Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Death in Venice and Other Tales

by Thomas Mann, Joachim Neugroschel (Translator)

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 8,065 ratings · 335 reviews

Published on the eve of World War I, a decade after Buddenbrooks had established Thomas Mann as a literary celebrity, Death in Venice tell the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful but aging writer who follows his wanderlust to Venice in search of spiritual fulfillment that instead leads to his erotic doom.

In the decaying city, besieged by an unnamed epidemic, he b...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published May 1st 1999 by Penguin Classics (first published 1912)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Books of the 20th Century

375th out of 4,622 books — 31,394 voters

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Best German/Austrian Literature

14th out of 414 books — 294 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

May 26, 2008 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: translation

Knocking another one down for the novella challenge, I finished Death in Venice this evening. I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting when I choose this story, but it certainly wasn’t the tale of a respected older writer gentleman who falls in love with a fourteen year-old demigod boy and eventually dies of cholera because of it. Nope. That’s not what I expected at all.

Gustav von Aschenbach sees a strange red-headed man in Munich and suddenly decides to go on vacation. Before retiring to his s...more Knocking another one down for the novella challenge, I finished Death in Venice this evening. I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting when I choose this story, but it certainly wasn’t the tale of a respected older writer gentleman who falls in love with a fourteen year-old demigod boy and eventually dies of cholera because of it. Nope. That’s not what I expected at all.

Gustav von Aschenbach sees a strange red-headed man in Munich and suddenly decides to go on vacation. Before retiring to his summer house, he stops in Venice, a city he has visited often. The red-headed man makes numberous appearances throughout the story as a man on the ship, a gondolier, and a street musician. Aschenbach arrives at the hotel and sees Tadzio, a young polish boy, “[p]ale and elegantly reserved, with ringlets of honey-colored hair, a straight sloping nose, a lovely mouth and an expression of divinely belseed solemnity, his face called to mind Greek sculputres of the best period.” Aschenback falls in love with the boy and begins to follow him around Venice. Meanwhile, Venice is suffering from the plague. Aschenback knows this but keeps the secret along with the government officials of Venice. Becoming further and further debased, Aschenback falls ill with the cholera and dies.

I did enjoy the progression of the story, though there, at times, seemed to be a number of digressions that slowed down the plot. However, the story is packed with metaphors and literary allusions to Greek mythology and other arresting techniques. For example, the health of the city of Venice declines at the same rate as does the mental health of our hero. Also, our hero’s greatest written achievement is a short story entitled “A True Wretch.” I think you can guess by this point who turns out to be that True Wretch. The best part about the story is that a second reading would reveal a number of insights that I missed the first time.

Here are a few of my favorite passages:

“But he discovered in the end that his thoughts and inspirations were like the intimations of a dream, which always seem inspired at the time but prove utterly shallow and useless to the waking mind.”

“His nerves lapped up the tooting and jangling, the vulgar pining melodies, for passion criples taste, solemnly following the lure of pleasures that sobriety would either laugh at or reject altogether.”

“Ultimately, we are only as old as we feel in our hearts and minds.”(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 23, 2012 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Book Report: I feel a complete fool providing a plot précis for this canonical work. Gustav von Ascherbach, literary lion in his sixties, wanders about his home town of Munich while struggling with a recalcitrant new story. His chance encounter with a weirdo, though no words are exchanged between them, ignites in Herr von Ascherbach the need to get out of town, to get himself to the delicious fleshpots of the South. An abortive stay in Illyria (now Bosnia or Montenegro or Croatia, no knowing...more The Book Report: I feel a complete fool providing a plot précis for this canonical work. Gustav von Ascherbach, literary lion in his sixties, wanders about his home town of Munich while struggling with a recalcitrant new story. His chance encounter with a weirdo, though no words are exchanged between them, ignites in Herr von Ascherbach the need to get out of town, to get himself to the delicious fleshpots of the South. An abortive stay in Illyria (now Bosnia or Montenegro or Croatia, no knowing which since we're not given much to go on) leads him to make his second journey to Venice. Arriving in the sin capital of the early modern world, and even in the early 20th century possessed of a louche reputation, brings him into contact with two life-changing things: A beautiful teenaged boy, and cholera. I think the title fills you in on the rest.

