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- The Berlin Stories is a 1945 anthology by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood consisting of two novels: Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939). The two novels are set in Jazz Age Berlin between 1930 and 1933 on the cusp of Adolf Hitler's ascent to power. Berlin is portrayed by Isherwood during this chaotic interwar period as a carnival of debauchery and despair inhabited by desperate people who are unaware of the national catastrophe that awaits them. The first novel in the anthology focuses upon the misadventures of Arthur Norris, a character based upon an unscrupulous businessman named Gerald Hamilton whom Isherwood met in the Weimar Republic. The second novel recounts the travails of various Berlin denizens whose lives are directly or indirectly affected by the Nazis' rise to power. Isherwood based the character of Sally Bowles on teenage cabaret singer Jean Ross, Isherwood's intimate friend during his sojourn in Berlin. The anthology inspired the John Van Druten play I Am a Camera, which in turn inspired the film I Am a Camera as well as the stage musical and film version of Cabaret. Sally Bowles is the best-known character from The Berlin Stories, and she became the focus of the Cabaret musical and film, although she is merely the main character of a single short story in Goodbye to Berlin. In later years, Ross regretted her public association with the naïve and apolitical character of Sally Bowles. Although The Berlin Stories secured Isherwood's reputation, the author denounced his writings after the collection's publication. In a 1956 essay, Isherwood lamented that he misunderstood the suffering of the people which he depicted. He regretted depicting many persons as "monsters" and noted they were "ordinary human beings prosaically engaged in getting their living through illegal methods. The only genuine monster was the young foreigner who passed gaily through these scenes of desolation, misinterpreting them to suit his childish fantasy." In 2010, Time chose the collection as one of the 100 Best English-language works of the 20th century. (en)
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- The cover of the first edition (en)
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- I thought of Natalia: she has escaped — none too soon, perhaps. However often the decision may be delayed, all these people are ultimately doomed. This evening is the dress-rehearsal of a disaster. It is like the last night of an epoch. (en)
- In another moment, when I had drunk exactly the right amount of champagne, I should have a vision. I took a sip. And now, with extreme clarity, without passion or malice, I saw what Life really is. It had something, I remember, to do with the revolving sunshade. Yes, I murmured to myself, let them dance. They are dancing, I am glad. (en)
- Jean [Ross] was more essentially British than Sally [Bowles]; she grumbled like a true Englishwoman, with her 'grin-and-bear-it' grin. And she was tougher. She never struck Christopher as being sentimental or the least bit sorry for herself. Like Sally, she boasted continually about her lovers. In those days, Christopher felt certain that she was exaggerating... (en)
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- —Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind (en)
- —Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin (en)
- —Christopher Isherwood, Mr Norris Changes Trains (en)
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- The Berlin Stories is a 1945 anthology by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood consisting of two novels: Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939). The two novels are set in Jazz Age Berlin between 1930 and 1933 on the cusp of Adolf Hitler's ascent to power. Berlin is portrayed by Isherwood during this chaotic interwar period as a carnival of debauchery and despair inhabited by desperate people who are unaware of the national catastrophe that awaits them. (en)
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