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Christopher Isherwood

    26 augustus 1904 – 4 januari 1986

    Christopher Isherwood was een romanschrijver, toneelschrijver, scenarioschrijver, autobiograaf en dagboekschrijver wiens werk vaak thema's als homoseksualiteit en persoonlijke identiteit onderzocht in turbulente historische perioden. Zijn vormende jaren in Berlijn, gekenmerkt door ontluikende zelfontdekking en het politieke landschap van de jaren 1930, vormden de voedingsbodem voor zijn meest gevierde geschriften. Isherwoods proza onderscheidt zich door zijn scherpe observatievermogen en zijn onverschrokken onderzoek van menselijke relaties. Later wijdde hij zich aan autobiografie en spirituele thema's, met name zijn bekering tot het hindoeïsme.

    Christopher Isherwood
    The Animals
    Where Joy Resides
    Liberation Diaries, Volume Three
    Diaries - 2: The Sixties
    Shankara's Crest Jewel of Discrimination
    Meneer Norris neemt de trein
    • A classic text on the path to God through knowledge. The basic teaching is that God alone is the all-pervading reality; the individual soul is none other than the universal soul. According to Shankara, it is the ignorance of our real nature that causes suffering and pain. The desire for happiness is essentially a longing to awaken to who and what we truly are. Through the path of self-knowledge, Shankara clearly teaches how to awaken from ignornce created by the mind, and abide in the peace of our true nature.

      Shankara's Crest Jewel of Discrimination
      4,4
    • Diaries - 2: The Sixties

      Diaries Volume Two, 1960-1969

      This second volume of Christopher Isherwood's remarkable diaries begins on his fifty-sixth birthday, capturing the transition from the fifties to a decade of social and sexual revolution. Isherwood takes readers through the bohemian landscape of Southern California, the liberated atmosphere of London, the vibrant cosmopolitanism of New York, and the rugged Australian outback. He chronicles his spiritual quest guided by his Hindu guru and shares the emotional complexities of his relationship with American painter Don Bachardy, who is thirty years his junior and navigating his own artistic path. The diaries are filled with sharp gossip and psychological insights about cultural icons of the era, including Francis Bacon, Richard Burton, and Mick Jagger. However, they are most revealing about Isherwood himself—his literary works, film writing, college teaching, and romantic entanglements. He seamlessly connects diverse topics, from Beckett to Brando and the opening of "Cabaret" to a detailed analysis of Gide. The backdrop includes significant political and historical events: the Cold War anxieties, Gagarin's spaceflight, the Vietnam War, and the Summer of Love. Isherwood, known for his prophetic portrayals of a morally bankrupt Europe before World War II, offers an unparalleled chronicle of the decade that profoundly influences contemporary life.

      Diaries - 2: The Sixties
      4,5
    • Liberation Diaries, Volume Three

      • 928bladzijden
      • 33 uur lezen

      In the final volume of Christopher Isherwood's diaries, he reflects on aging with humor and curiosity. He explores Hinduism, writes his last works, and engages with the vibrant art scenes of the 1970s alongside his partner, Don Bachardy. The narrative captures a rich tapestry of cultural encounters amid significant historical events.

      Liberation Diaries, Volume Three
      4,3
    • Isherwood anthology that include two complete novels, PRATER VIOLET and A SINGLE MAN, and excerpts from several other works including THE BERLIN STORIES, which was the inspiration for the popular musical and film CABARET.

      Where Joy Resides
      4,2
    • The Animals

      • 528bladzijden
      • 19 uur lezen

      Don, whose portraits of London theatreland were making his name, attends the world premiere of The Innocents with Truman Capote and afterwards dines with Deborah Kerr and the rest of the cast, spends weekends with Tennessee Williams, Cecil Beton, or the Earl and Countess of Harewood, and tours Egypt and Greece with a new love interest.

