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The Temple
The story behind this novel by one of twentieth-century Britain's greatest poets and men of letters is nearly as remarkable as the book itself. Not long ago, a friend just returned from America told the author that he had read in the Spender manuscript collection of the University of Texas a novel called The Temple and dated 1929. Stephen Spender immediately obtained a copy of his old draft manuscript – admired in the early thirties by his London publisher, but remaining unpublished because of the sensitivity of the contents and fear of libel actions – and read it with astonished pleasure. He then rewrote it in part, taking care not to diminish its ardent youthfulness, its innocence and cynicism, in the immediacy of its view of the last days of Weimar Germany, on the eve of Hitler's rise to power.
It is, as one might expect, and autobiographical novel. Vividly present along with the protagonist, and not much disguised, are the two other members of the famous triumvirate Auden-Spender-Isherwood. Here are the experiences of a twenty-year-old Oxford poet on vacation in Hamburg, who then travels down the Rhine with two companions. We see his response to the bronzed young Germans – the children of the sun – their friendships, parties, sexuality, naturism (especially their cult of the naked body), and all the gauche hedonism that was soon to vanish under the Nazis.
Clearly The Temple is a novel of historical and literary importance,. But it is, as well, an entertaining and moving story of a young man's awakening.
It is, as one might expect, and autobiographical novel. Vividly present along with the protagonist, and not much disguised, are the two other members of the famous triumvirate Auden-Spender-Isherwood. Here are the experiences of a twenty-year-old Oxford poet on vacation in Hamburg, who then travels down the Rhine with two companions. We see his response to the bronzed young Germans – the children of the sun – their friendships, parties, sexuality, naturism (especially their cult of the naked body), and all the gauche hedonism that was soon to vanish under the Nazis.
Clearly The Temple is a novel of historical and literary importance,. But it is, as well, an entertaining and moving story of a young man's awakening.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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1059 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Spender
284 books75 followersSir Stephen Harold Spender (1909–1995), English poet, translator, literary critic and editor, was born in London and educated at the University of Oxford, where he first became associated with such other outspoken British literary figures as W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, C. Day Lewis and Louis MacNeice. His book The Thirties and After (1979) recalls these figures and others prominent in the arts and politics and his Journals 1939–1983, published in 1986 and edited by John Goldsmith, are a detailed account of his times and contemporaries.
His passionate and lyrical verse, filled with images of the modern industrial world yet intensely personal, is collected in such volumes as Twenty Poems (1930), The Still Centre (1939), Poems of Dedication (1946), Collected Poems, 1928–1985 (1986).
World Within World, Stephen Spender's autobiography, contains vivid portraits of Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Lady Ottoline Morrell, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and many other prominent literary figures. First published in 1951 and still in print, World Within World is recognised as one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to come out of the 1930s and 1940s. There can be few better portrayals of the political and social atmosphere of the 1930s.
The Destructive Element (1935), The Creative Element (1953), The Making of a Poem (1962) and Love-Hate Relations: English and American Sensibilities (1974), about literary exchanges between Britain and the United States, contain literary and social criticism. Stephen Spender's other works include short stories, novels such as The Backward Son and the heavily autobiographical The Temple (set in Germany on the 1930s) and translations of the poetry of Lorca, Altolaguerra, Rilke, Hölderlin, Stefan George and Schiller. From 1939 to 1941 he co-edited Horizon magazine with Cyril Connolly and was editor of Encounter magazine from 1953 to 1967.
Stephen Spender owed his own early recognition and publication as a poet to T. S. Eliot. In turn Spender was always a generous champion of young talent, from his raising a fund for the struggling 19-year-old Dylan Thomas, to a lifelong commitment to helping promote the publication of newcomers. In 1972, with his passionate concern for the rights of banned and silenced writers to free expression, he was the chief founder of Index on Censorship, in response to an appeal on behalf of victimised authors worldwide by the Russian dissident Litvinov.
His passionate and lyrical verse, filled with images of the modern industrial world yet intensely personal, is collected in such volumes as Twenty Poems (1930), The Still Centre (1939), Poems of Dedication (1946), Collected Poems, 1928–1985 (1986).
World Within World, Stephen Spender's autobiography, contains vivid portraits of Virginia Woolf, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Lady Ottoline Morrell, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and many other prominent literary figures. First published in 1951 and still in print, World Within World is recognised as one of the most illuminating literary autobiographies to come out of the 1930s and 1940s. There can be few better portrayals of the political and social atmosphere of the 1930s.
The Destructive Element (1935), The Creative Element (1953), The Making of a Poem (1962) and Love-Hate Relations: English and American Sensibilities (1974), about literary exchanges between Britain and the United States, contain literary and social criticism. Stephen Spender's other works include short stories, novels such as The Backward Son and the heavily autobiographical The Temple (set in Germany on the 1930s) and translations of the poetry of Lorca, Altolaguerra, Rilke, Hölderlin, Stefan George and Schiller. From 1939 to 1941 he co-edited Horizon magazine with Cyril Connolly and was editor of Encounter magazine from 1953 to 1967.
Stephen Spender owed his own early recognition and publication as a poet to T. S. Eliot. In turn Spender was always a generous champion of young talent, from his raising a fund for the struggling 19-year-old Dylan Thomas, to a lifelong commitment to helping promote the publication of newcomers. In 1972, with his passionate concern for the rights of banned and silenced writers to free expression, he was the chief founder of Index on Censorship, in response to an appeal on behalf of victimised authors worldwide by the Russian dissident Litvinov.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
June 28, 2020
3.5 stars rounded up
This is Stephen Spender’s only novel. A draft was written in 1929 and amended in the early 1930s, but not published until 1988. It was shown to a publisher in the 1930s but was deemed unpublishable because of its open portrayal of gay relationships. The novel is autobiographical, portraying a twenty year old Oxford poet on a holiday in Hamburg and on the Rhine. It is the height of the Weimar Republic and the lifestyle is hedonistic and carefree. There is a second part set three years later, again in Hamburg where the protagonist, Paul returns to Hamburg and the friends he made three years earlier. This time there is a cloud on the horizon in the form of Nazism which is affecting his friends in different ways. There is a clear sense of foreboding.
Paul, the protagonist, is clearly Spender; the other two Englishmen in the novel William Bradshaw and Simon Wilmot are Isherwood and Auden respectively. The main German characters, Ernst, Joachim (the photographer Herbert List) and Willy are distinct and contrasting. They move in different directions over the three years. Willy has a Nazi girlfriend. Joachim’s boyfriend in the first part, Heinrich is still just on the scene in 1932. However his main friends are now Nazis and he breaks with Joachim, who gets beaten up and has his flat trashed. Ernst has become much more serious and business minded.
The writers Auden, Isherwood, Spender and Upward are all linked together from this time and Spender is primarily known as a poet. His one foray into novel writing does not compare with Isherwood’s writing from this time; but the themes are similar; the struggle for sexual freedom and this stimulating political dissent. The lure of Weimar Germany was obvious; criminal sanctions against homosexuality had been lifted. Also the fact that the Soviet Union had also revoked laws against homosexuality made communism more attractive. Contrast with more conservative Britain and its censorship laws (1928-9 saw the trial relating to The Well of Loneliness). The Temple does not have the power and life of Isherwood, but it does consider the political implications of sexual dissent. The whole is also interesting when juxtaposed with Spender’s later ambivalence about his youth and his sexuality.
It is an interesting contrast with Isherwood and Auden; not as powerful, but it captures a moment in time and there is a feeling of innocence which contrasts well with its loss at the end of the book.
This is Stephen Spender’s only novel. A draft was written in 1929 and amended in the early 1930s, but not published until 1988. It was shown to a publisher in the 1930s but was deemed unpublishable because of its open portrayal of gay relationships. The novel is autobiographical, portraying a twenty year old Oxford poet on a holiday in Hamburg and on the Rhine. It is the height of the Weimar Republic and the lifestyle is hedonistic and carefree. There is a second part set three years later, again in Hamburg where the protagonist, Paul returns to Hamburg and the friends he made three years earlier. This time there is a cloud on the horizon in the form of Nazism which is affecting his friends in different ways. There is a clear sense of foreboding.
Paul, the protagonist, is clearly Spender; the other two Englishmen in the novel William Bradshaw and Simon Wilmot are Isherwood and Auden respectively. The main German characters, Ernst, Joachim (the photographer Herbert List) and Willy are distinct and contrasting. They move in different directions over the three years. Willy has a Nazi girlfriend. Joachim’s boyfriend in the first part, Heinrich is still just on the scene in 1932. However his main friends are now Nazis and he breaks with Joachim, who gets beaten up and has his flat trashed. Ernst has become much more serious and business minded.
