Although his stories about the nightlife of Weimar Berlin became commercially successful and secured his reputation as an author, Isherwood later denounced his writings.[5] In a 1956 essay, Isherwood lamented that he had not understood the suffering of the people which he depicted.[5]
Isherwood stated that 1930s Berlin had been "a real city in which human beings were suffering the miseries of political violence and near-starvation. The 'wickedness' of Berlin's night-life was of the most pitiful kind; the kisses and embraces, as always, had price-tags attached to them.... As for the 'monsters', they were quite ordinary human beings prosaically engaged in getting their living through illegal methods. The only genuine monster was the young foreigner who passed gaily through these scenes of desolation, misinterpreting them to suit his childish fantasy."[5]
