This is the book I wish I could hand to all of those people writing articles about people in their twenties. As a person in her twenties, I hate those articles, and my most easily articulated reason is that people in their twenties today aren't all that different from people in their twenties throughout history. Lions And Shadows is perfect proof of this.It's great to read about Isherwood, pre-Berlin, trying to find himself as a writer in places of little or no inspiration. Living off of his bem...

There is a book called Lions and Shadows, published in 1938, which describes Christopher Isherwood’s life between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four. It is not truly autobiographical, however.So writes Isherwood on the first page of Christopher and His Kind (1976), which is (he tells us) “a different kind of book” from its highly fictionalized predecessor. Now that I’ve read both, I can only say: Um…not exactly.Lions and Shadows opens in 1921, when Isherwood is in his final year of prep schoo...

Charming, thoroughly engaging and written with a wry sense of self-deprecation, peopled with an array of vividly-drawn, affectionately-portrayed characters, this memoir of Isherwood's early Cambridge years is vivid and entertaining, as well as providing a fascinating glimpse into a writer's developing consciousness and sense of craft. Incredible to think this was written so long ago, in a totally different world. And yet Isherwood's voice is so immediate and compelling. Wonderful.

Lions and Shadows feels like Isherwood at his most Isherwood to me. Despite his call for us to read this as fiction in his author's note, it's obviously autobiographical, and he goes to very little effort to disguise his very famous friends within it (I particularly liked 'Stephen Savage' for Stephen Spender, though 'Hugh Weston' for Wystan Hugh Auden also drew a chuckle). And, in addition to containing the strange and conspicuous blending of fiction and autobiography that characterises so many

Pfie, I've yet again finished my library book in less than 24 hours. Now that I'm back home I depend on my brother and mum for my library books because I don't have library card to the British Council library and it seemed pointless to get a costly 6 months subscription when I'm only home for two months, but having to wait for them to finish their books and only being able to get one at a time is starting to drive me mad. Especially since Isherwood is so, so charming and I can't wait to get my h...

This was perhaps not the ideal place to begin with Isherwood. A sudden desire to read him overcame me and I rushed to the library without taking the time to check whether they had the better known Berlin Stories available on the shelf. Alas, they did not, but I picked this up from the rather lonely 'I' section and found its description intriguing. An 'autobiographical novel', a Künstlerroman, which insisted on its own fictionality.Lions and Shadows covers the period of late adolescence through u...

I enjoyed re-reading this novel, though parts of it did drag a bit this on this reading. Not the best novel that Christopher Isherwood wrote.

Autobiographical novel about artistic development in connection with the formation of identity and friendship. Covers Isherwood’s last years at school, his time at Cambridge, particularly focusing on Isherwood’s development of a grotesque rural fantasy world with a friend, and a little on his drifting, questing time after Cambridge. I found Isherwood’s performatively unsparing baring of his meek formlessness a little irritating at times but I found this very readable and liked its exploration of...

Quite enjoyed a lot of this.The bit before university? Great.The bit at university? Really great.That first bit after university? Oh so very plodding.That bit where he goes back to be a medical student? Pretty good.

3 1/4 stars

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Christopher Isherwood manages to make this story about a boy coming to terms with having grown up comfortably well-off and having missed the major defining event of his lifetime to then, World War I both interesting and worthy. It’s basically a story about a writer becoming a writer, which is a tale strewn with pitfalls. Isherwood does not gloss over the silliness of young writers, or how their immaturity convinces them to avoid hard choices in their writing. Looking back, as he does, he highlig...

On a bit of an Isherwood trail at the moment, this is my second read by him while I'm already immersed in a third ('Goodbye to Berlin'), there is just something immediately likeable about his voice. He doesn't take himself too seriously although you can't deny his commitment to his writing. This is his autobiographical account of his journey to writer-hood which involved writing a few bad novels, accepting blunt and honest criticism from the family writer-friend, acting the artist, getting himse...

As I examine this copy borrowed from the Texas Tech University main library, I see that it is accessioned in 1964. By examining the date due slip, I can see I’m the third person to check out this book since 1972—making me a rare cat indeed. In remarks at the beginning, Isherwood says that his book “is not, in the ordinary journalistic sense of the word, an autobiography; it contains no ‘revelations’; it is never ‘indiscreet’; it is not even entirely ‘true’” (7). He goes on to state that the book...

This is a pretty light and easy to read account of his life up to his more well known time in Berlin, which seemed to be mostly fairly uneventful. It's mostly worth reading for the descriptions of the people he met, especially W.H. Auden, who is pretty easily recognisable even though he's been renamed Hugh Weston in this book. It could easily be skipped if you're looking for more salacious details of his life which you can find in his other books but I found it pretty charming and enjoyable to r...

