Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories
by Thomas Mann
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 506)
Read in February, 2008
Golly. I can't believe how much I hated the title novella here. Surprising, I know. Usually, if it's a classic, having stood the test of time, I can find SOMETHING to enjoy about it... and eventually I guess I did find something, but CRAP! it was hard to find, because, through most of the book, I was thoroughly distracted with plans for building a time machine so I could go back and kick Mr. Mann in the nuts (BTW while I'm there I'd like to kick Freud in the nuts too). Mann constantly confuses b...more
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It took me a long time to get to Mann, but I feel in good company with him. Lots influence of Poe and Conrad and clearly in company with Dineson, who he obviously influenced, an operatic tone, ironic, comic, erudite, and seemingly a strange mix of a 19th century feel with more modern concerns and anxieties. Paul Bowles and Bruno Shultz, who are two of my favorite writers, also claim Mann as an influence, and I can see parallels in their work. “Death in Venice” is a masterpiece of symbolism a...more
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"For beauty ... make well! Only Beauty is at one and the same time divine and visible, and so it is indeed the sensuous lover's path ... it is the artist's path to the spirit, (from 'Death in Venice')." The pig had been released. The large wheel was exstinguished hiding behind it a partial view of the Church in Piazza San Marco. I felt the world close in on me, the pressing throng moving everywhere and nowhere all at once. An errant elbow landed between my shoulder blades. I colla...more
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Read in November, 2002
recommends it for:
Literary readers, readers looking to introduce themselves to literary fiction
I find it weird that critics view this as a book on pedophilia, when it’s so obviously about narcissism. Not narcissism in a negative sense, but the main character (Gustav) clearly views the world as a reflection of himself. He becomes fascinated with the boy because he reminds him of himself (and while the fascination is at times erotic, it is hardly sexual). Gustav is detached, hurt, and dying – and is retreating into himself. This brings him closer to a sense of meaning that overwhelms ev...more
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recommends it for:
short story goers
OK, I should be writing something else right now, but I'm going to comment on this book.
So the title story is a great, beat-that-ass kind of story. Clear writing, pacing, perspective, tension from the title, degree of lyricism, dispensing of information -- all that good stuff you look for in a story. I appreciated Aschenbach's obsession and how he almost unquestioningly went along with it.
However, I just couldn't get into ANY of the other stories in this collection. They lack the emoti...more
So the title story is a great, beat-that-ass kind of story. Clear writing, pacing, perspective, tension from the title, degree of lyricism, dispensing of information -- all that good stuff you look for in a story. I appreciated Aschenbach's obsession and how he almost unquestioningly went along with it.
However, I just couldn't get into ANY of the other stories in this collection. They lack the emoti...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Todd by:
Anthony
"Death In Venice" is not a great way to stay awake on an airplane that you had to be up at 4:30 to catch, but with the help of some crappy airline coffee I was able to get past the first 15 pages, and at that point it becomes a really touching story.
If I had read it as a senior or a junior in high school, it probably would be one of my all-time favorite stories. But, as I've gotten older, it's gotten harder for me to get as excited about fiction which contains extended narratives ab...more
If I had read it as a senior or a junior in high school, it probably would be one of my all-time favorite stories. But, as I've gotten older, it's gotten harder for me to get as excited about fiction which contains extended narratives ab...more
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Thomas Mann is one of my favorite writers of all time. Very German in his endless sentences, he also exhibits some of the most beautiful use of language I have ever read, while also delving heavily into interesting philosophical themes. While the title story, "Death in Venice," is great (and somewhat autobiographical...), my favorite story in this book is "Tristan." Mann here explores the themes of love, decay, illness, and death- themes common in much of his work. All th...more
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Read in December, 2007
Thomas Mann's highly-revered novella is about an aging writer, Gustav von Aschenbach, who becomes attracted to--and ultimately obsessed with--a Polish youth he encounters (but never actually speaks to) during a vacation in Venice. Hailed as a masterpiece, the prose is certainly on par with other classics of the era, but the melancholy and mostly uneventful story kept me at a distance, much like the protagonist and the object of his affection. This story should perhaps be listened to rather tha...more
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The story is interesting but it is kind of hard to read. I think if I could read German it might make more sense than the translation I had. The actual story Death In Venice is amazing though but hard to get through in periods. It starts out very slowly and you need to have a basic knowledge of greek mythology to understand parts of it.
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Read in August, 2007
This is a good selection of Mann's early work, showing the themes he would later work into Magic Mountain and Joseph and his Brothers. I recommend beginning with Tonio Kroger and moving on through Tristan and Death in Venice as these three works contain thoughts about art relevent to the rest of the stories.
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Read in August, 2007
I bought this during the summer just to re-read "A Man and His Dog", which is my favorite piece of literature about an animal. I love how the writing is so controlled, very bourgois, but still beautiful. Captures the joys of a mundane day with your dog as well as anything I've ever read.
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Read in November, 2005
This is either an exceptionally poor translation or Mann is the most over-hyped and tedious author to ever grace the classrooms of academia. I suspect the later. The subject is this novel is unique if not uncomfortable at times but Mann's style is irksome on every level.
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Read in March, 2008
So far, I've only read "Death in Venice", which is practically a novella. It's written pretty well, but I didn't quite feel the "click". The main theme of "Death in Venice" reminded me a lot of "The Picture of Dorian Gray", a book that struck me pretty hard.
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Read in May, 2006
I was recommended this book on the basis that I would like the main character. Which I did, as I have a horrible weakness for old stoic men. Death in Venice was fascinating, and I highly recommend it as Modernist (or Post, I don't remember) reading.
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Read in October, 2001
I don't like this quite as much as some of Mann's other work, but it's pretty great - a sickly, sad tale touching on loneliness, depravity, the ideal. This version also contains some other fine stories, especially "Blood of the Walsungs."
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Kara!
Weird, German, and full of wonderful repressed sexuality. Death in Venice is fab, if horribly depressing, and I have to give a nod to "The Blood of the Walsungs" for being even weirder, and also about opera.
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Read in October, 2002
There's a great line in the book in with the protagonist's life is compared to a closed fist...restrained, restricted, repressed. I think I came across this book at a good point in my life.
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Read in December, 2007
Lovely "voice", but stories invariably sketches and ruminations rather than w/ full plots. Disturbing. Fell short of expectations set by Doctor Faustus.
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Read in January, 2005
Superb. However the translation matters A LOT. I can't recall if this edition is the best one or not. Will have to investigate that.
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Death in Venice is the best story about a scary old man obsessing over a radiantly beautiful young boy I've ever read.
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