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Lost Years

A Memoir 1945 - 1951
3.77 goodreads logo

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( 78 ratings, 11 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Christopher Isherwood chronicles his wartime and post-war years in California in Lost Years, revealing a period of intense socialising, drinking, and a departure from writing fiction and keeping diaries. Drawing from personal memories, this memoir offers an unvarnished blend of private struggles and wider social history.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This memoir appeals to readers interested in literary figures, autobiographies, and 20th-century social history, particularly those who appreciate candid and reflective personal narratives.

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Christopher Isherwood settled in California in 1939 and spent the war years writing for Hollywood, but by 1945 he had all but ceased to write fiction and even abandoned his habit of keeping a diary. Looking back from the 1970s, Isherwood recreated these years from personal memories to form a remarkably honest mixture of private and social history.

Positively compulsive' Sunday Telegraph

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

His writing soon becomes addictive as one self-disclosure follows another. What better recommendation for a diary could there be? - The Times

Christopher Isherwood settled in California in 1939 and spent the war years writing for Hollywood. By 1945, however, he had all but ceased to write fiction and even abandoned his habit of keeping a diary. Instead, he embarked on a life of frantic socialising and drinking.

Looking back from the 1970s, Isherwood recreated these years from personal memories to form a remarkably honest mixture of private and social history in Lost Years.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Critics praise Isherwood's Lost Years for its honesty and engaging style. Described as endearingly frank and compulsive reading, it provides critical self-candour and fresh insight into the author's mid-life crisis, complementing his diaries with perceptive and translucent prose.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780099283249

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 July 2001

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Contributors:

  • Edited by Katherine Bucknell
  • Introduction by Katherine Bucknell
  • Introduction by Katherine Bucknell
  • Edited by Katherine Bucknell

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 26.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 299g

Pages: 432

About the Author

Christopher Isherwood (Author) Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was one of the most celebrated writers of his generation. He left Cambridge without graduating, briefly studied medicine and then turned to writing his first novels, All the Conspirators and The Memorial. Between 1929 and 1939 he lived mainly abroad, spending four years in Berlin and writing the novels Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin on which the musical Cabaret was based. He moved to America in 1939, becoming a US citizen in 1946, and wrote another five novels, including Down There on a Visit and A Single Man, a travel book about South America and a biography of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. In the late 1960s and '70s he turned to autobiographical works- Kathleen and Frank, Christopher and His Kind, My Guru and His Disciple and October, one month of his diary with drawings by Don Bachardy. Katherine Bucknell (External Editor, Introducer) Katherine Bucknell edited all four volumes of Christopher Isherwood's Diaries (published by Chatto), a volume of letters between Christopher Isherwood and his partner Don Bachardy (The Animals), and W.H. Auden's Juvenilia- Poems 1922-1928. Co-editor of Auden Studies, a founder of The W. H. Auden Society, and director of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, she is widely recognised as a leading authority on Isherwood. She is also the author of five novels. She was born in Vietnam, raised in America, and lives in London.

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