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.

Prater Violet is one of the most accomplished short novels of the century. Set against the plight of Austria & the rise of fascism this is at once a comic portrait of the film industry & an analysis of the relationship between art & life.

Originally published in 1945, Prater Violetis a stingingly satirical novel about the film industry. It centers around 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. "A deliberate historical parable. Prater Violet resembles the episodes in Goodbye to Berlinand keeps up the same high level of excellence." Edmund Wilson

Artem Samsurov, a charismatic protégé of Lenin and an ardent socialist, reaches sanctuary in Australia after escaping his Siberian labour camp and making a long, perilous journey via Japan. But Brisbane in 1911 turns out not to be quite the workers' paradise he was expecting, or the bickering local Russian émigrés a model of brotherhood. As Artem helps organise a strike and gets dangerously entangled in the death of another exile, he discovers that corruption, repression and injustice are almost as prevalent in Brisbane as at home. Yet he finds fellow spirits in a fiery old suffragette and a distractingly attractive married woman, who undermines his belief that a revolutionary cannot spare the time for relationships. When the revolution dawns and he returns to Russia, will his ideals hold true?

"Prater Violet is the most charming novel I have read in a long time." --Diana Trilling Originally published in 1945, Christopher Isherwood'sPrater Violet is a stingingly satirical novel about the film industry. It centers around the production of the vacuous fictional melodramaPrater Violet, set in nineteenth-century Vienna, providing an ironic counterpoint to tragic events as Hitler annexes the real Vienna of the 1930s. The novel features vivid portraits of the imperious, passionate, and witty Austrian director Friedrich Bergmann and his disciple, a genial young screenwriter--the fictionalized Christopher Isherwood.

Prater Violet concerns the filming of an unashamedly romantic and commercial musical about old Vienna. It is a stinging satirical novel about the film industry, trifling studio feuds, and the fatuous movie Prater Violet, which, ironically, counterpoints the tragic events on the world stage as Hitler's lengthening shadow falls over the real Vienna of the thirties. At its center are vivid portraits of the mocking genius Friedrich Bergmann, the imperious, dazzlingly witty Austrian director, and his disciple, a genial young screenwriter-the fictionalized Christopher Isherwood. When it first appeared in 1945, Prater Violet caused a fury of critical speculation and acclaim. Edmund Wilson called it "a deliberate historical parable," and Diana Trilling's Nation review said, "Prater Violet is the most charming novel I have read in a long time... It is a book written in the author's own person, yet utterly without ego; it is a novel about movie writers which is yet a novel about the life of every serious artist; it is a book without a political moral, but a profound moral-political statement; it is gay, witty, sophisticated, but wholly responsible.

Den gryende manusforfatteren Christopher Isherwood, får en ivrig og utålmodig telefon fra den lidenskapelige og høyt aktede østerrikske filmregissøren Friedrich Bergmann. Bergmann ansetter Isherwood til å redde det imaginære melodramaet «Fiolpiken» fra å ende opp som en tåpelig kjærlighetshistorie. Sammen lider de seg gjennom produksjonen av filmen, som hele tiden trues av indre spenninger og konflikter mellom stridende personligheter.Den satiriske kortromanen Fiolpiken er kanskje en av de vittigste fortellingene som noen gang er blitt skrevet om filmindustrien - samtidig kan den leses som en dyster parallell til de tragiske hendelsene som fant sted i Wien på slutten av 30-tallet: Hitlers annektering av Østerrike og fascismen som stadig brer seg over Europa.