My Review: I know this was written in 1911-1912, and is therefore to be judged by the standards of another era, but I am bone-weary of stories featuring men whose love for other males brings them to disaster and death. This is the story that started me on that path of dislike. Von Ascherbach realizes he's in love for the first time in his pinched, narrow life, and it's with a 14-year-old boy; his response is to make himself ridiculous, following the kid around, staying in his Venetian Garden of Eros despite knowing for sure there's a cholera epidemic, despite being warned of the dangers of staying, despite smelling decay and death and miasmic uccchiness all around, because he's in love. But with the wrong kind of person...a male. Therefore Mann makes him pay the ultimate price, he loses his life because he gives in and falls hopelessly, stupidly in love. With a male. Mann makes his judgment of this moral turpitude even more explicit by making it a chaste, though to modern eyes not unrequited, love between an old man and a boy. Explicit references to Classical culture aside, the entire atmosphere of the novel is quite evidently designed to point up the absurdity and the impossibility of such a love being rewarding or rewarded. It's not in the least mysterious what Mann's after: Denial, denial, denial! It's your only salvation, faggots! Deny yourself, don't let yourself feel anything rather than feel *that*!

This book offends my sensibilities. Gorgeously built images and sonorously elegant sentences earn it all of its points.(less)

9 likes · like · see review

Nov 22, 2010 Schmacko rated it 4 of 5 stars

I know, it’s a crying shame I haven’t read this classic years ago. And now, having read it, I can say, “What a fascinating, disturbing little melodrama, ” set this brief but dense book aside, and then never pick it up again.

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann was published in 1912. It’s about Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful septuagenarian German author who leaves his very staid, regimental life for a whim-filled holiday in Venice. While there, Aschenbach slowly shrugs off his straightjacket exist...more I know, it’s a crying shame I haven’t read this classic years ago. And now, having read it, I can say, “What a fascinating, disturbing little melodrama, ” set this brief but dense book aside, and then never pick it up again.

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann was published in 1912. It’s about Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful septuagenarian German author who leaves his very staid, regimental life for a whim-filled holiday in Venice. While there, Aschenbach slowly shrugs off his straightjacket existence and starts to feel fiery passion. This is brought on by another vacationer to the island – a 14-year-old Polish boy named Tadzio.

Death in Venice is about what 70-year-old Aschenbach’s passion means. Is it an artist’s appreciation of physical beauty? Is it the sickly old author longing after his own youth, acknowledging that that Tadzio takes youth for granted, not even realizing that his beauty is fleeting. Is Aschenbach a pedophile? Is his unnatural lust brought on by Aschenbach’s previously restrictive existence?

Mann does a beautiful job of balancing all these complicated questions in a story that is both prosaic and tense. The book veers from being a confessional of sickness to an uncomfortable apologist creed for pedophilia as an education for the youth and an appreciation of physical beauty by older men.

I happen to be a strong believer in social structure and propriety on this given subject, so I found myself a little squeamish, even the though the book itself is otherwise chaste. I was frustrated by Mann’s ability to both vilify the emotion and then create a shaky logic for why it exists. In that sense, the book is very successful.

In another sense, this book is pure 1912 melodrama. A horrible plague has befallen Venice, a mysterious malady that becomes a major plot point. Aschenbach plummets from his formerly logical and lofty moral values into an obsessed and passion-controlled wisp of a thing. Achenbach is erudite enough that he goes into long narratives about the history of man-boy love and its acceptance in other cultures. You can feel the German trying to justify his own increasingly senseless emotions as he grows both physically and mentally sicker. Finally, it’s blindingly clear that the mystery disease and Achenbach’s lust are parallel metaphors, in which Mann gives his final judgment on the overarching subject of the book – the appreciating of youthful beauty versus pedophilic lust.