      The Animals
      3,5
    • The Sixties

      • 800bladzijden
      • 28 uur lezen

      This second volume of Christopher Isherwood's remarkable diaries opens on his fifty-sixth birthday as the fifties give way to the decade of social and sexual revolution. číst celé

      The Sixties
      3,0
    • Christopher Isherwood Diaries Volume 1

      • 1104bladzijden
      • 39 uur lezen

      In spare, luminous prose these diaries describe Isherwood's search for a new life in California; his work as a screenwriter in Hollywood, his pacifism during World War II and his friendships with such gifted artists and intellectuals as Garbo, Chaplin, Thomas Mann, Charles Laughton, Gielgud, Olivier, Richard Burton and Aldous Huxley.

      Christopher Isherwood Diaries Volume 1
      4,0
    • Diaries Volume One: 1939-1960

      • 1102bladzijden
      • 39 uur lezen

      At times pious, at times profane but always unashamedly honest, "The Diaries of Christopher Isherwood" provide an inside look at the life and times of one of the most celebrated writers of the century. Chronicling Isherwood's life from 1939, when he emigrated to the United States, until 1960, these entries cover some of the most turbulent years of his career and give readers unprecedented insight into the major turning points in his life. Here, Isherwood relates the spiritual crisis he went through as World War II began, his discipleship (along with Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard) with the Hindu monk Swami Prabhavananda and his decision to become a pacifist. Here also are his accounts of his intense social life in Hollywood, his career as a screenwriter and his many sexual affairs. Readers will be particularly fascinated by his revealing anecdotes and gossip about the literary greats (such as W. H. Auden, Thomas Mann, E. M. Forster, and Tennessee Williams) and movie stars (such as Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin and Sir Laurence Olivier) of the time.

      Diaries Volume One: 1939-1960
      4,0
    • A Single Man

      • 192bladzijden
      • 7 uur lezen

      "Welcome to sunny surburban 1960s Southern California. George is a gay middle-aged English professor, adjusting to solitude after the tragic death of his young partner. He is determined to persist in the routines of his former life. We follow him over the course of an ordinary twenty-four hours. Behind his British reserve, tides of grief, rage, and loneliness surge- but what is revealed is a man who loves being alive despite all the everyday injustices."--back cover

      A Single Man
      4,1
    • Down There on a Visit

      • 368bladzijden
      • 13 uur lezen

      WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY PHILIP HENSHERBerlin, the Greek Islands, London and California. Often regarded as the best of his novels, Down There on a Visit tells the vivid stories of Isherwood's life that, together with The Berlin Novels, were to have comprised his great unfinished epic novel.

      Down There on a Visit
      4,1
    • The Berlin novels

      • 512bladzijden
      • 18 uur lezen

      Includes Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin , the inspiration for the stage and screen musical Cabaret . It is a haunting evocation of the gathering storm of the Nazi terror and a portrait of Bohemian Berlin - a city and a world on the very brink of ruin.

      The Berlin novels
      4,1
    • At a party in the Hollywood Hills, Stephen Monk finds his wife in the arms of another man. Betrayed and furious, he packs his belongings and returns to the home he was born in. But most of all, the memory of his lost love, Elizabeth Rydal, haunts him. Can he forgive his wife, and most importantly, himself?

      The World In The Evening
      4,0
    • The Condor and the Cows

      • 336bladzijden
      • 12 uur lezen

      WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PICO IYERIn September 1947, long before mass tourism and with no knowledge of Spanish, Christopher Isherwood and William Caskey left for a six-month tour of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.

      The Condor and the Cows
      3,9
    • Kathleen and Frank

      • 528bladzijden
      • 19 uur lezen

      This is the story of Christopher Isherwood's parents - their meeting in 1895, marriage in 1903 after his father had returned from the Boer War, and his father's death in an assault on Ypres in 1915, which left his mother a widow until her own death in 1960.

