The Berlin Stories

The Berlin Stories, by Christopher Isherwood, consists of two short novels, Mr. Norris Changes Trains (published in the United States as The Last of Mr. Norris) and Goodbye to Berlin. The stories are both set in 1931 Berlin, as Hitler and the Nazis are coming into power. Isherwood portrays Berlin's seedier side with characters who frequent beer halls, vaudeville theaters and bath houses. Goodbye to Berlin includes the character Sally Bowles, best known from the musical and film Cabaret, the inspiration for which is rooted in Isherwood's Berlin Stories and other works of his. The main character in Mr Norris Changes Trains is gay, and the book was written during a time when being gay was a crime in many parts of Europe. Christopher Isherwood was himself openly homosexual, and he explored gay culture in his writing. He was forced to write in such a way that references to gay culture and homosexual relationships were so subtle that one had to be familiar with the dialogue of that culture in order to understand them. -

Mr. Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin were first published as individual works by Hogarth Press, London, the founders of which were Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Mr. Norris Changes Trains was first printed in 1935, and Goodbye to Berlin was printed in 1939. In 1945, the two were published by New Directions Publishing, New York, combined in a single volume entitled The Berlin Stories. They are now almost always published in a single volume.