Bright Young Things discussion

A while ago the first book I read by Christopher Isherwood was a film script collaboration with Aldous Huxley when they were both living and working in Hollywood, Jacob's Hands: A Fable, which was never used and forgotten. A lot of other scripts and ideas never saw the light of day and are now lost. Luckily Jacob's Hands: A Fable was discovered in a trunk by Sharon Stone in 1997.

Next I read Mr Norris Changes Trains which is excellent, and then straight onto a book which is a unique approach to an autobiographical novel, Down There on a Visit.

Here are two excerpts from Down There on a Visit.

[And now before I slip back into the conversation of calling this young man 'I', let me consider him as a separate being, a stranger almost, setting out on this adventure in a taxi to the docks (he was off to Germany pre WWII). For, of course, he is almost a stranger to me. I have revised his opinions, changed his accent and his mannerisms, unlearned or exaggerated his prejudices and his habits. We still share the same skeleton, but its outer covering has altered so much that I doubt if he would recognise me on the street. We have in common the label of our name, and a continuity of consciousness; there has been no break in the sequence of daily statements that I am I. But what I am has refashioned itself throughout the days and years, until now almost all that remains constant is the mere awareness of being conscious. And that awareness belongs to everybody; it isn't a particular person.
The Christopher who sat in that taxi is, practically speaking, dead; he only remains reflected in the fading memories of us who knew him.]

[I stood looking out over that vast dazzling sea of ice, and a Voice asked me: Which will you be? Choose. And I said: Help me to choose. And the Voice asked: Do you want Love? And I said: Not at the price of Service. And the Voice asked: Do you want Wealth? And I said: Not at the price of Love. And the Voice asked: Do you want Fame? And I said: Not at the price of Truth. And there was a long silence. And I waited, knowing that it would speak again. And at last the Voice said: Good, my Son. Now I know what to give you -
"You have everything before you, Christopher. Love hasn't come to you, yet. But it will. It comes to all of us. And it only comes once. Make no mistake about that. It comes and it goes. A man must make himself ready for it; and he must know when it comes. Some are unworthy. They degrade themselves and are unfit to receive it. Some hold back from receiving it - call it pride, call it fear - fear of one's own good fortune - who shall judge? Be ready for the Moment, Christopher. Be ready -"]

^ Down There on a Visit sounds interesting Greg - the reviews are quite mixed but most seem to find something in there to recommend it


Greg wrote: "Next I read Mr Norris Changes Trains which is excellent..."

It's looking good for Mr Norris Changes Trains in the BYT February 2016 group fiction read poll...

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

At the time of writing....

Mr Norris Changes Trains 6 votes, 60.0%
Ann Veronica 2 votes, 20.0%
The Haunted Bookshop 1 vote, 10.0%
Riders of the Purple Sage 1 vote, 10.0%



Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood

Mr Norris Changes Trains (published in the United States as The Last of Mr. Norris) is a 1933 novel by the British writer Christopher Isherwood. It is frequently included with Goodbye to Berlin, another Isherwood novel, in a single volume, The Berlin Stories. Inspiration for the novel was drawn from Isherwood's experiences as an expatriate living in Berlin during the early 1930s.

After a chance encounter on a train the English teacher William Bradshaw starts a close friendship with the mildly sinister Arthur Norris. Norris is a man of contradictions; lavish but heavily in debt, excessively polite but sexually deviant. First published in 1933, Mr Norris Changes Trains piquantly evokes the atmosphere of Berlin during the rise of the Nazis.

Sadly, it's not looking quite so good for Christopher and His Kind by Christopher Isherwood which would probably make a brilliant companion read….

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

At the time of writing...

Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul 4 votes, 36.4%
Christopher and His Kind 3 votes, 27.3%
The People of the Abyss 3 votes, 27.3%
Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him 1 vote, 9.1%




Christopher and His Kind by Christopher Isherwood

Originally published in 1976, Christopher and His Kind covers the most memorable ten years in the writer's life-from 1929, when Isherwood left England to spend a week in Berlin and decided to stay there indefinitely, to 1939, when he arrived in America. His friends and colleagues during this time included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and E. M. Forster, as well as colorful figures he met in Germany and later fictionalized in his two Berlin novels-who appeared again, fictionalized to an even greater degree, in I Am a Camera and Cabaret.

