Synopses & Reviews
Like Paris in the twenties, Berlin in the early thirties was one of the most exciting cities in the world. As the Weimar Republic sputtered to a close and war loomed on the horizon, the city was a magnet for talented writers and artists. It was in this now-vanished time and place that W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood lived, wrote and slept together. Norman Page tells the story of how these years shaped these important writers and, in doing so, illuminates a bygone era.
Review
"The valuable service Mr. Page performs in his short, readable book is to run the historical-cultural camera backwards . . . restoring the reality of what the two young Englishmen saw and did."
-- Washington Times
Review
“The valuable service Mr. Page performs in his short, readable book is to run the historical-cultural camera backwards . . . restoring the reality of what the two young Englishmen saw and did.” —
Washington Times“A sometimes illuminating, always informative study of the Berlin milieu in which Auden and Isherwood found themselves shortly before Hitler rose to power.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
Drawing on much contemporary material, including Auden's fascinating unpublished diary, this book places personal experience in the context of the life of a great city: not only its political, artistic and cultural life, but the life of the streets, bars and caf� It presents portraits of figures, often fascinating in their own right, with whom Auden and Isherwood came into contact, and it demonstrates how, especially in Isherwood's fiction, the raw material of daily existence was transformed into art. The wide scope of this study, which ranges from poetry and cinema to street violence and prostitution, provides a richly detailed context for its account of two writers engaged in the process of self-definition.
Synopsis
List of Plates Acknowledgements Preface to the Paperback Edition Prologue: Looking for Berlin Two Young Englishmen Berlin: Places Berlin: Faces The Other Camera: Aspects of Weimar Cinema Writing about Berlin Epilogue: Goodbye to Berlin Bibliography Index
Synopsis
A unique biography of two literary giants and the city that was to change their lives.
Synopsis
Like Paris in the '20s, Berlin in the early thirties was one of the most exciting cities in the world. As the Weimar Republic sputtered to a close and war loomed on the horizon, the city was a magnet for talented writers and artists. It was in this now-vanished time and place that W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood lived, wrote and slept together. Norman Page tells the story of how these years shaped these important writers and, in doing so, illuminates a bygone era.
About the Author
Norman Page is Emeritus Professor of modern English language at the University of Nottingham. He has published widely on literature and has lectured in many parts of the world.
Table of Contents
List of Plates * Acknowledgments * Prologue: Looking for Berlin * Two Young Englishmen * Berlin: Places * Past and Present * Homes and Haunts * Cultures and Subcultures * Death of a Daydream * Berlin: Faces * Anna Muthesius * John Layard * Magnus Hirschfeld * Francis Turville-Petre * Gerald Hamilton * The Other Camera: Aspects of Weimar Cinema * Writing about Berlin * Epilogue: Goodbye to Berlin * Bibliography * Index