Purchase Lions and Shadows here for just $8! A lightly fictionalised autobiographical account of Christopher Isherwood's late teens and early twenties. Delightful, painfully relatable and endlessly self-deprecating in that British way. But at the same time a decidedly critical look at the class that Isherwood himself was a part of. Caitlin - The Book Grocer

A charming, fascinating semi-autobiography of Christopher Isherwood's late teens and early twenties. It's fascinating in part for its partially fictionalised portraits of people like W H Auden and Stephen Spender, and of course for Isherwood's carefully constructed self-portrait. It's also interesting in what is conspicuously absent - any direct exploration either of his relationship with his family, and his sexuality.

Though slow to start, Isherwood's memoir of his college mistakes and early-mid 20s adventures is as relevant a guide as ever for the aspiring writer looking to break free from the expectations of a "normal life"... whatever that means.

A painfully relatable read. As an aimless twentysomething graduate/dropout myself, I felt personally called out on several occasions by Isherwood's self-deprecating humor about his own twenties. Bro!!! I feel you.

A rambling insight into one novelist journey from schoolboy to published author in 1920s England. Contains many interesting portraits of the his friends, Auden and Upward. All thinly disguised in the form of a novel.

Delightful. It's a decidedly critical look at the class that Isherwood himself was a part of, a fictionalized autobiography of his younger years taking us by the hand into his Berlin era.

There are certainly interesting and entertaining elements to this book. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as might have for two reasons. Firstly, there is too much going that he doesn't talk about. How can a memoir of the years between 18 and 25 have so little mention of sex? Anyone who knows the bare facts of Isherwood's life can answer this question, but it nevertheless makes this a frustratingly truncated book. On the one hand it's interesting to read about what he did with his sublimated se...

This is the first of Isherwood's many autobiographical writings in that hazy area between memoir and roman a clef, published in 1938. It is, as all his books are, very self-deprecating and like most of his work, shines at evoking a deeper appreciation of a time, place, and social system that now seems so long gone and distant.This covers, roughly, his experiences at school, at university, living in a Bohemian neighborhood in London, working as a secretary and tutor, and taking a try at medical s...

Lions and Shadows is a semi-autobiographical bildungsroman that charts the becoming of Isherwood the writer as an artist, first losing direction, and yet never wavering in his determination to find a path. After reading this book, I admire him more for the following reasons: - His bravery in writing about "The Test" during the 30's, albeit a veiled account if not given the benefit of hindsight. - His constantly whirring mind and evident dedication to his art, through expositions of friendships f...

'Lions and Shadows' is one of Christopher Isherwood's biographies; this one details the end of his time at prep school, his short Cambridge career, and on through to the publication of his first novel.'Lions and Shadows' prompted me to want to read an Isherwood novel. Though, I think it may have been more enjoyable if I already had. Ironically without 'Lions and Shadows" I imagine it would not have occurred to me to do so.The writing is very dense, with little, to no, dialogue. I would rarely re...

So having finished his diaries, I've dipped into more of Isherwood's work. This is another of his 'fictionalised autobiographies' - a bit like his Berlin Novels - this time covering the period from school, through University and up to the point he leaves for Germany. Isherwood and his friends (including Auden and Spender albeit under pseudonyms) can come across as pretentious (mind you who doesn't cringe looking back at their youth?) and you can't help feeling he was a bit of an idiot when he de...

I was disappointed that this book seemed so self-indulgent and did not have much reflection from a distance on the young man who in the 1920s was unconcerned about money, lacked empathy with the troubles of others, especially those of another class, was politically naive. It's surprising that he should expect readers to be interested in the details of the fantasy world that fascinated him into his twenties, or in the dire plots of early failed novels. I was interested in information about the ti...

What I loved about this book were the crazy, detailed fictional worlds in the stories that Christopher and his friend would make up to entertain themselves. They never wrote them down, because to do so would mean committing to a certain beginning, middle, and end of the story, and that was something they just couldn't do. It amazes me that Isherwood was able to discipline himself enough to become a prolific writer of stories, plays, and novels. Lions and Shadows is a wonderful depiction of the i...

I read this immediately following Berlin Stories, and I liked it much better. The Isherwood who narrates this book seems to have a lot more distance from the Isherwood who appears as a main character, which also means that the Isherwood character gets to be a ::character:: instead of just the impartial observer he is in Berlin stories.I am pretty sure that this book is going to fall into the collection of books I am compelled to make silly allusions to all the time. I can't believe that I haven'...

This is Isherwood's first autobiographical novel detailing his life from ages 17-25 (published when he was 34). Having read his three novels that preceded this one, I would say that the captivating writing style for which he is known for (and that I'm a fan of) really starts here. His attention to detail and the portraits of the people in his life are truly wonderful. I thought he could have cut some stuff out (like the long summaries of unpublished novels and the imaginary Mortmere world), but