I get it. I read it. I can move on.
(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 26, 2009 Becca rated it 5 of 5 stars

In 'Death in Venice', Thomas Mann allows his readers to view a respectable man's descent into madness, into a dark, disturbing obsession where reason and logic have no impact on actions - where passion reigns sovereign... and it's jarring to *witness*.

The story begins with such attention taken to establish the story's protagonist (*Gus von A*) as hyper-disciplined, possessing the utmost aplomb and self-mastery - only to have him come undone as the book progresses.

This is one of those stories wh...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 09, 2010 Julia Boechat Machado rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, german-literature, tingle-of-the-spine, 1910s

O motivo do contraste entre o apolíneo e o dionisíaco como expressos por Nietzsche era comum na época, mas nunca foi expresso com maior beleza do que nessa novela de Thomas Mann. O escritor Gustav von Aschenbach se torna obcecado pela beleza, pela paixão, e essa obsessão o destrói. É apropriado que, na versão cinematográfica de Luchino Visconti, o protagonista seja um músico, não um escritor.

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 08, 2012 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've formed a book club in my neighborhood, and this is the selection for our next meeting, along with Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. In this, my second time reading it, I was impressed by the readability of Mann's style. I was somewhat reminded of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, also about middle-age passion for adolescence, but without Nabokov's finely calculated irony that sets the author at just the right esthetic distance to avoid unpleasant complicity with the subject matter. I had t...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 06, 2010 Ally rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, university

I've only read 'Death in Venice' so my review is only on that novella even though the book I bought has the other stories in it I have not and at this moment in time, intend not to read them.

Gustav von Aschenbach, a famous author in his early fifties has a carefully structured way of life that is suddenly and unexpectedly threatened by sexual passion for a young boy while on holiday in Venice.

The first three chapters were quite hard to get into after that though the story flowed quite well.

How...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 05, 2007 Siria rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century, german-fiction, short-stories

I'm ambivalent about this one. Perhaps it was the translation I was reading (I think I have the actual Der Tod in Venedig in the house somewhere, but frankly I couldn't face literary German at the moment), but I never really felt at ease when reading this. Not because of any of the themes that Mann tackled, or because of the denseness of the work; they were challenging and thought-provoking aspects, of course, but I found myself able to grapple with them.

What unnerved me was the way in which all...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 24, 2009 Rina Sipa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Saya membaca buku ini sekitar 10 tahun yang lalu ketika sedang menyelesaikan skripsi. Buku ini bercerita tentang seorang bujangan bernama Aschenbach yang berprofesi sebagai penulis. Karena jenuh, dia berlibur ke Venesia. Di sana dia jatuh cinta dengan seorang anak laki-laki yang ganteng, kemudian menjadi terobsesi. Aschenbach melakukan perubahan, seperti berdandan, untuk menarik perhatian anak laki-laki tersebut. Tanpa kata-kata Aschenbach berusaha terus untuk menarik perhatian anak laki-laki te...more

like · see review

Dec 19, 2008 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic

When I was in college, I read Death in Venice for the first time. I can't imagine what I made of it then. Of course, the story of an older man drawn to a beautiful young boy is compelling, but the sense of time running out can't have meant much to me at that point in my life. I read the novella again recently and was struck by its power. Mann captures so effectively the emptiness of Von Aschenbach's life. Though the story is full of people, he is apart, alone, a writer, a recorder of life, not a...more

2 likes · like · see review

Eris Doorneweerd Oh, Barbara, this is one of my all time favorites, one of the few books that I have read more than once.You are right about the way we respond to book...more
Dec 20, 2008 01:24pm

Barbara Eris wrote: "Oh, Barbara, this is one of my all time favorites, one of the few books that I have read more than once.You are right about the way we re...more
Dec 20, 2008 07:58pm

Helen Thanks, to both of you, Eris and Barbara, I ordered this book from Amazon and can hardly wait to get into it.
Dec 24, 2008 09:02am

