The Memorial
A lively, ironic portrayal of England in the 1920s, now back in print.
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, 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.
“By reissuing these four books by Christopher Isherwood, the University of Minnesota Press makes them available to a new generation of readers. All of Isherwood’s books have a strong autobiographical element, so any one of them connects to the whole of his fascinating life, and no one should have to miss a moment of it.” Don Bachardy, Christopher Isherwood's partner for the final 30 years of his life.
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.
“Only now that Isherwood is dead can the pattern be seen clearly in a life that ranged restlessly from Oxbridge skeptic to Hindu disciple, from literary collaborator with W. H. Auden to Boswell of prewar Britain and postwar Hollywood. . . . His novels and nonfiction now all seem to be chapters of one enormous work in which he is the major character.” The Guardian
“A genuine interpretation of the times.” Frank Kermode
ISBN 0-8166-3369-X Paper £00.00 $15.95 COBE
296 Pages 5 7/8 x 9 March
Translation inquiries: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
“By reissuing these four books by Christopher Isherwood, the University of Minnesota Press makes them available to a new generation of readers. All of Isherwood’s books have a strong autobiographical element, so any one of them connects to the whole of his fascinating life, and no one should have to miss a moment of it.” Don Bachardy, Christopher Isherwood's partner for the final 30 years of his life.
“The best prose writer in English.” Gore Vidal
“Only now that Isherwood is dead can the pattern be seen clearly in a life that ranged restlessly from Oxbridge skeptic to Hindu disciple, from literary collaborator with W. H. Auden to Boswell of prewar Britain and postwar Hollywood. . . . His novels and nonfiction now all seem to be chapters of one enormous work in which he is the major character.” The Guardian
“A genuine interpretation of the times.” Frank Kermode
“That young man holds the future of the English novel in his hands.” W. Somerset Maugham
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