Synopses & Reviews
A deeply personal novel in which Isherwood profoundly reckoned with his sexuality and how it shaped him Consisting of four accounts of encounters with four male characters, each of them visited by a different Christopher Isherwood, and each set in a different time and place—Berlin in the 1920s (overlapping the period of The Berlin Stories), the Greek isles in the early 1930s, London in the late 1930s, and California in 1940—this acclaimed novel explores Isherwoods fundamental concerns with the choice of a way of life, and its implications for love, sex, spirituality, and self-fulfillment.
Published in 1959, when Isherwood had already become something of a literary rock star, Down There on a Visit is a very funny but also sad and deeply personal book that charts his life of carnal indulgence and his first interlude with what would become a serious involvement with Eastern mysticism.
This is the beginning of a multiyear plan to reissue all of Isherwoods best work, culminating with the publication of a definitive new biography in 2015.
Review
“In several respects this is probably Isherwoods best novel. It offers the sheer pleasure of writing completely personal and yet completely controlled, radiant with observation, never wasting a word, funny and sympathetic.” —Stephen Spender, The New Republic
“This excellent novel may be the best Christopher Isherwood has written . . . A deeply intelligent and quietly compelling story.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Few writers have so unsparingly scrutinized their worlds. Down There on a Visit is outrageous, bitter, bleak, angry, wry, revealing, infuriating, and at times marvelously comic . . . An offbeat classic.” —Saturday Review
Review
“Stunning. I can think of no better word.” —Dorothy Parker, Esquire
“This is probably Isherwoods best novel. It offers the sheer pleasure of writing completely personal and yet completely controlled, radiant with observation, never wasting a word, funny and sympathetic.” —Stephen Spender, The New Republic
“This excellent novel . . . may be the best Christopher Isherwood has written . . . A deeply intelligent and quietly compelling story.” —Gerald Sykes, The New York Times
“This is the best of Mr. Isherwoods novels.” —Cyril Connolly, The Times (London)
Synopsis
Consisting of four accounts of encounters with four male characters, each of them visited by a different Christopher Isherwood, and each set in a different time and place—Berlin in the 1920s (overlapping the time period of the Berlin Stories), the Greek Isles in the early 1930s, London in the late 1930s and California in 1940—this acclaimed novel explores Isherwoods fundamental concerns with the choice of a way of life, and its implications for love, sex, spirituality and self-fulfillment.
Published in 1959, when Isherwood had already become something of a literary rock star, Down There on a Visit a very funny but also sad and deeply personal book that charts Isherwoods life of carnal indulgence and his first interlude with what would become a serious involvement with Eastern mysticism.
Synopsis
Bremen, 1928. The Greek Islands, 1932. London, 1938. California, 1940. Four portraits, four settings, four narrators all named Christopher Isherwood. Here are the postcards home from a spiritual tourist looking for a new mode of life as well as a new place to live while Europe, and then the world, moves relentlessly toward war. Which of the guides he encounters can lead him to a better future? The businessman, the utopian, the guru, the geisha?
Published in 1962, Down There on a Visit is based on material from a proposed epic that would also have incorporated The Berlin Stories. It is now widely regarded as the most accomplished of Isherwoods novels.
About the Author
Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was born outside Manchester, England. He lived in
Berlin from 1929 to 1933 and emigrated from Europe to the United States in 1939. A major figure in twentieth-century fiction and the gay rights movement, he wrote more than twenty books.