Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Prater Violet
    Prater Violet
    Prater Violet
    Audiobook3 hours

    Prater Violet

    Written by Christopher Isherwood

    Narrated by Paul Boehmer

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Isherwood's story centers on the production of the vacuous fictional melodrama Prater Violet, set in nineteenth-century Vienna, providing ironic counterpoint to tragic events as Hitler annexes the real Vienna of the 1930s. The novel features the vivid portraits of imperious, passionate, and witty Austrian director Friedrich Bergmann and his disciple, a genial young screenwriter: the fictionalized Christopher Isherwood.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJan 12, 2010
    ISBN9781615730759
    Prater Violet
    Author

    Christopher Isherwood

    Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was born outside of Manchester, England. His life in Berlin from 1929 to 1933 inspired The Berlin Stories, which were adapted into a play, a film, and the musical Cabaret. Isherwood immigrated to the United States in 1939. A major figure in twentieth-century fiction and the gay rights movement, he wrote more than twenty books, including the novel A Single Man and his autobiography, Christopher and His Kind.

    More audiobooks from Christopher Isherwood

    Related to Prater Violet

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Two Poems by Charles Baudelaire

      Jun 9, 2020

      After my friend and I left the tobacco shop, he carefully sorted his loose change; slipped some small gold coins in his left jacket pocket; into the right went the silver pieces; in his left pants pocket, a handful of centimes; and in the right, a si

      2 min read

    • Article

      Find A New Home For Your Hauntings

      Oct 1, 2020

      Dark Moon Books editorial team promotes dark fiction by publishing multi-author anthologies and single author collections plus the occasional novel. They want ‘unusual and invigorating dark fiction’ which is ‘experimental, innovative, or progressive…

      1 min read

    • Article

      Begin Again

      Jun 14, 2022

      My grandfather came to live with me. There was nowhere else for him to go. What had happened to all his children? Death, decay, exile—I hardly know. My own parents died of pain. But I must not be too gloomy, at the beginning, or you will leave me, an

      6 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      Brite

      Oct 7, 2019

      Brite
      7 min read

    • Article

      Hitting a SOUR NOTE

      Sep 22, 2021

      Hitting a SOUR NOTE
      3 min read

    • Article

      Katharine Kilalea

      Dec 15, 2017

      Katharine Kilalea
      37 min read

    • Article

      To Live a Little

      Oct 3, 2022

      To Live a Little
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Machine Stops

      Dec 28, 2018

      The Machine Stops
      6 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2022

      Table Talk
      10 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Feb 24, 2022

      It Happened to Me…
      7 min read

    • Article

      Harold Prince:1928-2019

      Sep 25, 2019

      Harold Prince:1928-2019
      6 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Feb 24, 2022

      It Happened to Me…
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Hard Man To Forget

      Jan 8, 2024

      A Hard Man To Forget
      4 min read

    • Article

      J. Jezewska Stevens

      Dec 15, 2017

      The party was a failure. I can’t even tell you what a failure it was. There are no words. Only a great pain in my chest when I wake up. On the veranda. It’s better when I sit in the chair. Oh, but then I can see around. The gauzy curtains, pushed by

      15 min read

    • Article

      It's Crying Time

      Nov 15, 2023

      I was about 13, on a sofa in front of the television on a wet Saturday afternoon. I was carelessly able to do that once – sigh. I was watching a black-and-white film. Or maybe the TV was black-and-white – probably. It was a story about a nanny caring

      4 min read

    • Article

      Bruce Dickinson

      Dec 7, 2021

      Bruce Dickinson
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Conversation

      Nov 1, 2023

      The Art Of Conversation
      4 min read

    • Article

      The William Trevor Reader: “Kinkies”

      Mar 15, 2022

      There’s a lesson to be taken from “Kinkies”—as writers, we hew to professionalized tastefulness at our creative peril. The post The William Trevor Reader: “Kinkies” appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Fall-down COMEDIAN

      Apr 11, 2021

      Fall-down COMEDIAN
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Prater Violet

    4/5

    88 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A lovely but light fictional recreation of "Christopher Isherwood"'s experiences in the movie business in England before the outbreak of WW2.Friedrich Bergmann is the real character of the book, the Viennese director of the eponymous film, and though his reactions to the news of the events of 1938 in Austria, we learn of the general indifference of Britain to Nazi-ism immediately before the outbreak of WW2, such as the comment that people were joking about holidays in Europe next summer, if there is a Europe!Overall this was a light and remarkably quick read.
    • 5/5
      This is quite a succinct book, really being a mini Biography of the larger than life, Viennese film director Friedrich Bergmann during the pre-WWII period that Isherwood worked with him on the film Prater Violet. But he is an extremely entertaining, unrelenting and observant writer, who writes with great affection about a man who, for a while, seemed like a father to him.This was a very amusing read, but the larger, darker background story of the prelude to war and of day to day loneliness isn't lost. He is not afraid to laugh at himself, and the images that he creates are wonderful - here's a bit that had me laughing out loud at the beginning:"He was off the line. I jiggled the phone for a moment, stupidly, with vague indignation. Then I picked up the directory, found Imperial Bulldog's number, dialled the first letter, stopped. I walked across to the dining-room door. My mother and my younger brother Richard were still sitting at breakfast. I stood just inside the doorway and lit a cigarette, not looking at them, very casual.'Was that Stephen?' my mother asked. She generally knew when I needed a cue-line.'No.' I blew out a lot of smoke, frowning at the mantelpiece clock. 'Only some movie-people.''Movie-people!' Richard put down his cup with a clatter. 'Oh, Christopher! How exciting!'This made me frown harder.After a suitable pause my mother asked with extreme tact: 'Did they want you to write something?''Apparently,' I drawled, almost too bored to speak."...I'm smirking as I read it right now!
    • 4/5
      It is a marvelous moment when Isherwood, as narrator, casts off his "camera" disguise and lays bare his up-until-then unsuspected personal feelings. The character of the expatriate film director is a comic gem.