The writers Auden, Isherwood, Spender and Upward are all linked together from this time and Spender is primarily known as a poet. His one foray into novel writing does not compare with Isherwood’s writing from this time; but the themes are similar; the struggle for sexual freedom and this stimulating political dissent. The lure of Weimar Germany was obvious; criminal sanctions against homosexuality had been lifted. Also the fact that the Soviet Union had also revoked laws against homosexuality made communism more attractive. Contrast with more conservative Britain and its censorship laws (1928-9 saw the trial relating to The Well of Loneliness). The Temple does not have the power and life of Isherwood, but it does consider the political implications of sexual dissent. The whole is also interesting when juxtaposed with Spender’s later ambivalence about his youth and his sexuality.
It is an interesting contrast with Isherwood and Auden; not as powerful, but it captures a moment in time and there is a feeling of innocence which contrasts well with its loss at the end of the book.
March 23, 2014
Generally disappointing book. Somewhat experimental in character and incomplete. It is not another version of Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin and takes place mostly in conservative Hamburg. There is little sex in comparison, the most graphic being hetero: Spender was of conflicted, or uncertain, or of multiple sexuality, and it shows. The not-at-all-graphic gay sex comes across disapprovingly. Certainly there are plenty of "alabaster-skinned" blue-eyed Nordic boys described, but they are mostly standing around looking pretty. Weimar Germany is insufficiently present. You will not see much of Isherwood or Auden: they appear on only a few pages and only as annoying caricatures.
I would have preferred the original draft from 1929: Spender rewrote it in 1986 for the first publication, moving the date up to 1932 to bring in the Nazis. Thus we can't determine what were Spender's original impressions of Germany at the time, or what were added fifty-plus years later. His "journalistic" record from 1929 would be far more interesting and valuable—just as Isherwood's have become. None of this is to pan the book—the writing is at times quite fine—but it's incomplete and altered from the unavailable original, probably to conserve his own carefully protected reputation and to add the benefit of historical hindsight.
Recommendation: Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin (also included in The Berlin Stories) definitely should be read before this book for a far better fictionalized treatment of wonderfully liberal Weimar Germany. For a nonfiction account, Isherwood again delivers it in Christopher and His Kind.
I would have preferred the original draft from 1929: Spender rewrote it in 1986 for the first publication, moving the date up to 1932 to bring in the Nazis. Thus we can't determine what were Spender's original impressions of Germany at the time, or what were added fifty-plus years later. His "journalistic" record from 1929 would be far more interesting and valuable—just as Isherwood's have become. None of this is to pan the book—the writing is at times quite fine—but it's incomplete and altered from the unavailable original, probably to conserve his own carefully protected reputation and to add the benefit of historical hindsight.
Recommendation: Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin (also included in The Berlin Stories) definitely should be read before this book for a far better fictionalized treatment of wonderfully liberal Weimar Germany. For a nonfiction account, Isherwood again delivers it in Christopher and His Kind.
June 21, 2025
I bought and read this book when it first came out in 1988 but forty odd years later I had lost the book and remembered nothing of my reaction to it. All I did remember was the notoriety the cover photograph attracted (see my footnote *1 Below). So I bought another copy and read it with, unfortunately, ever increasing disappointment, largely because of the enormous difference between what the publishers sold the novel as and what in fact it was. According to the publisher:
"The story behind this novel...is nearly as remarkable as the book itself. Not long ago, a friend just returned from America told the author that he had read in the Spender manuscript collection of the University of Texas a novel called The Temple and dated 1929. Stephen Spender immediately obtained a copy of his old draft manuscript – admired in the early thirties by his London publisher, but remaining unpublished because of the sensitivity of the contents and fear of libel actions – and read it with astonished pleasure. He then rewrote it in part, taking care not to diminish its ardent youthfulness, its innocence and cynicism, in the immediacy of its view of the last days of Weimar Germany, on the eve of Hitler's rise to power."
What Spender said in the introduction is more enlightening:
"I have drawn extensively on the manuscript in rewriting the opening section and also that about the journey along the Rhine (about a quarter of the current novel - Liam). But I have scarcely glanced at the rest because my own memory, combined with the exigencies of narrative and the perspective of hindsight, wrote or rewrote most of the book for me."
So this isn't the publication of a forgotten early novel, indeed Spender also disabuses us of the idea of this work being 'forgotten'. He used it when writing his 1951 autobiography 'World Within World'. This is an autobiographical novel about Spender's time in Hamburg but also his friendship with W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood and also to reinsert himself as a presence and voice in the narrative of Wiemar Germany and the rise of the Nazis as it had been codified, if not canonised, by Isherwood.
What Spender said in his novel of 1928 would be interesting to know but what we have here is a creaky collection of hindsight, Gustaf Gründgens is only one bit of retrospective name dropping Spender indulges in. It would be interesting to know how much of the 'Joachim Lenz' character based on the photographer Herbert List was there in the 1929 novel and how much is the result of his post war fame? Possibly very slight considering List didn't start taking photographs until after 1930 - long after Spender had departed Germany.
So what we have here is a novel, largely if not entirely, written in 1987, pretending to be a work which dates from 1929 and is claiming to be the autobiographical equivalent of Isherwood's many semi-fictional portraits of those years. It is sadly Spender's attempt to keep himself as a central component of the Auden/Isherwood literary legend rather than simply the footnote/punchline to the bad joke of being a CIA dupe.
This 'novel' also throws an interesting light on Spender's sexuality. Although he claims that the original novel couldn't be published because it was pornographic, which we are left to understand it was to homosexual/queer/gay I can't help wondering if it really was. There is lots of allusively homoerotic suggestiveness but the Spender character only has sex with a woman. Which fits into how Spender told his own story - boys were a phase - he only was interested in women. Of course since the death of his widow and the publication of his unexpurgated journals we know this to be untrue. In this novel Spender seems to want to insert himself into that 'gay' Auden/Isherwood story without admitting he was actually ever attracted to his own sex. It certainly provides an interesting background to his later 'plagiarism action against David Leavitt (read: https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/inter... for a full discussion of the complexities of the case).
The main thing about 'The Temple' is that it is not very good and is not even in a minor way an addition to what Isherwood has said about those years. It is a lacuna in the life of Stephen Spender but how many people are interested in that?
*1 The Herbert List photograph of a beautiful German boy bathing in the Rhine in the skimpiest of tighty whities used to illustrate turned out to be a respected elderly German politician a former mayor of a major German city like Stuttgart (I don't remember the city so apologies for my likely error of placement). At the time I thought it must be wonderful, when you are over sixty, to wake up one morning to find that a photograph of yourself young, beautiful and nearly naked by a now famous photographer was on the cover of a lost classic by a major writer. Of course I knew that wouldn't happen to me because - a.) I was never, and knew I was never even at my most self deceiving, as beautiful as the boy in the picture and b.) any picture would have been a Polaroid snapshot and would not have reproduced as wonderfully as List's photograph.
"The story behind this novel...is nearly as remarkable as the book itself. Not long ago, a friend just returned from America told the author that he had read in the Spender manuscript collection of the University of Texas a novel called The Temple and dated 1929. Stephen Spender immediately obtained a copy of his old draft manuscript – admired in the early thirties by his London publisher, but remaining unpublished because of the sensitivity of the contents and fear of libel actions – and read it with astonished pleasure. He then rewrote it in part, taking care not to diminish its ardent youthfulness, its innocence and cynicism, in the immediacy of its view of the last days of Weimar Germany, on the eve of Hitler's rise to power."
What Spender said in the introduction is more enlightening:
"I have drawn extensively on the manuscript in rewriting the opening section and also that about the journey along the Rhine (about a quarter of the current novel - Liam). But I have scarcely glanced at the rest because my own memory, combined with the exigencies of narrative and the perspective of hindsight, wrote or rewrote most of the book for me."
So this isn't the publication of a forgotten early novel, indeed Spender also disabuses us of the idea of this work being 'forgotten'. He used it when writing his 1951 autobiography 'World Within World'. This is an autobiographical novel about Spender's time in Hamburg but also his friendship with W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood and also to reinsert himself as a presence and voice in the narrative of Wiemar Germany and the rise of the Nazis as it had been codified, if not canonised, by Isherwood.
What Spender said in his novel of 1928 would be interesting to know but what we have here is a creaky collection of hindsight, Gustaf Gründgens is only one bit of retrospective name dropping Spender indulges in. It would be interesting to know how much of the 'Joachim Lenz' character based on the photographer Herbert List was there in the 1929 novel and how much is the result of his post war fame? Possibly very slight considering List didn't start taking photographs until after 1930 - long after Spender had departed Germany.
So what we have here is a novel, largely if not entirely, written in 1987, pretending to be a work which dates from 1929 and is claiming to be the autobiographical equivalent of Isherwood's many semi-fictional portraits of those years. It is sadly Spender's attempt to keep himself as a central component of the Auden/Isherwood literary legend rather than simply the footnote/punchline to the bad joke of being a CIA dupe.
