Present Books Conducive To The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin (The Berlin Novels #1-2)
| Original Title: | The Berlin Stories: Mr Norris Changes Trains / Goodbye to Berlin |
| ISBN: | 0811200701 (ISBN13: 9780811200707) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | The Berlin Novels #1-2 |
| Setting: | Germany Berlin(Germany) |
Christopher Isherwood
Paperback | Pages: 401 pages Rating: 4.03 | 10416 Users | 540 Reviews
Identify Regarding Books The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin (The Berlin Novels #1-2)
| Title | : | The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin (The Berlin Novels #1-2) |
| Author | : | Christopher Isherwood |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 401 pages |
| Published | : | June 1st 1963 by New Directions (first published 1945) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Short Stories. Historical. Historical Fiction. Cultural. Germany. Literature. LGBT |
Description To Books The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin (The Berlin Novels #1-2)
A classic of 20th-century fiction, The Berlin Stories inspired the Broadway musical and Oscar-winning film Cabaret.
First published in the 1930s, The Berlin Stories contains two astonishing related novels, The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin, which are recognized today as classics of modern fiction. Isherwood magnificently captures 1931 Berlin: charming, with its avenues and cafés; marvelously grotesque, with its nightlife and dreamers; dangerous, with its vice and intrigue; powerful and seedy, with its mobs and millionaires—this is the period when Hitler was beginning his move to power. The Berlin Stories is inhabited by a wealth of characters: the unforgettable Sally Bowles, whose misadventures in the demimonde were popularized on the American stage and screen by Julie Harris in I Am A Camera and Liza Minnelli in Cabaret; Mr. Norris, the improbable old debauchee mysteriously caught between the Nazis and the Communists; plump Fräulein Schroeder, who thinks an operation to reduce the scale of her Büste might relieve her heart palpitations; and the distinguished and doomed Jewish family, the Landauers.Rating Regarding Books The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin (The Berlin Novels #1-2)
Ratings: 4.03 From 10416 Users | 540 ReviewsCriticism Regarding Books The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr Norris/Goodbye to Berlin (The Berlin Novels #1-2)
Mr Norris Changes Trains is somewhat like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes turned inside out in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes the narrator Dr. Watson assists a genius private investigator and in Mr Norris Changes Trains the narrator William Bradshaw assists a vulgar shady operatorOpposite me, in a big arm-chair, sat Arthur, with a thin, dark, sulky-looking girl on his lap. He had taken off his coat and waistcoat and looked most domestic. He wore gaudily-striped braces. His shirt-sleevesExcellent account of author's experience in Weimer's Germany & the start of Hitler's reign.I find a lot of my books after hearing about them on OTR, generally when I hear the book adaption presented on these older radio shows. I was first introduced to Christopher Isherwood this way & had no idea that he wrote the book behind the the theatrical "I Am a Camera" (1951) & Cabaret Broadway musical (1966) & film (1972). "Prater Violet" was portrayed on OTR but I decided on "The Berlin
Now that I'm no longer reviewing 200 contemporary novels every year for the CCLaP website, 2018 has been giving me a chance to go back and read a lot of classic books I've never gotten around to reading before; in January, for example, I finally took on what's now known as The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood, which started life as the two short novels The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin, which aren't actually novels at all but rather collections of related short-story-style
I first read this book thiry years ago, being most concerned with the Sally Bowles/"Cabaret" connection, and loved it. Upon re-reading it again so many years later, I can appreciate it even more. It's a wonderful book. Isherwood is a marvelous writer, and he gives us an invaluable opportunity to time travel back to the last days of the Berlin of the Weimar Republic, with its "divine decadence," its joyful sexuality, its economic and political unrest, and its odd innocence before Hitler seized
As a teenager, I was knocked out by this book. I recently reread it, this time while actually visiting Berlin. Sure enough, the stories echo eerily with the bloody history the city has recently acknowledged with various museums and monuments. As literature, I was relieved to discover the novels hold up and the characters remain as lively as ever. GOODBYE TO BERLIN is more elegantly constructed and satisfying than THE LAST OF MR NORRIS, but the two books work beautifully together as a diptych.
The Berlin Stories is a collection of two Isherwood novellas set in Berlin in the early 1930s. While enjoyable and "light," both stories have great depth because they contain an almost hidden background of Hitler's rise to power.While I enjoyed the first novella (Mr. Norris Changes Trains) for its characterization and rather unexpected ending, it is the second novella I love. In Goodbye to Berlin, Isherwood masterfully uses dialogue to tell the story of the lively, erratic, optimistic Sally
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
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