Published by Methuen, 1982, softcover, 271 pages, condition: very good.
A celebrated semi-autobiographical novel written by Anglo-American author Christopher Isherwood and published in 1962. Often regarded as one of his most accomplished and deeply personal works, the novel spans more than a decade from 1928 to 1940, tracing the author's internal development against the backdrop of a world careening toward World War II.
The book is uniquely structured into four separate novellas, each exploring a specific time period, location, and key male figure who impacts the narrator's psychological, sexual, and spiritual trajectory.
The narrative is bound together by four different versions of a narrator named "Christopher Isherwood," who looks back on his younger selves with a blend of amusement, detachment, and sharp self-criticism. The title is pulled from a cutting remark made to the protagonist by a character named Paul, mockingly calling him a perpetual "spiritual tourist" who merely visits other peoples lives and private traumas.
Mr Lancaster (Bremen, 1928): A young, 23-year-old Christopher visits a distant relative who runs a shipping company in a gloomy German port town. Christopher behaves with the casual cruelty of youth, dismissing the older man as an outdated bore, only to be struck by tragedy when Mr Lancaster commits suicide.
Ambrose (The Greek Islands, 1933): Christopher seeks an escape from the weight of the world by visiting Ambrose, an eccentric, wealthy, and anarchic homosexual living an isolated, fragile existence on a secluded Greek island.
Waldemar (London, 1938): Set during the height of the Munich Crisis and imminent war, Christopher attempts to help his working-class German friend, Waldemar, who is trapped in England without a valid visa. The section captures the mounting dread, hysteria, and claustrophobia of pre-war Europe.
Paul (California, 1940): The final and longest section takes place after Isherwood's move to the United States. He becomes deeply entangled with Paul, an enigmatic, self-destructive, and beautiful young man who lives off the generosity of wealthy patrons. Together, they explore early interludes with Eastern mysticism, meditation, and pacifism under a Hollywood guru, charting the author's transition toward his lifelong devotion to Vedanta Hinduism.
By splitting the book into distinct eras, Isherwood treats his past iterations as entirely separate people, capturing how radically identity shifts over time.
The book acts as an acid portrait of individuals trapped in their own private psychological hells, searching for genuine connection, self-fulfillment, and alternative ways of living outside conventional society.
The chronological progression maps the creeping, inescapable advance of European fascism and global conflict, shifting from the background noise of the late 1920s to an absolute existential crisis by 1938.
The material used in the novel was originally intended to be part of a massive, unfinished epic titled The Lost, which was also meant to fully integrate his famous Berlin Stories.
Upon its release, it received high praise from contemporary literary heavyweights. Reviewing the work for The New Republic, Stephen Spender described it as "radiant with observation, never wasting a word, funny and sympathetic," while legendary critic Dorothy Parker called it simply "stunning".