Feb 24, 2013 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The writing is ...I can't think of any adjective except "exquisite". He paints such vivid scenes without being overly wordy, and in a few strokes produces characters that feels oddly real and very much imperfect in both personality and appearances. ("Everyone is beautiful and intelligent" has its own appeals but I tend to like flawed people better, so.) There's only one part that's a bit rambling, and that's Tonio Kroger essentially rambling on to himself about the meaning of being an artist whi...more

like · see review

Apr 23, 2012 Simon rated it 1 of 5 stars

Death In Venice and Other Stories by Thomas Mann
Translated by David Luke

This has to be the most soporofic and downright
boring book I have read in years. I struggled to
read more than 4 pages at a time without falling
asleep no matter what time of day I read it.
By the time I had waded through the 52 page
introduction by the translator David Luke I
wanted to kill the arrogant pumped up idiot who
explains that this second edition of his
translations of Mann can finally include Death
In Venice as...more

like · see review

Oct 31, 2011 Jenn McCollum rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: strange-children

When I was called out for teaching some provocative contexts in my "Strange Children" course this quarter, my supervisor came to my defense by saying, "Well, it's not like you're teaching Death in Venice, or anything." I had heard of Thomas Mann's novella -- and really enjoyed reading the obscure The Transposed Heads, which I consider a really masterful work despite some scathing criticisms to the contrary -- but had never read it. I headed to the library and checked it out right away. Would Man...more

1 like · like · see review

May 27, 2011 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

Really 3.5 stars for me. A book ahead of its time in terms of content, but I am not a huge fan of overly-long and self-indulgent description, even if it does fit the period and the main character. This is supposedly the new-age defintive translation, and as a linguist I can appreciate the subtlety required to translate a legendary work (though I shouldn't think German to English is as much of a stretch as say Japanese to English would be). Even if one is not a German speaker, one can appreciate...more

like · see review

Nov 22, 2010 Fabian rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is fantastic to be completely swayed by century-old works; to be turned on completely by a German dude who probably thought so differently from you that anything he produces is just receptive to awe alone and no discernable connections between you and the author exist. Not true. If you saw the dreadful "A Single Man" and thought that the idea for that was elsewhere inscribed well, you were right! It is this masterpiece by Thomas Mann it tries to emulate; an excursion to a Venice that with iro...more

like · see review

Nov 02, 2010 Michael Armijo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Literally, A Beautifully Written Escape...

This is a remarkable short story classic that will stay with you a few days after you finish reading it. Thomas Mann, the author, in a well renown German-born author who gained success from his novellas. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929. He left Hitler's Germany in 1933 & settled in the US in 1938 until he eventually returned to Europe & died in Switzerland in 1955. This 'Death In Venice' story had a curious draw for me at is was ref...more

like · see review

Sep 03, 2010 Jenny Blounts rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-ve-taught

While on the quintessential backpacking-through-Europe trip in my early 20s, my traveling partner and I, of course, went to Venice. We arrived and were immediately charmed by the uniqueness of this mythic city, checked into a super cheap room and ventured out to explore. After a warm afternoon/evening of flirting with gondoliers, getting lost down tiny alleyways, admiring glass jewelry, and drinking inexpensive wine, we returned to our room. It was dark. We turned on the glaring overhead lights...more While on the quintessential backpacking-through-Europe trip in my early 20s, my traveling partner and I, of course, went to Venice. We arrived and were immediately charmed by the uniqueness of this mythic city, checked into a super cheap room and ventured out to explore. After a warm afternoon/evening of flirting with gondoliers, getting lost down tiny alleyways, admiring glass jewelry, and drinking inexpensive wine, we returned to our room. It was dark. We turned on the glaring overhead lights and were faced with something out of a horror movie. Dozens upon dozens of plump, well-fed mosquitoes had been squashed against the eerily blank white walls and the quivering shadows of their still-living counterparts could be seen hovering in the corners. Further investigation of the room turned up several swatters and some toxic-looking bug spray. The next day we checked into a place that cost slightly more, but that was air conditioned and had no need for opening the windows. We spent a lovely few days in Venice, exploring its many charms, but the insect-infested nightmares and itchy welts lingered like the reek of the canals...reminding us of the city's more gruesome underbelly.