This 'novel' also throws an interesting light on Spender's sexuality. Although he claims that the original novel couldn't be published because it was pornographic, which we are left to understand it was to homosexual/queer/gay I can't help wondering if it really was. There is lots of allusively homoerotic suggestiveness but the Spender character only has sex with a woman. Which fits into how Spender told his own story - boys were a phase - he only was interested in women. Of course since the death of his widow and the publication of his unexpurgated journals we know this to be untrue. In this novel Spender seems to want to insert himself into that 'gay' Auden/Isherwood story without admitting he was actually ever attracted to his own sex. It certainly provides an interesting background to his later 'plagiarism action against David Leavitt (read: https://shc.stanford.edu/arcade/inter... for a full discussion of the complexities of the case).
The main thing about 'The Temple' is that it is not very good and is not even in a minor way an addition to what Isherwood has said about those years. It is a lacuna in the life of Stephen Spender but how many people are interested in that?
*1 The Herbert List photograph of a beautiful German boy bathing in the Rhine in the skimpiest of tighty whities used to illustrate turned out to be a respected elderly German politician a former mayor of a major German city like Stuttgart (I don't remember the city so apologies for my likely error of placement). At the time I thought it must be wonderful, when you are over sixty, to wake up one morning to find that a photograph of yourself young, beautiful and nearly naked by a now famous photographer was on the cover of a lost classic by a major writer. Of course I knew that wouldn't happen to me because - a.) I was never, and knew I was never even at my most self deceiving, as beautiful as the boy in the picture and b.) any picture would have been a Polaroid snapshot and would not have reproduced as wonderfully as List's photograph.
November 2, 2024
4.5, rounded down.
The story behind this novel is almost more interesting than the book itself (which is saying something!). Spender initially wrote it between 1929 and '31, based largely on his own adventures in Germany. Characters based on his good friends Auden and Isherwood are only thinly disguised, and one of the fascinating aspects is to compare it with Isherwood's own tome on that period, The Berlin Stories, the basis, of course, of the musical Cabaret.
Spender tried to get it published back then, but it was so scandalous (read: gay!) no one would touch it. He set it aside and in a period of penury in the '60's, sold it to an archive in Texas - where a friend discovered and read it in the mid 80's and brought it back to Spender's attention. In a preface, the author says he reread it, saw its possibilities, and 'slightly' rewrote sections, and it was finally published in 1988 in its present form.
I take that 'slightly' with a huge grain of salt, as Part 2 (which Spender admits he changed from taking place in '29 to '32) seems particularly prescient about the horrors of the Third Reich to come. Nevertheless, the book is eminently readable, with its laissez-faire attitude towards homosexuality just one of its prominent features. The title refers not only to the body itself, but to a nude photo of a German youth the protagonist Paul takes and entitles 'The Temple'.
My only minor quibbles are that Spender, who is better known as a poet, tends to get overly flowery with his prose on occasion, and the book ends rather abruptly with the portentous beating of his friend Heinrich by a Nazi youth. Glad I read it however, and it should find a much wider audience.
The story behind this novel is almost more interesting than the book itself (which is saying something!). Spender initially wrote it between 1929 and '31, based largely on his own adventures in Germany. Characters based on his good friends Auden and Isherwood are only thinly disguised, and one of the fascinating aspects is to compare it with Isherwood's own tome on that period, The Berlin Stories, the basis, of course, of the musical Cabaret.
Spender tried to get it published back then, but it was so scandalous (read: gay!) no one would touch it. He set it aside and in a period of penury in the '60's, sold it to an archive in Texas - where a friend discovered and read it in the mid 80's and brought it back to Spender's attention. In a preface, the author says he reread it, saw its possibilities, and 'slightly' rewrote sections, and it was finally published in 1988 in its present form.
I take that 'slightly' with a huge grain of salt, as Part 2 (which Spender admits he changed from taking place in '29 to '32) seems particularly prescient about the horrors of the Third Reich to come. Nevertheless, the book is eminently readable, with its laissez-faire attitude towards homosexuality just one of its prominent features. The title refers not only to the body itself, but to a nude photo of a German youth the protagonist Paul takes and entitles 'The Temple'.
My only minor quibbles are that Spender, who is better known as a poet, tends to get overly flowery with his prose on occasion, and the book ends rather abruptly with the portentous beating of his friend Heinrich by a Nazi youth. Glad I read it however, and it should find a much wider audience.
April 1, 2019
It took me some time to find this book for sale, in a good condition, but I’m glad I spent that time looking for it. In many ways, its not particular original, and is very much like the Berlin novels of Isherwood, quite heavily overlapping at times, and featuring a character based on Isherwood himself. I think I should be bored of these kinds of early 20th century upper middle class Oxford-via-Continental-Europe-centric voyages of self-discovery? But I finished the whole novel, so I think perhaps I am not.
This novel does stand apart from its similar counterparts because of its retrospective insight, being partially rewritten and completed in the 80s, and therefore having a knowingness about the looming war. I’m not entirely sure if this ruins it though, because it lacks the prophetic qualities of Orwell, Auden, Waugh etc., and comes across a little heavy handed. That is not to say Spender does not have the power to write in this way, but simply because of the rewriting and the date of publication we cannot know whether it was really there originally.
The potentially clumsy attitude towards the war is however balanced and intertwined by some more sensitive introspective nods to suppressed youthful sexuality; a ‘Jew’ fetishizing his own persecution, covering a Nazi uniform in spit, photographing the Aryan teen and erecting his form as a temple of queer excellence, fucking a girl on the beach whilst the Brown Shirts shoot target practice in the woods behind you. Sex, importantly, comes before politics. And it is a complex sex being featured, which is always the best sex. Lust that continually tends to disgust, and a total lack of trust; a lack of trust in one’s own convictions; and erections. But also importantly, a disgust that moves us all along onto our next conquest, just as biology and the species needs us to. Interestingly one of the most striking images of the book is of a pregnant woman, stood on a balcony, silently surrounded by the embers of a bonfire, lit by a group of men (one of to whom she is married) all quietly falling in love-hate with each other. I’m not sure what the message is, but I think there is one.
Another important aspect of the book, which again relates to both the politics and the sex, is the rejection of labels. Well, certain labels, and identity politics. Spender sees himself as a poet, and not much more; ethnicity, religion, sexuality, all seem to be shrugged off in favour of an identity formed around one’s action, creations, passions and aesthetic appreciations. Communists, Nazis, all are mocked. I think this is something characteristic of the Weimar Republic, and something we could all learn from today.
Perhaps what makes me most happy about this book is reading it in the knowledge that, much like Auden, although in a more severe manner, Spender failed his Oxford degree.
tl;dr:
Posh Oxford pseudo-Commie eye-fucks his way around pre-War German.
This novel does stand apart from its similar counterparts because of its retrospective insight, being partially rewritten and completed in the 80s, and therefore having a knowingness about the looming war. I’m not entirely sure if this ruins it though, because it lacks the prophetic qualities of Orwell, Auden, Waugh etc., and comes across a little heavy handed. That is not to say Spender does not have the power to write in this way, but simply because of the rewriting and the date of publication we cannot know whether it was really there originally.
The potentially clumsy attitude towards the war is however balanced and intertwined by some more sensitive introspective nods to suppressed youthful sexuality; a ‘Jew’ fetishizing his own persecution, covering a Nazi uniform in spit, photographing the Aryan teen and erecting his form as a temple of queer excellence, fucking a girl on the beach whilst the Brown Shirts shoot target practice in the woods behind you. Sex, importantly, comes before politics. And it is a complex sex being featured, which is always the best sex. Lust that continually tends to disgust, and a total lack of trust; a lack of trust in one’s own convictions; and erections. But also importantly, a disgust that moves us all along onto our next conquest, just as biology and the species needs us to. Interestingly one of the most striking images of the book is of a pregnant woman, stood on a balcony, silently surrounded by the embers of a bonfire, lit by a group of men (one of to whom she is married) all quietly falling in love-hate with each other. I’m not sure what the message is, but I think there is one.
Another important aspect of the book, which again relates to both the politics and the sex, is the rejection of labels. Well, certain labels, and identity politics. Spender sees himself as a poet, and not much more; ethnicity, religion, sexuality, all seem to be shrugged off in favour of an identity formed around one’s action, creations, passions and aesthetic appreciations. Communists, Nazis, all are mocked. I think this is something characteristic of the Weimar Republic, and something we could all learn from today.
Perhaps what makes me most happy about this book is reading it in the knowledge that, much like Auden, although in a more severe manner, Spender failed his Oxford degree.
tl;dr:
Posh Oxford pseudo-Commie eye-fucks his way around pre-War German.
May 29, 2013
This is a surprisingly beautiful story of an Englishman, Paul, and his colleagues and comrades that he meets abroad mostly in Hamburg, Germany during 1927-1931 (Ernst, Joachim, & Willy along with the boys that occupy their romantic obsessions). A strange time between WWI and WWII, almost prophetic of friends and lovers that would be forced to become enemies just 10 years later. Wonderful poetry and literary references, as well, to bridge symbolism of the abstract with the reality of this time.
