Christopher and His Kind

Christopher and His Kind by Christopher Isherwood Read Free Book Online

Book: Christopher and His Kind by Christopher Isherwood Read Free Book Online
Authors: Christopher Isherwood
Tags: Fiction, Classics
the blackmailer who seduces and then ruins him. The next scene is a vision which Veidt has (while in prison?) of a long procession of kings, poets, scientists, philosophers, and other famous victims of homophobia, moving slowly and sadly with heads bowed. Each of them cringes, in turn, as he passes beneath a banner on which “Paragraph 175” is inscribed. In the final scene, Dr. Hirschfeld himself appears. I think the corpse of Veidt, who has committed suicide, is lying in the background. Hirschfeld delivers a speech—that is to say, a series of subtitles—appealing for justice for the Third Sex. This is like the appearance of Dickens beside the corpse of Jo, in Bleak House, to deliver the splendid diatribe which begins: “Dead, your Majesty…”
    *   *   *
    Early in the New Year of 1930, Francis left Berlin, en route for warmer southern lands. So now Christopher was quite alone with the Germans.

THREE
    On February 6, 1930, Christopher wrote to Stephen Spender:
    I’m very apathetic here. It’s all so pleasant and I have utterly lost any sense of strangeness in being abroad. I even don’t particularly care when I see England again. And when I read in my diary about my life at home, it’s like people on the moon.
    Two weeks later, he was back in London. The cause of his unforeseen return was Henry Isherwood, Christopher’s elder uncle. Henry was the only member of the family who could be described as wealthy; he had inherited the Isherwood estates and money when his father died in 1924. Soon after this event, Christopher had decided to become Uncle Henry’s favorite nephew; and he had done so instantaneously, by making it clear to Henry that they had the same sexual nature. Henry’s brothers and sisters had always known about his homosexuality and had made unkind jokes behind his back, of which he was well aware. So Henry was delighted to discover a blood relative who shared his tastes—using the slang expressions of his generation, he referred to himself as being “musical” or “so.”
    Once they had reached this understanding, it hadn’t been hard for Christopher to introduce a benevolent idea into Henry’s head. Since Henry was separated from his wife after a childless marriage; since, as a good Catholic, he couldn’t remarry; since, being what he was, he didn’t want to; since the estates were entailed and Christopher was the heir presumptive—why shouldn’t Christopher be given a small allowance now, at a time of life when he really needed the money?
    Christopher was proud of the diplomacy he had employed to achieve this objective. He boasted of it to his friends. They envied him and weren’t in the least shocked; in his shoes, they said, they would have done the same thing. I suspect that Henry saw through Christopher’s amateur maneuvers from the start and was amused by them. When young, he himself had squeezed money from his father at every opportunity.
    Christopher couldn’t have afforded to live in Berlin without Henry’s allowance. Henry had promised to pay it every three months. Christopher was expected to reciprocate by writing to him regularly and by dining with him when they were both in London. Writing the letters was a weary task, because Henry had to be thanked for his bounty over and over again, and reassured that he was the Model Uncle. The dinners were more fun, because you could get drunk. Henry demanded to be told every detail of Christopher’s sex life; Christopher obliged, exaggerating wildly. Then Henry described his guardsmen and other favorites. “Oh, he’s what I call a tearer—a regular tearin’ bugger, don’t you know?” He had once paid a young man not to wash himself for a month. “At the end of the month, he came to see me and he smelt exactly like a fox! Delicious!” Henry waved his beringed hands and uttered his harsh parrot

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