I was reminded of this experience while reading "Death in Venice." Aschenbach is both charmed by Venice, and troubled by it. Much like Aschenbach, I would go back to the city in a heartbeat. The first thing that drew me into this little masterpiece was his vibrant and well-balanced description of the setting through Aschenbach's eyes (perhaps partially because I have been there and could relate...and even all of these years later, Venice remains quite a bit the same.)

Obviously, as I look toward teaching this book to my European Lit class in the fall, I'm wondering how to head off the "Eeew. He's a creepy pedophile!" comments before they even start. Admittedly, as I witnessed the development of Aschenbach's love for the young Polish boy, Tadzio, over the course of the book, I had my own moments of "ew," but I felt that Mann's candid and unguarded exploration of Aschenbach's psyche helped me to see that this story goes far beyond that of an older man obsessively stalking a beautiful young boy. As Aschenbach nears his final moments of his writing career (and his life), he is grasping for that perfect beauty that every artist hopes to achieve, represented in the symbol of Tadzio. (less)

like · see review

Jun 17, 2010 Tommy rated it 1 of 5 stars

So spoiler alert...

Basically this was an older man's ultimately lethal obsession with a young boy. Wish I knew that ahead of time because that's not exactly my thing. It was short, that's about all I can say about it that was good. Besides that, there just wasn't anything that hit me as exceptional about this. Maybe it's just personal as I just don't get off or see much in the old person sexual obsession with youth, regardless of sex.

I mean I'm pretty liberal about things like this and welcome...more

like · see review

Dec 21, 2009 Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't think I know enough about German aesthetic philosophical traditions to truly appreciate everything in this story. But then, I seriously doubt even Kant or Nietzche himself would have caught everything in here.

For such a short story (just over 60 pages), Mann manages to cram in a lot of stuff. I'll leave all the dissecting to literary scholars, and here say that I enjoyed the story immensely. And I'm sure I'll come back to it again. In fact, I look forward to picking it up years from now...more

like · see review

Dec 13, 2010 Ahdelina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Что я на самом деле люблю в классике, так это авторскую неспешность и богатейший набор образов и метафор, заполняющих книгу с самой первой до последней страницы.
Томас Манн является одним из моих любимых писателей, и я очень ценю его работы. Я восхищаюсь его языком, богатой палитрой эмоций и образов, которые его окружают. Я удивляюсь его детальному описанию окружающего мира. И это совсем не удивительно. В нашем мире авторы торопятся написать свои книги, жертвуют образами и страницами, они - кратк...more

like · see review

Jul 11, 2009 Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars

What are we faced with here? A writer, Aschenbach, past 50 years of age, apparently with a degree of renown, driven and obsessed, tiring, feeling the need of a break or a rejuvenation, sees a young man from afar near a cemetery and experiences a burst of wanderlust, a vision of something different in his life, and decides on a month’s vacation somewhere different from his usual summer retreat in the mountains. We know nothing of what kind of writing the protagonist does, nothing of the significa...more What are we faced with here? A writer, Aschenbach, past 50 years of age, apparently with a degree of renown, driven and obsessed, tiring, feeling the need of a break or a rejuvenation, sees a young man from afar near a cemetery and experiences a burst of wanderlust, a vision of something different in his life, and decides on a month’s vacation somewhere different from his usual summer retreat in the mountains. We know nothing of what kind of writing the protagonist does, nothing of the significance of this particular young man.