The back-story of Stephen Spender's writing of this piece and his relationship with W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood are also worth researching.
The back-story of Stephen Spender's writing of this piece and his relationship with W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood are also worth researching.
May 2, 2022
Uma história de amor. Uma história de amor desenganado e triste. Uma história impossível...
Escrito em 1929 numa primeira versão, redescoberto nos anos oitenta foi reescrito por Stephen Spender em 1987, ano em que finalmente foi publicado.
Um romance de iniciação sobre as vivências homossexuais de uma geração de ouro da literatura britânica onde além de Spender teremos de incluir Christopher Isherwood e W. H. Auden.
Dividido em duas partes que correspondem a duas viagens do autor/narrador a Hamburgo, este livro não deixam de caracterizar as tensões sociais e políticas da Alemanha da República de Weimar e do processo de ascensão do partido nazi. Não deixa igualmente de problematizar a homofobia presente nas sociedade europeia do temos entre as duas guerras. Na realidade neste final dos anos 20, as personagens deste romances pressente a crescente homofobia e discriminação.
Num estilo fortemente auto centrado num narrador algo depressivo a história que se conta é a dos desamores e das impossibilidades do amor entre dois homens. O registo varia pois entre a ironia desistente e a esperança sem futuro que precente os tempos negros no nazismo.
Uma nota: a edição brasileira que li da editora 34, numa tradução Raul de Sá Barbosa é um destacado produto de edição que merece uma referência positiva. A primeira delas é a publicação de uma nota biográfica sobre o tradutor, e o facto de ter sido alvo de perseguição homofóbica durante a ditadura brasileira. Uma outra nota, parte do facto de entre as personagens do romance estar um fotógrafo cujo imaginário nasce do fotógrafo alemão Herbert List que foi amigo de Spender. Esta edição tem além da foto de capa belíssima, publica ainda seis fotografias deste artista alemão que apresento também nesta publicação.
Escrito em 1929 numa primeira versão, redescoberto nos anos oitenta foi reescrito por Stephen Spender em 1987, ano em que finalmente foi publicado.
Um romance de iniciação sobre as vivências homossexuais de uma geração de ouro da literatura britânica onde além de Spender teremos de incluir Christopher Isherwood e W. H. Auden.
Dividido em duas partes que correspondem a duas viagens do autor/narrador a Hamburgo, este livro não deixam de caracterizar as tensões sociais e políticas da Alemanha da República de Weimar e do processo de ascensão do partido nazi. Não deixa igualmente de problematizar a homofobia presente nas sociedade europeia do temos entre as duas guerras. Na realidade neste final dos anos 20, as personagens deste romances pressente a crescente homofobia e discriminação.
Num estilo fortemente auto centrado num narrador algo depressivo a história que se conta é a dos desamores e das impossibilidades do amor entre dois homens. O registo varia pois entre a ironia desistente e a esperança sem futuro que precente os tempos negros no nazismo.
Uma nota: a edição brasileira que li da editora 34, numa tradução Raul de Sá Barbosa é um destacado produto de edição que merece uma referência positiva. A primeira delas é a publicação de uma nota biográfica sobre o tradutor, e o facto de ter sido alvo de perseguição homofóbica durante a ditadura brasileira. Uma outra nota, parte do facto de entre as personagens do romance estar um fotógrafo cujo imaginário nasce do fotógrafo alemão Herbert List que foi amigo de Spender. Esta edição tem além da foto de capa belíssima, publica ainda seis fotografias deste artista alemão que apresento também nesta publicação.
October 14, 2024
Such an interesting book. Stephen Spender wrote the original manuscript in fragments back in 1929 and then forgot about it until the 80s when he finally finished it with a little hindsight. I am glad his original notes were rediscovered and the book was finished because it is an interesting addition to the Christopher Isherwood and Friends canon. I found the main character Paul (based heavily on Spender himself) to be fascinating and frankly relatable at times which is not something I expected from a book that takes place 95 years ago. This era in history is one of my favorites to read about and I’m glad I took a chance on this little known (quasi) classic.
August 26, 2025
There is a kind of light in the Berlin summer that I love best of all: when the sun is shining, golden and warm, on the forest, or a vast Brandenburger field. Just behind it is a blue-black cloud wall of incoming rain. Everything seems both doomed and holy in this illumination.
Spender’s The Temple takes place entirely in this light. He documents two visits to inter-war Germany, first in Summer 1929 and then in Winter 1932. The first visit is a hedonistic queer delight of a journey through the Weimar Republic. The politics are liberal, the ideas are modern and the party is still in full swing.
There are darker undercurrents (the nightly shooting in the forest near the beach resort, Rathenaus murder, the sentiment against Jewish refugees from the east) but the sun is still high. It was such a strange joy to read how little Germans have really changed. I recognise the body culture, the open-mindedness, and the borderline narcissistic self-analysis. I also recognise the other, less pleasant, qualities. The second visit is equally fascinating. The Nazis are ascending. The summer is over.
Spenders writing is glorious. He has an excellent feeling for the time, place and people (probably because this thing is a thinly-veiled autobiographical account) and really captures the liberal, strange and doomed Germany of those few interesting years.
Spender’s The Temple takes place entirely in this light. He documents two visits to inter-war Germany, first in Summer 1929 and then in Winter 1932. The first visit is a hedonistic queer delight of a journey through the Weimar Republic. The politics are liberal, the ideas are modern and the party is still in full swing.
There are darker undercurrents (the nightly shooting in the forest near the beach resort, Rathenaus murder, the sentiment against Jewish refugees from the east) but the sun is still high. It was such a strange joy to read how little Germans have really changed. I recognise the body culture, the open-mindedness, and the borderline narcissistic self-analysis. I also recognise the other, less pleasant, qualities. The second visit is equally fascinating. The Nazis are ascending. The summer is over.
Spenders writing is glorious. He has an excellent feeling for the time, place and people (probably because this thing is a thinly-veiled autobiographical account) and really captures the liberal, strange and doomed Germany of those few interesting years.
January 10, 2023
Once we asked him whether he hated the Germans.
'What did he say?'
'He said: "I loved all the soldiers in the trenches, whichever side they were on, but specially the Germans, just because we were taught to hate them. Public hatred breeds private love. Love your enemies! My God, I'm in love with England's!'
Na początku, jeszcze na długo przed rozpoczęciem tej lektury, uznałam, że okładka ma bardzo queer vibes. Potem dowiedziałam się, że sam Spender był queer osobą; oczekiwałam więc trochę, że samo "The Temple" również będzie miało taki charakter. A później, na sam koniec, przeczytałam, że na okładce znajduje się właśnie sam Stephen Spender.
Stephen Spender w "The Temple" zabiera nas do Niemiec, do Hamburga, w tym wyjątkowym okresie w 1929 roku, dekadę po zakończeniu I wojny światowej i kolejną dekadę przed rozpoczęciem II. Podążamy tam za angielskim queer literatą, Paulem, który podczas wyjazdu zaprzyjaźnia się z grupą młodych mężczyzn, tak mu podobnych.
'Do you know what Jakob, my husband calls you?'
'No.'
"Der Engel!" He calls you "Der unschuldige Engel-länder" because, as he says, you look so innocent. "A fallen angel," I laugh at him. But now perhaps I think you are only a falling one. But do not bring down my son with you in your fall. He is clean.'
Wydaje mi się, że "The Temple" nie posiada bardzo ścisłej fabuły; to po prostu życie młodych mężczyzn, w dwóch wyjątkowych okresach historii. Powieść jest podzielona na dwie części. Pierwsza część zaczyna się od pięknych scen, też bezpośrednich, przedstawiających seksualność głównego bohatera. Później, kiedy przyjeżdża on do Niemiec, spotyka grupę młodych ludzi w jego wieku, dzielących z nim tendencje seksualne i romantyczne, i to żyjących swoją miłością głośno. Ci ludzie flirtują ze sobą, spędzają ze sobą noce, dzielą hotelowe pokoje, czerpią radość ze swojego ciała, całują się i mówią o zakochaniu, nie tak, jakby miał to być sekret, bo są w bezpiecznym dla siebie środowisku, bezpiecznej dla siebie grupie. Powiem wam, że czytając te rozdziały, poczułam, że to wszystko, czego kiedykolwiek chciałam i potrzebowałam w historii.
Druga część to już ten okres w historii, gdzie ruch nazistowski zaczął przybierać na sile, a w życie naszych postaci wdziera się przemoc i zdrada; zwłaszcza, że większość tych młodych mężczyzn jest wręcz podwójnie zagrożona, bo posiadają, nawet znikome, korzenie żydowskie. Spender świetnie buduje w tych rozdziałach napięcie, lęk, ale też marzenia naszych chłopców o wolności, o byciu gdzieś poza, gdzieś bardzo daleko, o nowym początku. To wspaniała, choć tak krótka historia o poczuciu własnej tożsamości i solidarności z nam podobnymi; o tym, kto się tego wyprze, a kto zachowa "prawdę". Ostatnia scena powieści jest świetna i ogromnie poruszająca.
