Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin

Jake Poller (Queen Mary, University of London)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

First circulation or publication Mar 1939

Places

England (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Story Collection

Resources

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When Christopher Isherwood moved to Berlin in November 1929, he was virtually unknown as a writer. His first novel

All the Conspirators

(1928), for which he’d received an advance of £30, had sold less than 300 copies. Isherwood had long rebelled against his privileged background, and he immediately felt at home in the bohemian atmosphere of Berlin, where he would reside for the next two and half years: writing, giving English lessons, and watching as the Weimar Republic unravelled around him. Sensing the literary potential of his life at this time, he captured in his diary the people and events that would provide the raw material for his Berlin novels,

Mr Norris Changes Trains

(1935) and

Goodbye to Berlin

(1939), which would establish him as one of the foremost writers of his…

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2152 words

Citation: Poller, Jake. "Goodbye to Berlin". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4908, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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