115 used & new from $0.59

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Tell the Publisher! I�d like to read this book on Kindle Don�t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.

The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin (New Directions Books) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Herr Norris, Herr Bradshaw, Helen Pratt (more...)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.

15 new from $6.84 98 used from $0.59 2 collectible from $15.95

Formats		Amazon Price	New from	Used from
Hardcover Available from these sellers. Published May 31, 1979	Hardcover	--	--	$23.29
	See # more hardcovers
	Show fewer hardcovers
Paperback $10.85 In Stock. Published October 28, 2008	Paperback	$10.85	$9.56	$9.00
Paperback Available from these sellers. Published June 1963	Paperback, June 1963	--	$6.84	$0.59
	See # more paperbacks
	Show fewer paperbacks
Audio, Cassette Available from these sellers. Published March 31, 1990	Audio, Cassette	--	$34.30	$2.42
	See # more audio books
	Show fewer audio books
Unknown Binding Published December 31, 1953	Unknown Binding	--	--	--
Audio, Download Offsite Link $8.21 or less with new Audible membership Available at Audible.com.	Audio, Download Offsite Link	$8.21 or less with new Audible membership

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Christopher and His Kind

by Christopher Isherwood

4.6 out of 5 stars (5) $12.89

A Single Man

by Christopher Isherwood

4.7 out of 5 stars (20) $10.85

I Am a Camera

by John Van Druten

5.0 out of 5 stars (3) $7.50

Prater Violet

by Christopher Isherwood

4.6 out of 5 stars (7) $12.44

Down There on a Visit

by Christopher Isherwood

4.7 out of 5 stars (3) $10.89

› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Christopher Isherwood was a diverse writer whose accomplishments included The Mortmere Stories (Edward Upward Series), A Single Man and a translation of The Song of God (Bhagavad Gita). But many critics hailed The Berlin Stories, the reissue of two of his best novels, as his finest. In the book, a man named Christopher Isherwood, who is and is not the author, writes a story of exile, combining the best of Isherwood's real life with the best of the life he imagined. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Collection of two previously published novels written by Christopher Isherwood, published in 1946. Set in pre-World War II Germany, the semiautobiographical work consists of Mr. Norris Changes Trains (1935; U.S. title, The Last of Mr. Norris) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939). The Berlin Stories merge fact and fiction and contain ostensibly objective, frequently comic tales of marginal characters who live shabby and tenuous existences as expatriates in Berlin; the threat of the political horrors to come serves as subtext. In Goodbye to Berlin the character Isherwood uses the phrase "I am a camera with its shutter open" to claim that he is simply a passive recorder of events. The two novels that comprise The Berlin Stories made Isherwood's literary reputation; they later became the basis for the play I Am a Camera (1951; film, 1955) and the musical Cabaret (1966; film, 1972). -- The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Paperback: 207 pages
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation; Trade Paperback Edition edition (June 1963)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0811200701
ISBN-13: 978-0811200707
Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #433,028 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#17 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( I ) > Isherwood, Christopher

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Christopher Isherwood Page

Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Herr Norris, Herr Bradshaw, Helen Pratt, Fritz Wendel, New Year, Arthur Norris, Zoo Station, Baron Pregnitz, Communist Party, Baron von Pregnitz, Red Front, Good God, Werner Baldow

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

1 book cites this book:

Jacob's Hands: A Fable by Aldous Huxley in Front Matter

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	86% buy the item featured on this page: The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin (New Directions Books) 4.7 out of 5 stars (23)
	7% buy A Single Man 4.7 out of 5 stars (20) $10.85
	4% buy Christopher and His Kind 4.6 out of 5 stars (5) $12.89
	2% buy A Coffin for Dimitrios 4.2 out of 5 stars (45) $9.86

Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

christopher isherwood(3)

british(2)

classic literature(2)

christopher(1)

drama(1)

gay interest(1)

isherwood(1)

novels(1)

the best(1)

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

23 Reviews

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The bohemia of Berlin before the Nazi menace, May 29, 2004

By	D. Cloyce Smith (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Between 1929 and 1933 Isherwood lived in Berlin and, after returning in London, he wrote the novel and the autobiographical sketches that make up this volume. Just how autobiographical these stories might be is left to the reader's imagination, of course, but they seemed to be based on German eccentrics whom the author knew and whom the reader will be unable to forget.

