Product Description

After a chance encounter on a train the English teacher William Bradshaw starts a close friendship with the mildly sinister Arthur Norris. Norris is a man of contradictions; lavish but heavily in debt, excessively polite but sexually deviant. First published in 1933, "Mr Norris Changes Trains" piquantly evokes the atmosphere of Berlin during the rise of the Nazis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55070 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Christopher Isherwood was born at High lane, Cheshire, in 1904. He left Cambridge without graduationg, tried briefly to study medicine and in 1928 published All the Conspirators, followed by a second novel, The Memorial in 1932. From 1928 onwards he lived mostly out of England: four years in Berlin, five in various European countries including Portugal, Holland, Belgium and Denmark. In 1939 he went to California, which became his home for the rest of his life. His Berlin experiences produced two novels, Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939). Isherwood worked with the American Friends Service Committee during part of the war. In 1946 he became a US citizen. Following his move to America he wrote five novels - Prater Violet, The World in the Evening, Down There on a Visit, A Single Man and A Meeting by the River; a travel book about South America, The Condor and the Cows; and Ramakrishna and his Disciples, a biography of the great Indian mystic. In 1971 he published Kathleen and Frank, a book based on the correspondence of his parents and his mother's diary, in 1977 Christopher and his Kind, an autobiographical account of the years 1929 to 1939, and in 1980 My Guru and His Disciple, the story of his friendship with the Swami Prabhavananda. He died in 1986.

Customer Reviews

A Splendid Reading of a Unique Novel.
On a very few occasions in one's life a personality is encountered who is by all rational measures is an out and out scoundrel, amoral, treacherous, mendacious, cowardly and - totally irresistible. It is a mystery why such persons should earn tolerance, and even regard, and why they should live on in one's memory and affection long after many more worthy characters one has known have faded into obscurity. It is Christopher Isherwood's genius, in this, his probably best novel, to describe such a character in such convincing detail that he lives on, years after first reading, as a personality more real than many actual persons of one's acquaintance. Little good can be said about Arthur Norris - other than that he is an engaging companion - and the reader is never in any doubt about his total unreliability, but it is impossible not to like him as he weaves his pathetically futile schemes of cunning and treachery against the backdrop of the last days of Weimar Germany. With a minimum of detail, but with that minimum telling, Isherwood fixes the time and locale with sharp accuracy and brings it further to life with a bizarre but credible cast of supporting characters. The balance between comedy and tragedy, farce and outright horror, is splendidly managed. This talking book version is all but perfect. Alan Cumming is an ideal reader and adopts a wide range of voices and accents throughout. His use of pauses and of changes of tone and emphasis is masterly. Arthur Norris's fruity tone are horribly enjoyable while the dreadful Kuno (to hear him ask if the narrator has read "Vinnie the Pooh" is enough to make the flesh crawl) becomes an almost palpable presence. In summary - one of the best Talking Books I've encountered. It's the only one you'll need on a long car journey since you'll listen to it over and over.

Charming
When William Bradshaw first meets Mr Norris on the train home, we are introduced to a character that makes us feel strangely protective and who is delightful and impossible to dislike. By the end of the novel though it is clear that Isherwood is truly representing through Mr Norris one of his ex boyfriends who he came to regard as a 'rogue laced with poison'. Such a character arc is an amazing feat and one that Isherwood handles well. The book is well written, easy to read and full of delights. The big reveal is a little predictable and the ending a little unblievable but despite that this is well worth a read and I would be interested to read more of Isherwood's work based on this book. Many authors must wish they were this good!

A Berlin Cabaret
Remembered, if at all, as the origin of the musical Cabaret; this book stays in my memory, not because of Mr Norris (he would be glad to hear), but because it brings to life the Berlin of the 1930's and it's peculiar innocence before the fall into Nazism. One gradually realises the characters innocence is presented by Mr Isherwood as a cause of the fall rather than the decadance we are usually enjoined to condemn. Not having been there at the time one cannot easily accept or reject such a conclusion, but it does give pause for thought.