The Last of Mr. Norris
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The Last of Mr. Norris is the title of the U.S. edition of Mr. Norris Changes Trains, a 1935 novel by British writer Christopher Isherwood. It is frequently included with Goodbye to Berlin, another Isherwood novel, in a single volume, The Berlin Stories. Inspiration for the novel was drawn from Ishwerwood's experiences as an English expatriate living in Berlin during the early 1930s.[1]
The novel follows the movements of William Bradshaw, its narrator, who meets a nervous-looking man named Arthur Norris on a train going from Holland to Germany. As they approach the frontier William strikes up a conversation with Mr. Norris, who wears an ill-fitting wig and carries a forged passport.
William and Mr. Norris succeed in crossing the frontier. Afterward, Mr. Norris invites William to dinner and the two become friends. In Berlin they see each other frequently. Several oddities of Mr. Norris's personal life are revealed, one of which is that he is a masochist. Another is that he is a communist, which is dangerous in Hitler-era Germany. Other aspects of Mr. Norris's personal life remain mysterious.
The novel ends after Mr. Norris has fled Berlin, pursued by his secretary, Schmidt, who has been blackmailing him. The novel's last words are drawn from a letter that Mr. Norris sends to William from Rio de Janeiro: "What have I done to deserve all this?"
[edit] References
- ^ Isherwood, Christopher. "Preface", The Berlin Stories. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1945.