The novel that opens the book, "The Last of Mr. Norris" (published in 1935 in England as "Mr. Norris Changes Trains"), is a somewhat comic portrayal of a bumbling, vain double agent who wears an ill-fitting wig and operates in the sleazy underworld contested by Communist idealists and Nazi thugs. The narrator, William Bradshaw, is a British expatriate tutoring English to young Germans in Berlin--someone, in other words, a lot like Isherwood himself. He encounters Norris on a train, and they initiate an often bizarre, always uneasy, on-again, off-again friendship that propels them through drunken nights in sleazy pubs and dangerous rendezvous at Swiss ski resorts.

In the second half of the book, "Goodbye to Berlin" (published in 1939), Isherwood drops the alter-ego and presents himself as the narrator. Character sketches alternate with "diary entries" and feature an overlapping cast, and some of the minor figures from "Mr. Norris" make important cameos. The most famous story is "Sally Bowles," which later became John Van Druten's play "I Am a Camera" and inspired the musical "Cabaret."

Equally notable, however, is the homoerotic "On Ruegen Island (Summer 1931)," which recounts Isherwood living in a lakeside cabin with the effete, insecure Peter and the athletic, sexually ambivalent Otto, whose Nordic beauty seems transmigrated from an Aryan Youth poster. Otto appears again in a subsequent section called "The Nowaks," about Isherwood's schizophrenic life while sharing a crowded attic apartment with Otto's dysfunctional family. The final sketch, "The Landauers," concerns Bernhard, the presumed heir of a wealthy Jewish family who operate a Berlin department store. Bernhard's airy cynicism and adopted Eastern spiritualism thwart his business sense and ill-prepare him for the political dangers overtaking the country.

Both "Mr. Norris" and "Goodbye to Berlin" share a comic esprit eventually overwhelmed by the gravity of the Nazi menace. Together, these stories are an ode to the carefree bohemians, flappers, intellectuals, and misfits who enlivened Berlin before they were swept away by Hitler and his bullying monsters.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Memorable Look At Berlin of the 1930s: A Classic of Its Kind, August 26, 2005

By	Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Originally published as a separate volume in 1939, GOODBYE TO BERLIN includes SALLY BOWLES, which was itself first published as a separate volume in 1937. Frankly autobiographical in nature (the narrator is here given as Christopher Isherwood himself), the collection at first seems little more than a series of character portraits and random events--but as the work progresses it gathers into a dark, often disturbing portrait of Berlin as Germany drifts into the control of the Nazi party, a riot of personalities and swirl of events laced with references to national anti-Semitism and cultural xenophobia, all of it combining to invite the horrors that will cumulate in the cataclysm of World War II.

This is the heart of the book and easily it's greatest part, but it is accompanied by THE LAST OF MR. NORRIS, originally published as a separate work in 1935 as MR. NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS, a work that opens THE BERLIN STORIES. Substantial in and of itself, the short novel presents the relationship between the narrator (here given as Bradshaw) and an elderly and not quite likeable Mr. Norris--a man seemingly engaged in the import-export business but whose covert dealings will ultimate move him to betray even his closest friends. In terms of character and events the novel pales beside GOODBYE TO BERLIN, but in tone and scope it heightens the sense of a society in which anything, no matter how improbable, can happen, and it is very fine indeed.

Readers who come to THE BERLIN STORIES with the idea that they will encounter the plot of CABARET are in for a rude awakening; although the characters are similar, the stories involved are not. In the 1950s Isherwood authorized John Van Druten to dramatize GOODBYE TO BERLIN for the stage, and the result was a critically and commercially popular play titled I AM A CAMERA. Isherwood approved of the final result--but he was considerably less fond of CABARET, which presented a love affair between Isherwood and Sally Bowles as the backbone story. Isherwood, unapologetically homosexual, was outraged, telling friends that he had never had any romantic or sexual relationship with that or any other woman. Consequently, it is best to regard CABARET as a grandchild of THE BERLIN STORIES and to read Isherwood's work for its own merits rather than this connection.