What most impressed the first readers of this memoir, however, was the candor with which he describes his life in gay Berlin of the 1930s and his struggles to save his companion, a German man named Heinz, from the Nazis. An engrossing and dramatic story and a fascinating glimpse into a little-known world, Christopher and His Kind remains one of Christopher Isherwood's greatest achievements.

A major figure in twentieth-century fiction and the gay rights movement, Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) is the author of Down There on a Visit, Lions and Shadows, A Meeting by the River, The Memorial, Prater Violet, A Single Man, The World in the Evening, and many more.

Talk of Christopher Isherwood reminds me that I really must read this book that has been n my shelf for a very, very long time:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...

^ World Within World: The Autobiography of Stephen Spender by Stephen Spender does indeed look very interesting Rosin.


I suspect it would be another tip top group read should we ever get round to reading and discussing it together

Virtually from its first appearance in 1951, this book was considered one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to have come out of the 1930s and 40s. In writing it the author was concerned with the themes of love, poetry, politics, the life of literature, childhood, travel and the development of certain attitudes towards moral problems. He relates these personal themes to the background of public and private events in this period of his life. This book provides an intimate and deeply felt commentary on the relationship between literature and politics in England and Germany during these years. In the course of the book there are portraits of Virginia Woolf, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Lady Ottoline Morrell, W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and others.

Picked up a copy quite some time ago, I've read bits of it, but didn't get around to properly reading it. When I've finished the Tristram Hunt book I'll read it.

Nigeyb wrote: "Sadly, it's not looking quite so good for Christopher and His Kind by Christopher Isherwood which would probably make a brilliant companion read…."

We could always read a few Christopher Isherwood books and talk about them here!

^ Yes indeed Ruth


That said, I'll probably renominate Christopher and His Kind if it misses out for Feb 2016 - especially if Mr Norris Changes Trains prevails, as looks likely

Not for the first time, or the last, I must doff my cap to Greg. Let me tell you BYTers you are in for a treat when you get round to reading Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood. There’s plenty to discuss and, despite only being about 35% through it, I come away resolved to read The Man Who Was Norris: The Life of Gerald Hamilton by Tom Cullen, the book about the real life Norris, Gerald Hamilton.

Not sure that I've read this one. Will add to reading list.

I have just finished reading...





"Mr Norris Changes Trains" by Christopher Isherwood

The first book I have read by Christopher Isherwood since my teens back in the 1970s and I was delighted to discover it was every bit as good as I had remembered. I now eagerly anticipate our fiction group read in February 2016. It’s a captivating novel about a duplicitous friendship and set against the backdrop of a country in turmoil.

Click here to read my review

4/5

Having thoroughly enjoyed "Mr Norris Changes Trains" it feels oh so right to plough straight on with "Christopher and His Kind" which I hope will give me new insights into both Berlin in the 1930s and also the events related in "Mr Norris Changes Trains"....



"Christopher and His Kind" by Christopher Isherwood

Originally published in 1976, Christopher and His Kind covers the most memorable ten years in the writer's life-from 1929, when Isherwood left England to spend a week in Berlin and decided to stay there indefinitely, to 1939, when he arrived in America. His friends and colleagues during this time included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and E. M. Forster, as well as colourful figures he met in Germany and later fictionalized in his two Berlin novels-who appeared again, fictionalized to an even greater degree, in I Am a Camera and Cabaret.

What most impressed the first readers of Christopher and His Kind was the candor with which Christopher Isherwood describes his life in gay Berlin of the 1930s and his struggles to save his companion, a German man named Heinz, from the Nazis.

An engrossing and dramatic story and a fascinating glimpse into a little-known world, Christopher and His Kind remains one of Christopher Isherwood's greatest achievements.

Roll on February 2016

Roisin wrote: "Picked up a copy (of "World Within World: The Autobiography of Stephen Spender" by Stephen Spender) quite some time ago, I've read bits of it, but didn't get around to properly reading it. When I've finished the Tristram Hunt book I'll read it."

I notice you've now started "World Within World: The Autobiography of Stephen Spender" by Stephen Spender Roisin. How's it going? Any nuggets about Christopher Isherwood? Or his time in Berlin?