Editions

The Berlin Novels

  • Imprint: Vintage Classics

  • ISBN: 9780749397029

  • Length: 512  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 32mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 352g

  • RRP: £12.99

The Berlin Novels

Christopher Isherwood gives fascinating insight into pre-war Berlin.

MR NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS
The first of Christopher Isherwood's classic 'Berlin' novels, this portrays the encounter and growing friendship between young William Bradshaw and the urbane and mildly sinister Mr Norris. Piquant, witty and oblique, it vividly evokes the atmosphere of pre-war Berlin, and forcefully conveys an ironic political parable.

GOODBYE TO BERLIN
The inspiration for the film Cabaret and for the play I Am a Camera, this novel remains one of the most powerful of the century, a haunting evocation of the gathering storm of the Nazi terror. Told in a series of wry, detached and impressionistic vignettes, it is an unforgettable portrait of bohemian Berlin, a city and a world on the very brink of ruin.

  • Imprint: Vintage Classics

  • ISBN: 9780749397029

  • Length: 512  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 32mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 352g

  • RRP: £12.99

Reviews

  • Isherwood is one of the great mythmakers of his time. The Berlin Novels are masterpieces, funny, darkly innocent explorations of a world Berlin in the Thirties that is now as firmly in the past as Pompeii

    Observer

  • Mr Norris Changes Trains is a masterpiece in comic portraiture

    Guardian

  • In Mr Norris Changes Trains, Isherwood sketches with the lightest of touches the last gasp of the decaying demi-monde and the vigorous world of Communists and Nazis, grappling with each other on the edge of the abyss

    Sunday Telegraph

  • Reading Goodbye to Berlin is much like overhearing anecdotes in a crowded bar while history knocks impatiently at the windows.

    Guardian

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Christopher Isherwood

Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was one of the most celebrated writers of his generation. He left Cambridge without graduating, briefly studied medicine and then turned to writing his first novels, All the Conspirators and The Memorial. Between 1929 and 1939 he lived mainly abroad, spending four years in Berlin and writing the novels Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin on which the musical Cabaret was based. He moved to America in 1939, becoming a US citizen in 1946, and wrote another five novels, including Down There on a Visit and A Single Man, a travel book about South America and a biography of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. In the late 1960s and '70s he turned to autobiographical works: Kathleen and Frank, Christopher and His Kind, My Guru and His Disciple and October, one month of his diary with drawings by Don Bachardy.

Christopher Isherwood

Related articles

/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2020/june/Main-WhatToRead-50s.jpg

Recommendations

20 books everyone should read before they're 50

From novels about parenting to making love last, here are some great books to read in your forties.
/content/dam/prh/articles/archive/chrisanddon.jpg

Features

Releasing The Animals: bringing Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy's relationship to life

Katherine Bucknell edited The Animals, a collection of Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy's love letters. She charts the journey to bringing them to life in a podcast starring Simon Callow and Alan Cumming

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.