W powieści znajdują się dwie sceny erotyczne, jedna między osobami tej samej płci, druga między bohaterami płci przeciwnej. Te momenty są napisane dosyć skromnie i bez szczegółów, za to sprawiły na mnie dość silne wrażenie, wraz z ich konsekwencjami dla fabuły i głównego bohatera. Zresztą musimy pamiętać, że "The Temple" zostało wydane w czasach, które nie były homoseksualistom przychylne.
"The Temple" to powieść autobiograficzna, co sprawia, że Stephen Spender napisał tę opowieść z ogromem miłości i szacunku; jest to pewnego rodzaju hołd. Istnieje tylko jedna odpowiedź na to, jakie uczucia wzbudziła we mnie ta historia, i jest to najwyższa możliwa ocena.
Must-read.
Even at the time I could not help thinking it terribly FUNNY when I remembered the beautiful parties and people I had here.
'What did he say?'
'He said: "I loved all the soldiers in the trenches, whichever side they were on, but specially the Germans, just because we were taught to hate them. Public hatred breeds private love. Love your enemies! My God, I'm in love with England's!'
Na początku, jeszcze na długo przed rozpoczęciem tej lektury, uznałam, że okładka ma bardzo queer vibes. Potem dowiedziałam się, że sam Spender był queer osobą; oczekiwałam więc trochę, że samo "The Temple" również będzie miało taki charakter. A później, na sam koniec, przeczytałam, że na okładce znajduje się właśnie sam Stephen Spender.
Stephen Spender w "The Temple" zabiera nas do Niemiec, do Hamburga, w tym wyjątkowym okresie w 1929 roku, dekadę po zakończeniu I wojny światowej i kolejną dekadę przed rozpoczęciem II. Podążamy tam za angielskim queer literatą, Paulem, który podczas wyjazdu zaprzyjaźnia się z grupą młodych mężczyzn, tak mu podobnych.
'Do you know what Jakob, my husband calls you?'
'No.'
"Der Engel!" He calls you "Der unschuldige Engel-länder" because, as he says, you look so innocent. "A fallen angel," I laugh at him. But now perhaps I think you are only a falling one. But do not bring down my son with you in your fall. He is clean.'
Wydaje mi się, że "The Temple" nie posiada bardzo ścisłej fabuły; to po prostu życie młodych mężczyzn, w dwóch wyjątkowych okresach historii. Powieść jest podzielona na dwie części. Pierwsza część zaczyna się od pięknych scen, też bezpośrednich, przedstawiających seksualność głównego bohatera. Później, kiedy przyjeżdża on do Niemiec, spotyka grupę młodych ludzi w jego wieku, dzielących z nim tendencje seksualne i romantyczne, i to żyjących swoją miłością głośno. Ci ludzie flirtują ze sobą, spędzają ze sobą noce, dzielą hotelowe pokoje, czerpią radość ze swojego ciała, całują się i mówią o zakochaniu, nie tak, jakby miał to być sekret, bo są w bezpiecznym dla siebie środowisku, bezpiecznej dla siebie grupie. Powiem wam, że czytając te rozdziały, poczułam, że to wszystko, czego kiedykolwiek chciałam i potrzebowałam w historii.
Druga część to już ten okres w historii, gdzie ruch nazistowski zaczął przybierać na sile, a w życie naszych postaci wdziera się przemoc i zdrada; zwłaszcza, że większość tych młodych mężczyzn jest wręcz podwójnie zagrożona, bo posiadają, nawet znikome, korzenie żydowskie. Spender świetnie buduje w tych rozdziałach napięcie, lęk, ale też marzenia naszych chłopców o wolności, o byciu gdzieś poza, gdzieś bardzo daleko, o nowym początku. To wspaniała, choć tak krótka historia o poczuciu własnej tożsamości i solidarności z nam podobnymi; o tym, kto się tego wyprze, a kto zachowa "prawdę". Ostatnia scena powieści jest świetna i ogromnie poruszająca.
W powieści znajdują się dwie sceny erotyczne, jedna między osobami tej samej płci, druga między bohaterami płci przeciwnej. Te momenty są napisane dosyć skromnie i bez szczegółów, za to sprawiły na mnie dość silne wrażenie, wraz z ich konsekwencjami dla fabuły i głównego bohatera. Zresztą musimy pamiętać, że "The Temple" zostało wydane w czasach, które nie były homoseksualistom przychylne.
"The Temple" to powieść autobiograficzna, co sprawia, że Stephen Spender napisał tę opowieść z ogromem miłości i szacunku; jest to pewnego rodzaju hołd. Istnieje tylko jedna odpowiedź na to, jakie uczucia wzbudziła we mnie ta historia, i jest to najwyższa możliwa ocena.
Must-read.
Even at the time I could not help thinking it terribly FUNNY when I remembered the beautiful parties and people I had here.
March 16, 2020
Several young Englishmen travel to Weimar Germany, searching for love, the freedom to express their love, their fascination with a physical male idea, and their art. Related from the perspective of Paul, he describes his companions, the various Germans they meet, and the terrifying change creeping over Germany as various individuals struggle against poverty and the blows to their pride find refuge in the Nazi party, creating a mythological dogma of hatred and scapegoats to explain away problems and corruption that won’t go away.
This story was terrifying because it was so real, there was so much I could identify with. The individual’s attempts to express themselves and their art, the way they collide and find common ground with those possessing no interest in art, living in a different culture which offers freedom, yet fresh obstacles, all the while that freedom is slowly being eroded by a communal block that is hateful, destructive, and almost comic in its falseness, yet other people cling to it with a ferocity as if it were a universal truth. I felt the bewilderment of the artists in the face of it all, their own need for a community to stand with and support them in the face of such hatred, which grows more malicious and organized with the rise of the Nazis. At the same time, these artists are fractitous, opinionated, and often at odds with each other, making their community one built on shaky ground. One can see a pattern in similar communities and events that parallel these too closely for comfort, so much that it feels like a warning cry from a past voice. It’s not all warnings, though. The voice carries bittersweet memories of the brighter moments of the Weimar republic when a young Englishman could find a love and freedom there forbidden in England. Only the love’s accessibility was often of a dubious nature, due to tendency to separate the physical from the emotional and intellectual, to throw themselves into the arms of physically impressive young Germans who had their own agendas and purposes for catching them. Poverty and battered pride were discovered at the core of these exchanges, which rose like snakes to attack the young men who found their emotions engaged in transactions involving rules they didn’t truly understand. All in all, this book offered a vivid, three-dimensional picture of Weimar Germany, those who reaped its rewards and suffered for them, and how it eventually crumbled. For doing this from a unique, individual perspective that breathed life into every individual he interacted with, I give this four stars.
This story was terrifying because it was so real, there was so much I could identify with. The individual’s attempts to express themselves and their art, the way they collide and find common ground with those possessing no interest in art, living in a different culture which offers freedom, yet fresh obstacles, all the while that freedom is slowly being eroded by a communal block that is hateful, destructive, and almost comic in its falseness, yet other people cling to it with a ferocity as if it were a universal truth. I felt the bewilderment of the artists in the face of it all, their own need for a community to stand with and support them in the face of such hatred, which grows more malicious and organized with the rise of the Nazis. At the same time, these artists are fractitous, opinionated, and often at odds with each other, making their community one built on shaky ground. One can see a pattern in similar communities and events that parallel these too closely for comfort, so much that it feels like a warning cry from a past voice. It’s not all warnings, though. The voice carries bittersweet memories of the brighter moments of the Weimar republic when a young Englishman could find a love and freedom there forbidden in England. Only the love’s accessibility was often of a dubious nature, due to tendency to separate the physical from the emotional and intellectual, to throw themselves into the arms of physically impressive young Germans who had their own agendas and purposes for catching them. Poverty and battered pride were discovered at the core of these exchanges, which rose like snakes to attack the young men who found their emotions engaged in transactions involving rules they didn’t truly understand. All in all, this book offered a vivid, three-dimensional picture of Weimar Germany, those who reaped its rewards and suffered for them, and how it eventually crumbled. For doing this from a unique, individual perspective that breathed life into every individual he interacted with, I give this four stars.
November 10, 2017
The Temple, which Spender based on experiences he had while on vacation in Germany in 1929, tells the story of the protagonist’s encounter with that country’s youth culture. It is also the story of repression, censorship, sexual freedom, and its related political dissent.
In 1985, while conducting research in the rare books section of the Humanities Center at the University of Texas, the poet, John Fuller, discovered the manuscript of The Temple and soon told Spender of his find. (Spender had sold the manuscript to the university in 1962 when he was having financial problems and needed money).