      Kathleen and Frank
      3,9
    • Christopher and His Kind

      • 340bladzijden
      • 12 uur lezen

      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. When the book was published in 1976, readers were deeply impressed by the courageous candor with which he describes his life in gay Berlin of the 1930s and his struggles to save his companion, Heinz, from the Nazis. An engrossing and dramatic story and a fascinating glimpse into a little-known world, Christopher and His Kind remains a classic in gay liberation literature and one of Isherwood’s greatest achievements.

      Christopher and His Kind
      4,0
    • The Sixties: Diaries, Volume 2

      • 802bladzijden
      • 29 uur lezen

      In this second volume of Christopher Isherwood's diaries, he reflects on his life at fifty-six amidst the social and sexual upheaval of the 1960s. Filled with sharp insights and gossip about cultural icons, Isherwood also addresses significant political events, offering a revealing look into both the era and himself.

      The Sixties: Diaries, Volume 2
      3,4
    • Isherwood on Writing

      The Lectures in California

      • 274bladzijden
      • 10 uur lezen

      In the 1960s, Christopher Isherwood delivered a series of groundbreaking lectures at California universities titled “A Writer and His World.” During this period, he openly discussed his craft, covering writing for film, theater, and novels, as well as spirituality. These lectures highlight a distinctively American Isherwood at a pivotal moment in his career, marking his transition from fiction to memoir. Through engaging discussions, he delves into topics such as the motivations behind writing, the elements that contribute to a great novel, and the influences on his work. Isherwood reflects on his collaborations with W. H. Auden and shares insights about his literary relationships with notable figures like E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, and Aldous Huxley. He also candidly addresses aspects of his own work not found in his diaries. This collection reveals a significant and often-misunderstood period in Isherwood’s American life, showcasing a man at ease with his sexuality, attempting to share his story in a society unprepared for it. Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) was a major figure in twentieth-century literature and the gay rights movement, known for works such as A Single Man and Down There on a Visit. James J. Berg and Claude Summers contribute their expertise to this exploration of Isherwood's life and legacy.

      Isherwood on Writing
      3,9
    • Goodbye to Berlin

      • 256bladzijden
      • 9 uur lezen

      Evokes the decadence, repression, glamour, and sleaze of Berlin in the early 1930s, depicting people at threat from the rise of the Nazis: Jewish heiress Natalia Laundauer, gay lovers Peter and Otto, and an English upper-class waif, the divinely decadent Sally Bowles

      Goodbye to Berlin
      4,0
    • Originally published in 1945, Prater Violet is a stingingly satirical novel about the film industry. It centers around the production of the vacuous fictional melodrama Prater Violet, set in nineteenth-century Vienna, providing ironic counterpoint to tragic events as Hitler annexes the real Vienna of the 1930s. The novel features the vivid portraits of imperious, passionate, and witty Austrian director Friedrich Bergmann and his disciple, a genial young screenwriter -- the fictionalized Christopher Isherwood.

      Prater VIolet
      3,9
    • A Meeting by the River

      • 160bladzijden
      • 6 uur lezen

      Breaking a long silence Oliver, a young Englishman, writes to his elder brother, Patrick. Patrick, a successful, long-married publisher, newly in love with a boy in Los Angeles, decides to visit Oliver to persuade him not renounce the world.

      A Meeting by the River
      3,8
    • In 1939, as Europe approaches war, the author, an instinctive pacifist, travels west to California, seeking a new set of beliefs to replace the failed Leftism of the thirties. There he meets Swami Prabhavananda, a Hindu monk, who will become his spiritual guide for the next thirty-seven years. This title tells his story.

