The Memorial - Softcover

Isherwood, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374520674 ISBN 13: 9780374520670

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988

Synopsis

With The Memorial, Christopher Isherwood began his lifelong work of rewriting his own experiences into witty yet almost forensic portraits of modern society. Set in the aftermath of World War I, The Memorial portrays the dissolution of a tradition-bound English family. Cambridge student Eric Vernon finds himself torn between his desire to emulate his heroic father, who led a life of quiet sacrifice before dying in the war, and his envy for his father’s great friend Edward Blake, who survived the war only to throw himself into gay life in Berlin and the pursuit of meaningless relationships.
Published in 1932, when Isherwood was twenty-eight years old, The Memorial is the immediate precursor to the first volume of the famous Berlin Stories, but it stand in its own right as the first book in which Isherwood really found his literary voice.

About this title

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.

Review:

“The best prose writer in English.” ―Gore Vidal, The New York Review of Books

“Dazzling . . . Pre-eminent for its wit, humour, charm of style and narrative skill.” ―John Lehmann, The Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0374520674
• ISBN 13: 9780374520670
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296