Spender contacted the library and received a Xerox copy of the manuscript he had begun writing when he was 19-years old. Before finally publishing the novel in 1988, Spender decided to make only minor changes to preserve the youthful vigor of the original. The biggest change was to move the date of his second visit to Germany from 1929 to 1932, thus allowing us to better feel the coming of the Nazis, even though Spender and his friends seem politically unaware of the evil soon to enter the world.
The autobiographical novel opens with Paul Schoner (Spender), a young college student, finding himself falling in love with Marston, a fellow male student. Though the relationship goes nowhere and does not even become a friendship, Paul makes other friends in Simon Wilmot (W. H. Auden) and William Bradshaw (Christopher Isherwood).
While commiserating with his friends, Simon asks Paul if he is a virgin. When Paul confesses he is, Wilmot tells him that “Germany’s the Only Place for Sex. England’s No Good.” Following the Soviet Union’s lead, the Weimar Republic was planning to remove criminal sanctions against gays and lesbians. England, however, like most other European countries, still criminalized homosexuality.
Some days later, Paul meets a student from Germany, Ernst Stockmann. When Ernst invites Paul to come to Germany for a visit, he accepts. Envious, William tells Paul that “the moment I can get out of here, I intend to go to Berlin…I want to leave this country where censors ban James Joyce and the police raid the gallery where D. H. Lawrence’s pictures are on show.”
In his introduction to the novel, Spender states that in the late 1920s, young artists in England were more concerned with censorship than with the changing political climate affecting Europe.
Spender writes that “for many of my friends and for myself, Germany seemed a paradise where there was no censorship and young Germans enjoyed extraordinary freedom in their lives…Censorship, more than anything else, created in the minds of young English writers an image of their country as one to get away from: much as in the early 20s, Prohibition resulted in young Americans like Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald leaving America and going to France or Spain. For them, drink; for us, sex.”
Spender also writes that the young British artists found themselves wanting to write about the very topics publishers would not touch. The Temple, which Spender could not sell because of references to homosexuality and threats of libel, is an autobiographical novel of experiences he had in Germany where he spent time on a vacation in 1929, and the drafts he sent to his friends were, “dispatches from a front line in our joint war against censorship.”
In a conversation with Joachim Lenz, a friend Paul makes in Germany, he asks, “Is young people living their lives the new Germany? Is that the Weimer Republic?” Joachim, replies “For many members of this generation, yes. Perhaps, after all Germany has been through, we Germans are tired. After the War and years of starvation, perhaps we need to swim and to lie in the sun and make love in order to recharge our lives…We want our lives to replace those who became corpses.” When Paul asks how it will end, Joachim says he does not know. Perhaps some marvelous life affirming culture will spring to life or “perhaps something terrible, monstrous, the end.”
Though the novel is set in the 1929 and draws on the struggle with censorship and the desire to live fully, in the background, the reader will faintly hear the rumblings of Hitler and the inevitable Second World War.
So, is The Temple a “great novel? No. Spender is not the novelist his friend, Christopher Isherwood was, especially with his Berlin Stories. The plot lacks cohesion, the writing is sometimes stilted and uneven and feels as though written by a 19-year old writing his first novel (as is the case!). But, Spender’s ability to portray people and places, his growing ability to create beautiful sentences, his exploration of youth and first love, as well as the youthfulness of the writing, gives this novel energy and makes it enjoyable to read.
Though he does not excel as a novelist, Sir Stephen Spender (knighted in 1983) was an important modern poet and critic of the early-mid 2th century. He is perhaps known best for his anti-fascist, social justice oriented poems from the 30s. His poems tend to be more personal as they express the speakers views about the external world. In the 40s, he gained a reputation for his critical essays.
In 1965, the US Library of Congress appointed him Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, the seventh person to hold the position and the first person who was not a citizen of the US.
Though Stephen Spender has largely faded from the eyes of the public, The Temple can still speak to us about cultural differences, youthfulness, love, enjoyment of the body, freedom, and the evil that can destroy it all.
In 1985, while conducting research in the rare books section of the Humanities Center at the University of Texas, the poet, John Fuller, discovered the manuscript of The Temple and soon told Spender of his find. (Spender had sold the manuscript to the university in 1962 when he was having financial problems and needed money).
Spender contacted the library and received a Xerox copy of the manuscript he had begun writing when he was 19-years old. Before finally publishing the novel in 1988, Spender decided to make only minor changes to preserve the youthful vigor of the original. The biggest change was to move the date of his second visit to Germany from 1929 to 1932, thus allowing us to better feel the coming of the Nazis, even though Spender and his friends seem politically unaware of the evil soon to enter the world.
The autobiographical novel opens with Paul Schoner (Spender), a young college student, finding himself falling in love with Marston, a fellow male student. Though the relationship goes nowhere and does not even become a friendship, Paul makes other friends in Simon Wilmot (W. H. Auden) and William Bradshaw (Christopher Isherwood).
While commiserating with his friends, Simon asks Paul if he is a virgin. When Paul confesses he is, Wilmot tells him that “Germany’s the Only Place for Sex. England’s No Good.” Following the Soviet Union’s lead, the Weimar Republic was planning to remove criminal sanctions against gays and lesbians. England, however, like most other European countries, still criminalized homosexuality.
Some days later, Paul meets a student from Germany, Ernst Stockmann. When Ernst invites Paul to come to Germany for a visit, he accepts. Envious, William tells Paul that “the moment I can get out of here, I intend to go to Berlin…I want to leave this country where censors ban James Joyce and the police raid the gallery where D. H. Lawrence’s pictures are on show.”
In his introduction to the novel, Spender states that in the late 1920s, young artists in England were more concerned with censorship than with the changing political climate affecting Europe.
Spender writes that “for many of my friends and for myself, Germany seemed a paradise where there was no censorship and young Germans enjoyed extraordinary freedom in their lives…Censorship, more than anything else, created in the minds of young English writers an image of their country as one to get away from: much as in the early 20s, Prohibition resulted in young Americans like Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald leaving America and going to France or Spain. For them, drink; for us, sex.”
Spender also writes that the young British artists found themselves wanting to write about the very topics publishers would not touch. The Temple, which Spender could not sell because of references to homosexuality and threats of libel, is an autobiographical novel of experiences he had in Germany where he spent time on a vacation in 1929, and the drafts he sent to his friends were, “dispatches from a front line in our joint war against censorship.”
In a conversation with Joachim Lenz, a friend Paul makes in Germany, he asks, “Is young people living their lives the new Germany? Is that the Weimer Republic?” Joachim, replies “For many members of this generation, yes. Perhaps, after all Germany has been through, we Germans are tired. After the War and years of starvation, perhaps we need to swim and to lie in the sun and make love in order to recharge our lives…We want our lives to replace those who became corpses.” When Paul asks how it will end, Joachim says he does not know. Perhaps some marvelous life affirming culture will spring to life or “perhaps something terrible, monstrous, the end.”
Though the novel is set in the 1929 and draws on the struggle with censorship and the desire to live fully, in the background, the reader will faintly hear the rumblings of Hitler and the inevitable Second World War.
So, is The Temple a “great novel? No. Spender is not the novelist his friend, Christopher Isherwood was, especially with his Berlin Stories. The plot lacks cohesion, the writing is sometimes stilted and uneven and feels as though written by a 19-year old writing his first novel (as is the case!). But, Spender’s ability to portray people and places, his growing ability to create beautiful sentences, his exploration of youth and first love, as well as the youthfulness of the writing, gives this novel energy and makes it enjoyable to read.
Though he does not excel as a novelist, Sir Stephen Spender (knighted in 1983) was an important modern poet and critic of the early-mid 2th century. He is perhaps known best for his anti-fascist, social justice oriented poems from the 30s. His poems tend to be more personal as they express the speakers views about the external world. In the 40s, he gained a reputation for his critical essays.
In 1965, the US Library of Congress appointed him Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, the seventh person to hold the position and the first person who was not a citizen of the US.
Though Stephen Spender has largely faded from the eyes of the public, The Temple can still speak to us about cultural differences, youthfulness, love, enjoyment of the body, freedom, and the evil that can destroy it all.
May 21, 2021
February 3, 2025
fairly interesting read, especially given the insight into late weimar/early nazi germany - i like the variety between the characters, though their dialogue can be a bit hit or miss
not enough gay shit going on for my liking but that's just my issue
not enough gay shit going on for my liking but that's just my issue
September 29, 2024
I'm really fascinated by how this book got written - Spender wrote it in the 20's, but didn't publish it - a researcher found it in his papers years later. Spender revised it, and finally published it in 1988 - it's a semi-autobiographical story about his trip to Munich in 1929. Fascinating. Full of all sorts of teen age gay boy angst.