      My Guru and His Disciple
      3,5
    • Beat Punks

      • 336bladzijden
      • 12 uur lezen

      Here, accompanied by dozens of unique photographs, are the very best of Victor Bockris's infamous interviews, essays, and observations on the stars of downtown Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s. The internationally acclaimed biographer Bockris was there as a witness, friend, collaborator, and co-conspirator. Some of the stars were founding members of Beat or Punk, others were just passing through. But all of them—rockers, rebels, artists, and intellectuals—revealed more to Bockris than they did to any other writer: Allen Ginsberg, Richard Hell, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Debbie Harry, William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Terry Southern, Martin Amis, and Susan Sontag. Bockris's conclusion—that Punk owed the Beats a big debt and that the Beats were in turn re-animated by the Punks—is argued from the perspective of someone who was in the thick of it, and who loved every minute of it.

      Beat Punks
      3,7
    • Mr. Norris Changes Trains

      • 192bladzijden
      • 7 uur lezen

      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.

      Mr. Norris Changes Trains
      3,8
    • Lions and Shadows

      An Education in the Twenties

      • 191bladzijden
      • 7 uur lezen

      In 1938 the legendary Hogarth Press published the first of Christopher Isherwood's autobiographical writings, Lions and Shadows. The book evokes the atmosphere of Cambridge as Isherwood knew it and describes his life as a tutor, a medical student, and a struggling writer. Above all, Lions and Shadows is a captivating account of a young novelist's development in the literary culture of 1920s Cambridge and London and of his experiences as he forged lifelong friendships with his peers W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Edward Upward.

      Lions and Shadows
      3,5
    • The Memorial

      • 272bladzijden
      • 10 uur lezen

      Set after World War I, Eric Vernon navigates the challenges of impending adulthood, caught between admiration for his heroic father and resentment towards his father's flamboyant friend, Edward Blake. With wit and irony, Isherwood's novel captures a society in transition.

      The Memorial
      3,3
    • All the Conspirators

      • 157bladzijden
      • 6 uur lezen

      In the Kensington of the 1920s - silver frames, inlaid bureaux, charming sitting-rooms - the 'conspirators', Philip and Joan, fight to throw off the oppressive power of their mother.

      All the Conspirators
      2,9
    • Letters to Christopher

      • 219bladzijden
      • 8 uur lezen

      Letters from the poet to the novelist discuss Spender's work, travel experiences, meetings with other literary figures, emotional problems, and opinions on literature

      Letters to Christopher
    • Liberation

      • 928bladzijden
      • 33 uur lezen

      Frpm Hollywood and the worlds of music and letters enter John Huston, Merchant and Ivory, John Travolta, John Voight, Elton John, David Bowie, Joan Didion and Armistead Maupin.

      Liberation
    • Bhagavad-gita: The Song of God

      • 144bladzijden
      • 6 uur lezen

      Shares a Hindu message of faith and inspiration as it discusses the purpose of war, the importance of duty, and the spiritual nature of existence.

      Bhagavad-gita: The Song of God
    • Berlínské povídky jsou souborným vydáním dvou původně samostatně publikovaných svazků, novely Konec pana Norrise a souboru kratších povídek Sbohem Berlíne. Autor v knize představuje věkově, sociálně i národnostně pestrou paletu charakterů Berlína třicátých let: záhadného noblesního hochštaplera, bohatého dětinského barona, mladoufrivolní začínající zpěvačku, všetečnou postarší bytnou, chudou berlínskou rodinu, rodinu bohatých židovských obchodníků, atd. Všechny tyto živé a plastické postavy spojuje formálně postava vypravěče, autorovo literární alter ego; postavy vstupují do jeho života, z nenadání jej zase opouští, ale zanechávají v něm svou unikátní stopu. A pak je to samozřejmě Berlín jako takový – kvetoucí evropská metropole s bujarým nočním životem, kavárnami a rušnými ulicemi – dalo by se říct, že tvoří tu nejvýznamnější postavu ze všech. Někde v pozadí ale cítíme i narůstající politické napětí a hrozbu nacismu. Všechny Isherwoodovy postavy se s nastalou situací musejí nějak vyrovnat, ať už je politika zajímá či nikoliv.

      Berlínské povídky
      4,5