published in 1935) and not form the eyes of a German, but an Englishman. I think this is quite paramount, as most of the time a outer witness can provide with a more impartial description of events.
In some of the stories Isherwood de...more

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Sep 07, 2007 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

These stories of prewar Berlin were so finely wrought that I couldn't put them down. Largely through the device of his autobiographical protagonist, Isherwood tells about the people who inhabit his rooming house and through them sketches all the stresses and tensions of the end of the Weimar Republic. Part of this work became the basis for the musical "Cabaret"

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Sep 04, 2011 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, british

I took this to Berlin with very high hopes--perhaps too high--for a wonderfully romantic portrait of ex-pat life in the 20th-centruy heyday of Berlin that would enlighten and enrich my experience. Well, I was let down. Isherwood seems to think that the wild world of Berlin alone can carry a story (which, admittedly, is what I was thinking too when I picked it up), but it's not so. Far too realist for my tastes. I would've been better off reading Isherwood's diaries, or even just watching Cabaret...more

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Apr 13, 2011 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although Mr Norris Changes Trains does have a linear narrative, Goodbye to Berlin is just a collection of random events and characters. Both books really go nowhere, but it's a pretty enjoyable journey getting there! They are written in simple, yet evocative language, so you can really "see" the characters and places. However, the main character in both books is so annoying; a totally blank personality-free observer, with the occasional bout of peevishness. He describes Nazi beatings with the sa...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Augusta Carolina Maria rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: berlin-buchgemeinschaft

I really enjoyed the character development in this book. One of Isherwood's strengths is his ability to describe people who are so very different from himself and provide the reader with a clear sense of who these people really are. I found myself really caring about what happened to them and it was interesting to see his opinion of some of the characters change over time.

Isherwood also gives one a sense of what life was like and what people's concerns were during this era. It is a combination o...more

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Aug 31, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Of course the biggest draw for The Berlin Stories is Sally Bowles, the character that ended up being the crux of Bob Fosse's Cabaret. It's a credit to Minnelli and Fosse because she was written exactly how she is portrayed in the film. It's also realized that I've known quite a few Sally Bowles in my life.

But there is so more than just that in The Berlin Stories. In fact, Sally is only in about 15% of the novel. What we do get amazing character studies like Fräulein Schroeder, who is so well wr...more

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Jul 28, 2009 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Berlin Stories are really two books in one, and should be treated as such -- The Last of Mr. Norris is a fully-formed novella, and probably deserving of four stars, I thought; Goodbye to Berlin reads more like a disjointedly charming, charmingly disjointed set of diary entries. It's impossible to talk about either without mentioning Cabaret, and though I'm not staking out a stance on the evocative powers of books vs. movies, I think I prefer my Weimar Germany with a little more Joel Grey and...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Rachelheavers rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Felt like I needed to add this to my list. Disappointing. Abortions, homosexual relationships, prostitution and sexual ambiguity were all hugely scandalous when this was written. But. In 2012 it all seems kind of pedestrian. Very well written characters, but his style us more journalistic than insightful. The whole time I was reading these stories, lyrics from Cabaret were running through my mind and I couldn't imagine the main protagonist as anyone other than Michael York.
Thank you mr. Isherwo...more

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About Christopher Isherwood

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 t...more 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 literary mentor and partner in an intermittent, casual liaison, as Auden sent his poems to Isherwood for comment and approval. Through Auden, Isherwood met Stephen Spender, with whom he later spent much time in Germany. His first novel, All the Conspirators, appeared in 1928; it is an anti-heroic story, written in a pastiche of many modernist novelists, about a young man who is defeated by his mother. In 1928-29 Isherwood studied medicine at King's College London, but gave it up after six months to join Auden for a few weeks in Berlin.
Rejecting his upper-class background and attracted to males, he remained in Berlin, the capital of the young Weimar Republic, drawn by its reputation for sexual freedom. There, he "fully indulged his taste for pretty youths. He went to Berlin in search of boys and found one called Heinz, who became his first great love."

In 1931 he met Jean Ross, the inspiration of his fictional character Sally Bowles; he also met Gerald Hamilton, the inspiration for the fictional Mr. Norris. In September 1931 the poet William Plomer introduced him to E. M. Forster; they became close and Forster served as a mentor to the young writer. Isherwood's second novel, The Memorial (1932), was another of his stories of conflict between mother and son, based closely on his own family history. During one of his returns to London he worked with the director Berthold Viertel on the film Little Friend, an experience that became the basis of his novel Prater Violet (1945). He worked as a private tutor in Berlin and elsewhere while writing the novel Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and a series of short stories collected under the title Goodbye to Berlin (1939). A memorial plaque to Isherwood has been erected on the house in Schöneberg, Berlin, where he lived.

During these years he moved around Europe, living in Copenhagen, Sintra and elsewhere, and collaborated on three plays with Auden, The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935), The Ascent of F6 (1936), and On the Frontier (1939). Isherwood wrote a lightly fictionalized autobiographical account of his childhood and youth, Lions and Shadows (1938), using the title of an abandoned novel. Auden and Isherwood travelled to China in 1938 to gather material for their book on the Sino-Japanese War called Journey to a War (1939).

Having visited New York on their way back to the UK, Auden and Isherwood decided to emigrate to the United States. He met Gerald Heard, the mystic-historian who founded his own monastery at Trabuco Canyon that was eventually gifted to the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Through Heard, who was the first to discover Swami Prabhavananda and Vedanta, Isherwood joined an extraordinary band of mystic explorers that included Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell, Chris Wood, John Yale and J. Krishnamurti. He embraced Vedanta, and, together with Swami Prabhavananda, he produced several Hindu scriptural translations, Vedanta essays, the biography Ramakrishna and His Disciples, novels, plays and screenplays, all imbued with the themes and character of Vedanta and the Upanishadic quest.

At the age of 81, Isherwood died in 1986 at Santa Monica, California from prostate cancer.

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