February 11, 2022
Uma leitura que vi que foi agradável porém senti alguns problemas no enredo. Não sei se é o estilo de Spender, mas, achei algumas partes bastante rasas na história, que poderiam ter sido muito mais bem desenvolvidas do que simplesmente serem tacadas na história. Muitas partes em branco que faz a gente ter de ter como apoio nossa própria imaginação mas não no sentido bom como em Clarice Lispector e outros mas sim de uma maneira até que frustrante. “Call me by your name versão Shoppee”.
November 30, 2010
Started this on a whim this past weekend, hoping to continue traveling throughout Europe in the 1920's (after re-reading "The Sun Also Rises" on Thanksgiving). Mostly an autobiographical, especially the first part, of Stephen Spender's (as Paul S.) visits to Germany, as he finds himself coming out of his reserved English skin. He meets interesting, artistic characters while at Oxford and in Hamburg. Also, Paul has his first homosexual and heterosexual experiences within hours of each other. The second part was the intriguing portion of the narrative, when Paul revisits Hamburg and calls upon his friends three years later on the eve of the Nazi takeover of Germany.
July 13, 2012
The Temple is amongst them: the novels that influenced my life (Maurice, Farewell Symphony, How Long Has This Been Going On), and yet this was the only Stephen Spender novel I ever read (or considered reading). It is remarkable how the German backdrop of The Temple (1929) much later seem to fit so well with my interest in Berlin, German, and Prussian history. Or did it actually stem from this novel? Who will know?
December 18, 2019
Nas minhas arrumações, volta não volta descubro alguns tesouros...e este livro está lá perto.
Gostei, gostei mesmo muito.
Uma história verídica, um caderno de notas da décadas de 20, esquecido pelo autor e reescrito 60 anos mais tarde.
Um jovem que precisou viajar para uma Alemanha pré nazista para descobrir a liberdade de ser quem era!
Gostei, gostei mesmo muito.
Uma história verídica, um caderno de notas da décadas de 20, esquecido pelo autor e reescrito 60 anos mais tarde.
Um jovem que precisou viajar para uma Alemanha pré nazista para descobrir a liberdade de ser quem era!
December 26, 2008
The thing that most sticks out in my mind from this book was the observation that we often fall in love with who we want a person to be instead of who they really are.
August 21, 2020
Stephen Spender. The Temple. 1988.
The famous triad of youthful friends, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden, and Stephen Spender were all drawn to Weimar Germany because they felt they would have more freedom to express their homosexuality than in England. Their writing from this period documents not only their sexual liberation but the rise of the Nazis [Think of the movies I am a Camera and Cabaret, based on Isherwood’s books of this period]. The Temple was Spender’s unfinished attempt to also depict in a novel what was happening in Germany between wars. Spender’s fame was his poetry, and when his forgotten manuscript for The Temple resurfaced in the late 20th century, he completed it. The finished product has a patched together, unpolished feel to it, but Spender’s look back to Weimar Germany will carry most readers through to the novel’s end.
Spender’s protagonist, Paul, initially feels unlucky in love, because he always seems to drive away the youths who are the objects of his ardent attentions. It came as a shock for him that his German host, Ernst, treated him in the same fashion, suffocating him with attention and adulation. [I couldn’t help but wonder if this epiphany actually occurred in Spender’s youth or was a revision from decades later.] Paul was circumspect and generally avoided entanglements of a sexual nature with the beautiful young men in Germany who were so numerous and who ran with his circle of well-heeled German friends [Again, I wondered if the protagonist’s detachment from his sexual urges was a function of his youth and inexperience or another editorial revision of Spender’s from decades later]. Paul wanted to be friends with these German boys, and he hoped that physical intimacy would follow friendship. [If anyone can explain to me why Paul has coitus on the beach with the incidental character, Irmi, a German girl, I am all ears.]
Paul was critical of England’s requirement that Germany pay reparations for World War I that led to its hyperinflation and widespread poverty of the 1920s. There was an abundance of unemployed, pfennigless young men who traded sexual favors for cash; some turned tricks to help out their families. Spender’s friend in Hamburg, Joachim, was from a family of coffee merchants, and he regularly cruised the harbor front for such young men. Although he often accompanied Joachim on these forays, Paul regarded Joachim as a sexual predator, especially in regard to his protégé, Heinrich.
Both Spender and Isherwood depicted this generation of hapless young Germans as finding a sense of identity and dignity in either the Communist Party or the Nazi Party. Most of them were eventually forced to join Hitler’s army of the blitzkrieg. With war looming, Isherwood attempted, unsuccessfully, to get his boyfriend out of Germany and into England on a visa.
The famous triad of youthful friends, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden, and Stephen Spender were all drawn to Weimar Germany because they felt they would have more freedom to express their homosexuality than in England. Their writing from this period documents not only their sexual liberation but the rise of the Nazis [Think of the movies I am a Camera and Cabaret, based on Isherwood’s books of this period]. The Temple was Spender’s unfinished attempt to also depict in a novel what was happening in Germany between wars. Spender’s fame was his poetry, and when his forgotten manuscript for The Temple resurfaced in the late 20th century, he completed it. The finished product has a patched together, unpolished feel to it, but Spender’s look back to Weimar Germany will carry most readers through to the novel’s end.
Spender’s protagonist, Paul, initially feels unlucky in love, because he always seems to drive away the youths who are the objects of his ardent attentions. It came as a shock for him that his German host, Ernst, treated him in the same fashion, suffocating him with attention and adulation. [I couldn’t help but wonder if this epiphany actually occurred in Spender’s youth or was a revision from decades later.] Paul was circumspect and generally avoided entanglements of a sexual nature with the beautiful young men in Germany who were so numerous and who ran with his circle of well-heeled German friends [Again, I wondered if the protagonist’s detachment from his sexual urges was a function of his youth and inexperience or another editorial revision of Spender’s from decades later]. Paul wanted to be friends with these German boys, and he hoped that physical intimacy would follow friendship. [If anyone can explain to me why Paul has coitus on the beach with the incidental character, Irmi, a German girl, I am all ears.]
Paul was critical of England’s requirement that Germany pay reparations for World War I that led to its hyperinflation and widespread poverty of the 1920s. There was an abundance of unemployed, pfennigless young men who traded sexual favors for cash; some turned tricks to help out their families. Spender’s friend in Hamburg, Joachim, was from a family of coffee merchants, and he regularly cruised the harbor front for such young men. Although he often accompanied Joachim on these forays, Paul regarded Joachim as a sexual predator, especially in regard to his protégé, Heinrich.
Both Spender and Isherwood depicted this generation of hapless young Germans as finding a sense of identity and dignity in either the Communist Party or the Nazi Party. Most of them were eventually forced to join Hitler’s army of the blitzkrieg. With war looming, Isherwood attempted, unsuccessfully, to get his boyfriend out of Germany and into England on a visa.
April 9, 2025
A novel that's probably more interesting for historical rather than literary reasons, this was an interesting read nonetheless.
Spender's novel is basically a lightly-fictionalized autobiography that perfectly captures a lost moment in time. The novel opens with action at Oxford, where Paul, our protagonist, is trying to develop as a young poet while also making a number of important friendships with likeminded young men. Spender perfectly captures one kind of university experience that, while surrounded in trappings that will be somewhat alien to contemporary readers, feels pretty universal.
Despite the back cover highlighting these fictionalized reminiscences about other historical literary figures, the bulk of the novel then takes place in Germany in 1929-1931, as Paul begins to genuinely come of age as a thinker and a writer. As Spender shows, Germany at this point in time was viewed as a freer and more liberated environment, although, in hindsight, Spender (who rewrote the novel extensively after producing a first draft in the 1930s and then finally publishing it in the 1980s) seems to acknowledge that maybe it should have been harder to ignore the looming shadows.
The book drags a bit here and there, but it's largely an endearing work about being young, getting drunk, having philosophical debates with peers, going on adventures, and experimenting with sexuality. By no means essential, this is still an interesting work about an almost unfathomable alternate reality of a queer and bohemian Germany that would be all but annihilated in just a few short years.
Spender's novel is basically a lightly-fictionalized autobiography that perfectly captures a lost moment in time. The novel opens with action at Oxford, where Paul, our protagonist, is trying to develop as a young poet while also making a number of important friendships with likeminded young men. Spender perfectly captures one kind of university experience that, while surrounded in trappings that will be somewhat alien to contemporary readers, feels pretty universal.
Despite the back cover highlighting these fictionalized reminiscences about other historical literary figures, the bulk of the novel then takes place in Germany in 1929-1931, as Paul begins to genuinely come of age as a thinker and a writer. As Spender shows, Germany at this point in time was viewed as a freer and more liberated environment, although, in hindsight, Spender (who rewrote the novel extensively after producing a first draft in the 1930s and then finally publishing it in the 1980s) seems to acknowledge that maybe it should have been harder to ignore the looming shadows.
