A major figure in 20th-century fiction and the gay rights movement, Christopher Isherwood (1904-86) is represented here by two complete novels, Prater Violet—a 1945 indictment of the film industry's total indifference to the rise of Hitler—and A Single Man, which recounts an English professor's first glimmers of hope after the death of his partner. Also included are episodes from the novels Goodbye to Berlin, Down There on a Visit, and Lions and Shadows, plus samples of his equally inspired nonfiction.