Goodbye to Berlin

by Christopher Isherwood

Overview

Isherwood's classic story of Berlin in the 1930s - and the inspiration for Cabaret - now in a stand-alone edition.

First published in 1934, Goodbye to Berlin has been popularized on stage and screen by Julie Harris in I Am a Camera and Liza Minelli in Cabaret. 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 was the period when Hitler was beginning his move to power. Goodbye to Berlin is inhabited by a wealth of characters: the unforgettable and “divinely decadent”Sally Bowles; plump Fraulein Schroeder, who considers reducing her Buste relieve her heart palpitations; Peter and Otto, a gay couple struggling to come to terms with their relationship; and the distinguished and doomed Jewish family, the Landauers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811220248
Publisher:	New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	09/27/2012
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	258,235
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 5.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986), perhaps the first major openly gay writer to be read extensively by a wider audience, was one of the most distinguished authors of the twentieth century. His literary friendships encompassed such writers as W. H. Auden, E. M. Forster, Stephen Spender, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Somerset Maugham.

Editorial Reviews

"Sally Bowles took center stage in the book’s musical adaptation, Cabaret, but the theatrical version can’t match the power and richness of the original."

Time (100 Best English-Language Novels of the 20th-Century)

"In Isherwood's work, a magic potion of history and invention, the voice is clear, and, no matter how many times we hear it, it always seems to be speaking for the first time."

The New York Times Book Review - Howard Moss

Brilliant sketches of a society in decay.” -- George Orwell

From the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Michael York takes full and brilliant command of these connected short stories, originally published in 1939, which were later adapted into the musical CABARET. York played the Isherwood character in the film version and would, of course, be familiar with the stories‚ setting, and atmosphere. Yet his preparation is far more than a once-starring role. He makes the script his personal property as he reads these tales about down-at-the-heels Berliners and expatriate Brits and Americans. The scene is 1930s Berlin; as Communists and Nazis pursue power in the waning days of the Weimar Republic, none of the principal characters perceive what is in store for them. York is the master of every voice--male or female, any nationality. His pacing is flawless, never too fast or too slow, as he revels in the tension of the stories without overacting. We are carried along at the pace that Isherwood would have wanted with York as the perfect vehicle. R.E.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 05 - AudioFile