The book drags a bit here and there, but it's largely an endearing work about being young, getting drunk, having philosophical debates with peers, going on adventures, and experimenting with sexuality. By no means essential, this is still an interesting work about an almost unfathomable alternate reality of a queer and bohemian Germany that would be all but annihilated in just a few short years.
June 9, 2022
An autobiographical portrait of a young man in Weimar Germany shortly before Hitler came to power. The character Paul is the fictional stand-in for Spender who spent 1929 in Germany being young, poetic & lustful, enjoying freedoms he didn’t have in his native England.
Spender first wrote this in 1930 when his experiences were fresh. The manuscript was deemed too libelous & pornographic for the time, so was shelved, forgotten about, rediscovered in the 1980s, rewritten by Spender as a “complex of memory, fiction and hindsight.” The last 1/3 is heavy on the hindsight since the later action was moved to 1932 (the real experiences all took place in 1929) to emphasize the “encroaching atmosphere of dark politics covering the whole landscape.”
Spender writes some beautiful sentences, really gorgeous descriptions of place & mood, capturing the feeling of being young & physically free, wandering through landscapes, navigating friendships, love, sexuality. A kind of self-absorbed innocence. He also does very well in creating an ominous mood, the growing ugliness & violence. “The terrible thing is that there are so many people today who are Nazis in their heart with belonging as yet to the Party.” That “as yet” is chilling & telling.
Despite a few clumsy bits (that heavy hindsight), this book was a pleasure. And the thinly-veiled, caricaturish versions of real-life friends W.H. Auden & Christopher Isherwood were a delight.
May 28, 2021
Soll man dieses Buch lesen? Man kann.
1929, Student in Oxford, steht auf Männer, hat erste Liebschaften, führt gescheite Gespräche, reist auf Einladung eines Verehrers nach Hamburg, wendet sich von ihm ab, lernt einschlägige Nachtbars und weitere Männer kennen, wandert mit einem von ihnen (und einem unterwegs aufgerissenen Lover) den Rhein entlang. Etliche seiner Bekanntschaften entlarven sich bei seinem zweiten Besuch in Hamburg als stramme Nazis.
Eine alltägliche Story. Vielleicht hätte man etwas daraus machen können, was aber nicht geschehen ist. Die Dialoge sind eintönig, die Porträts blass und die erotische Spannung, die dominierend gewesen sein muss, ist an keiner Stelle spürbar. Relativ plastisch dargestellt wird das Leben in den Goldenen Zwanzigern (Aufbruch der Jugend, Freiheitsdrang, Modernität, Nachtleben, freie Liebe, Körperkultur, Natur und Sonne, Schwimmen, Wandern). Reizvoll ist, dass wir die Personen kennen, die den Romanfiguren als Vorlage dienten. Der Protagonist ist der Autor Stephen Spender, seine englischen Freunde sind die Schriftsteller W.H. Auden und Christopher Isherwood. Sein Wanderfreund ist der Fotograf Herbert List (dessentwegen ich das Buch gelesen habe, da ich eine seiner Magnum-Fotographien besitze). Der Dritte im Bunde auf der Wanderung und gemeinsame Geliebte von List und Spender ist der 16jährige Franz Büchner. Ein Foto Lists von ihm ziert den Buchumschlag.
1929, Student in Oxford, steht auf Männer, hat erste Liebschaften, führt gescheite Gespräche, reist auf Einladung eines Verehrers nach Hamburg, wendet sich von ihm ab, lernt einschlägige Nachtbars und weitere Männer kennen, wandert mit einem von ihnen (und einem unterwegs aufgerissenen Lover) den Rhein entlang. Etliche seiner Bekanntschaften entlarven sich bei seinem zweiten Besuch in Hamburg als stramme Nazis.
Eine alltägliche Story. Vielleicht hätte man etwas daraus machen können, was aber nicht geschehen ist. Die Dialoge sind eintönig, die Porträts blass und die erotische Spannung, die dominierend gewesen sein muss, ist an keiner Stelle spürbar. Relativ plastisch dargestellt wird das Leben in den Goldenen Zwanzigern (Aufbruch der Jugend, Freiheitsdrang, Modernität, Nachtleben, freie Liebe, Körperkultur, Natur und Sonne, Schwimmen, Wandern). Reizvoll ist, dass wir die Personen kennen, die den Romanfiguren als Vorlage dienten. Der Protagonist ist der Autor Stephen Spender, seine englischen Freunde sind die Schriftsteller W.H. Auden und Christopher Isherwood. Sein Wanderfreund ist der Fotograf Herbert List (dessentwegen ich das Buch gelesen habe, da ich eine seiner Magnum-Fotographien besitze). Der Dritte im Bunde auf der Wanderung und gemeinsame Geliebte von List und Spender ist der 16jährige Franz Büchner. Ein Foto Lists von ihm ziert den Buchumschlag.
November 19, 2023
What a great book! Initially, I found it more difficult to get into than Isherwood’s “Goodbye to Berlin,” however once I settled into Spender’s style, I found Paul a more sympathetic main character than Isherwood’s Christopher. This book was very personal — much of the rumination was internal, and Paul felt very real. His conflicts about love and politics and writing, and especially his insecurities, were realistic and written in a way that was obscure but easy to understand. Spender’s writing isn’t direct; it feels like a peek into someone’s brain. with the whirling chaos of thoughts shifting and changing moment by moment. I found the last section terribly sad, and once again Weimar Germany has broken my heart. The selections from Paul’s Notebook were some of my favorite bits of the novel, as the writing was, of course, verbose as writings from a young, self-important (but talented!) writer tends to be, but they were also evocative images of moments captured in time by someone who took care to record not just the external descriptions, but also the internal, emotional ones. I think I will like this book even more on a reread.
May 11, 2022
Sobre a tradução brasileira temos o privilégio de ler pelo trabalho do Raul de Sá Barbosa, intelectual, artista e diplomata exemplar a serviço do Brasil por tanto tempo e que teve sua carreira interrompida pelo governo da ditadura militar. O livro contém uma leitura fluída e jovem, a primeira parte é de uma leitura fácil e gostosa, nos leva pelas ruas de Hamburgo e pelas estradas e rios da Alemanha de Weimar. É interessante ver a dinâmica e a sexualidade de todos os personagens, mas a escrita também apresenta sinais de que é produzida por um jovem escritor, falta alguma maturidade, mas pra mim esse foi um elemento ainda mais delicioso porquê casa justamente com narrativa. A parte final me deu uma sensação de familiaridade é incômodo com o Brasil atual, também me trouxe uma tristeza de ver como tudo acabou para Heinrich e Herbert e como o livro fecha com essa sensação de desespero e imprevisão do que está por vir e de qual caminho levar? Uma tempestade de mudanças se aproxima e elas já anunciam o terror que carregam.
April 29, 2023
The first part, written in the late 20s, is a relatively intriguing - if stuffy, if stiff, if a disappointingly diffident - portrayal of gay culture in Weimar Hamburg. But, especially with the second part, written in the 80s, the writing becomes too heavy-handed when focusing on the mainstream rise of the Nazis in Germany at the time. This division of the book between 'the light years' and 'the dark years' unfortunately feels like a cliché and sets up the novel to offer little insight other than the fact that, in Spender's retrospect, there were good years and there were bad years.
January 19, 2025
anxious all the way through the second part. i felt like i was in a way reading a piece of the life we're currently living.
i will say the hindsight felt like a bit of a blunder at times, separating the context and the signs of the time from what we now know but overall alright. perhaps not treading new ground but still saying what needs to be said.
(for context: chance made it that i've been reading this at the same time as the us tiktok ban so maybe my strong emotional reaction has something to do with that.)
i will say the hindsight felt like a bit of a blunder at times, separating the context and the signs of the time from what we now know but overall alright. perhaps not treading new ground but still saying what needs to be said.
(for context: chance made it that i've been reading this at the same time as the us tiktok ban so maybe my strong emotional reaction has something to do with that.)
October 17, 2024
This is truly a one of a kind piece of work. Begun by Spender early in his career it remained in draft form until 50 years later when the manuscript was returned to him and he completed it.
It is a remarkable story of young pleasure seeking men--Auden, Spender and Isherwood in Germany between the wars.
It gives a very clear picture of the reason for the rise of Nazism--thousands of young unemployed men and women living in poverty and looking for a reason to exist.
It is a remarkable story of young pleasure seeking men--Auden, Spender and Isherwood in Germany between the wars.
It gives a very clear picture of the reason for the rise of Nazism--thousands of young unemployed men and women living in poverty and looking for a reason to exist.
June 23, 2025
An interesting read. The book is divided into two significant parts, one clearly written by the author when young and the second written much later. I have to admit I found the first part a bit hard to read given the author's tendency to use German words in describing things during his visit to Weimar Germany in 1929. The second is much shorter -- a much quicker read. It describes his return visit to Germany in 1932 as the Nazis are about to come to power.
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