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The Berlin Stories  By  cover art

The Berlin Stories

By: Christopher Isherwood
Narrated by: Michael York
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Publisher's summary

Christopher Isherwood's dramatized memoirs are prophetic images of a country preparing itself to embrace Hitler and the Third Reich. The Berlin Stories includes two works published together: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin. These modern classics reveal in poignant detail the tragedy of mid-20th-century Germany.
©1990 Christopher Isherwood (P)2005 Phoenix Audio

What listeners say about The Berlin Stories

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Nothing happens...

The appeal of reading a diary is discovering something juicy or interesting. This diary has neither, because everything interesting seems to happen in the background. The Nazi's take over, but it hardly affects the narrator. He forges relationships that seem to go nowhere. I kept waiting for something significant to happen (you would think with a title like Berlin Diaries something would), but alas, nothing much did. Michael York does a superb job but ultimately this was disappointing.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Marvelous performance of Isherwood's stories

Would you consider the audio edition of The Berlin Stories to be better than the print version?

I haven't read the print version. I can say that it was wonderful to hear the German words and placenames pronounced by Mr. York. He clearly has experience with the language and that lends a great deal to the immediacy of the stories.

What other book might you compare The Berlin Stories to and why?

The Audible version of Defying Hitler by Sebastian Hafner. Both authors were writing their personal experiences living in 1930s pre-war Berlin. Comparing the lightness of Isherwood's stories to the intensity and passion of Hafner's memoir shows how much difference it makes when you are just visiting a country instead of a citizen watching your homeland be comsumed by insanity.

Any additional comments?

I've been a fan of the musical Cabaret for decades--it's wonderful to hear the stories that show was based on.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Berlin just before the Nazi's move in

The Swastika is a little lie as these four or is it five stories are set about 1930s just before or as the Nazi's come to power. The undercurrent is there as is homosexuality and anti-semetic. The Weimar Republic is coming to an end and the Nazi's are still a joke but things are a changing. Well written and Michael York has such a beautiful speaking voice he is a pleasure to listen to, however as I think all these stories are different and are not connected the main characters sound like one and their personalities are almost equal. Still a nice listen to whilst driving the back lanes of Sydney.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Where is “Goodbye to Berlin “

Says that “Goodbye to Berlin”is included but I do not hear any part from it.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing- this seems to be a summary of the book

Terrible to summarize the book- my guess is this audible edition is one quarter of the print edition I have.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating stories

These are fascinating stories for those interested in pre-WW2 Germany (and who isn't?). And they're also just fascinating stories about a rootless but likeable young man in a weird-bordering-surreal time and place in history. I recommend them. The performer deserves extra praise for convincingly rendering so many characters of different ages, genders and nationalities.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Inaccurate

This was narrated great and tells roughly the stories within Ishwerwood’s Berlin Stories but leaves out narration of massive amounts of text throughout the entirety of the book doesn’t exactly tell the story of the full text

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fresh and relevant

Beautiful and heartbreaking. And also quite funny.

These are 80 years old but feel entirely fresh. Given the current state of the world, tge stories also feel oddly relevant. Now I want to read more things by Isherwood.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Of Minimal Interest

It’s two (true) ‘stories’ set against the Weimar years, but the only truly engaging part of each is at their very end, and even those are so brief as hardly to rank a mention. The author can’t capitalise on the most investing parts of his life in Germany. Not worth your time, compared to other WW2 memoirs.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Unabridged Berlin Stories needed ASAP

York's performance is wonderful, but I cannot believe that Audible still hasn't released an unabridged version of this (especially since York apparently narrated all of "Goodbye to Berlin" years back). This is a VERY abridged version of the "Berlin Stories" - as this is central to Isherwood's legacy, listeners should be able to hear the complete work.

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