And those merits are many. Throughout the entire collection, Isherwood shows a talent for creating characters that leap from the page, with the legendary Sally Bowles a case in point; his prose is also quite remarkable, an unexpected mix of the flatly direct and perceptively poetic. He writes in a style quite unlike any other author I have encountered. Many consider THE BERLIN STORIES his finest work; in any case, Isherwood's style and perspective makes it a commanding, fascinating read. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterclass in the use of the english language, April 30, 1999

By	AL (alillford@yahoo.com) (Bedford, England) - See all my reviews

Together with Evelyn Waugh, Christopher Isherwood has to be regarded as one of the most proficient writers of english this century. His ability to capture a mood, a time and a place is remarkable, his efficiency in doing so is breath-taking.

The Berlin Stories stand as a record of the seediness and more fundamental corruption of a city, a state and a people in the late 30s. Isherwood represents the impending shadow of nazism through the abdication of responsibility and self-protection of individual characters. Mr Norris, a Falstaff for the 20th Century, is half cartoon conman and half based on an actual person. His depravity and crookedness is admirable, he is technicolour amid the grey shabbiness of Isherwood's Berlin. We must also remember that this is Isherwood's Berlin and he has shaped and invented experiences to achieve an effect, the camera records, but it always lies. It is the technical brilliance of those lies that sets the Berlin Stories apart from any historical or social record that you'd care to mention.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 23 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Character Studies
The first part of this book is a seemingly fictional account of a narrator's friendship with Arthur Norris, a Berliner living on the shady side of life, leading a fascinating and... Read more

Published 3 months ago by A. Luciano

5.0 out of 5 stars Style--and plenty of it
I feel as if the contents of this novel have been thoroughly addressed. Therefore I will address one thing and one thing alone: style. Mr. Isherwood is a man with style. Read more

Published 16 months ago by B. Godin

5.0 out of 5 stars Early 1930's Revelation of Nazi Growth [T]
"The Berlin Stories" is Isherwood's division of two projects he apparently made while living and employed in the entitled city during the early 1930's. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Miami Bob

3.0 out of 5 stars Needed a break between the two stories
It took me several days to grind through "The Last of Mr. Norris." After taking a break to read another novel, I came back to Isherwood's "Goodbye to Berlin. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Marvel

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, Unacceptably Shoddy Printing
Needless to say the story is great. It's unfortunate that the publisher, New Directions/James Laughlin, couldn't be bothered to reset the type to fit the size of the page. Read more

Published 18 months ago by ultimate_question

5.0 out of 5 stars "Even now I can't altogether believe that any of this has really happened."
Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" is perhaps most famous for having inspired the stage and screen masterpiece Cabaret, but those who are looking for an exact match between... Read more

Published on May 16, 2007 by Gregory Baird

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting look at pre-war Berlin
While nowhere near as fleshed out as "Cabaret"--the film that was constructed from this and "I am a Camera," THE BERLIN STORIES are still great entertainment and a valuable look... Read more

Published on January 30, 2007 by Smitty

5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to Berlin
Forget all about Mr. Norris. He might have changed trains, but he never takes off. Goodbye to Berlin on the other hand is wonderful. Modernism at its best. Read more

Published on November 2, 2006 by J. Luig

5.0 out of 5 stars Weimar's Characters
Every reader seeks some form of entertainment or enlightenment. Whether it is the newest romance novel or the most cutting edge work of science the reader expects to finish a... Read more

Published on December 16, 2005 by Neil Cochran

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous but doomed urban microcosm
In the early 1930s the British writer Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin working as a tutor teaching English to Germans. Read more

Published on June 6, 2005 by A.J.

› See all 23 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jqOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jqOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jqOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; }

Customer Discussions

This product's forum

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Topic:

First post:

Receive e-mail when new posts are made

Prompts for sign-in

Guidelines

Active discussions in related forums

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
drama The Ultimate Erotic/Sexual Movie List	165	8 hours ago
classic literature Which is the first (or your favorite) first novel?	2	14 days ago
classic literature Where should I start with Thomas Hardy?	15	18 days ago