Aschenbach’s literary accomplishments are chronicled, and he turns out to be a genuine man of letters, having written extensively and authoritatively in a number of different genres. “His entire being was geared to fame.” There seems to be a stoici quality about his life and approach to his art, a fierceness with dignity that perseveres despite all obstacles and repeatedly triumphs, an intensity that ignores all personal discomfort, indeed a grimness in the face of all challenges. His art conceals an inner weakness with solid and undaunted surface overlying a disintegrating core. How much of this picture is autobiographical, one wonders. At any rate, this art appealed to the spirit of his age, to the many who succeeded despite and in the face of exhaustion and despair, again, a stoic picture. With his aging and artistic ripening came a moral inflexibility labeled as purity, an absolutism impatient with relativism, a “moral resoluteness transcending knowledge.” This tenacity simplifies the world and psyche but at the expense of strengthening its opposite. But this process led in Aschenbach’s later life and writing to a sort of ossification, a conventional formal glibness and predictability. Finally, his monastic stillness led to fussiness and weariness, and he yearned to escape, if only for a holiday.

After a couple of abortive attempts at finding just the right location, he set sail for Venice. Disembarking into a gondola, he had premonitions of death, viewing the gondola as a coffin. After a mildly disagreeable confrontation with the gondolier, he arrived at his hotel on the Lido, aware that his solitude made him more aware of sensations than would be a traveler with a companion. And then, while waiting for dinner, he was captivated by the appearance of a 14-year-old Polish boy with his family. Encountering the boy repeatedly during the next day, he seemed to become increasingly intrigued, not to say infatuated. Yet in less than twenty-four hours, convinced that the atmosphere of Venice was making him ill, Aschenbach decided to leave the city, going so far as to send his luggage on ahead and himself going to the train station, during the ride to which he began having second thoughts, wishing to remain in Venice after all. To his joy, his luggage had been mis-routed, so he returned to his hotel to await the retrieval of his goods. Once back, he acknowledged to himself that the reason for his reluctance to leave Venice had been the boy, Tadzio, whom he again glimpsed.

Days pass, filled with glorious weather, and Aschenbach no longer considered leaving; throughout the days he watched Tadzio, his observations and descriptions deeply sensual; he was infatuated. All of creation was intensified and transformed by his infatuation, his mood and language being expressed in flowery tropes and Classical allusions. He extended his holiday in order to remain in Venice with Tadzio, still never having spoken to the boy. Finally, upon receiving a smile from the youth, Aschenbach acknowledged to himself that he was in love.

Four weeks passed, during which Aschenbach was now stalking Tadzio. At the end of this time Aschenbach became aware that an epidemic was spreading throughout Venice, noting that German-speaking tourists were leaving the city. Mann’s language becomes gradually more voluptuous, sickening, rotting in its metaphors, steamy, exotic and fetid, suiting the mood of the story as Aschenbach became more and more obsessed, more reckless in his behavior. All this time, Aschenbach realized what was happening but justified it to himself. And at the same time, he continued to try to find out more about the spreading illness in the city, even as he seemed not to contemplate leaving. Discovering that the problem was cholera, that increasing numbers of people were dying, and that Venice officials were hushing the matter up, he contemplated warning Tadzio’s mother to take her children and flee. But he decided not to do so, and with that decision began his further and more rapid moral decline, his descent into a deeper irrationality complete with nightmares in which he abandons his Apollonian life into a Dionysian frenzy, the psychic working out of his dissolution. He even went so far as to alter his appearance to appear more youthful, dying his hair, using makeup. Becoming increasingly tired, increasingly disoriented, increasingly ill, he fantasizes a speech by Socrates to a young lover to justify his own obsession as he lolls exhausted in a Venice square, having lost sight of Tadzio. A few days later, Tadio and his family left, but before they did Aschenbach once more watched Tadzio on the beach and, watching, died.

This is a powerful and masterfully written novel, outstanding in its creation of a mood and process.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Aug 30, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

This collection of Thomas Mann's novellas and short stories thematically exhibits the alienation of being a passionate artist in a bourgeois society. "We artists despise no one more than the dilettante, the man of life who thinks that in his spare time, on top of everything else, he can become an artist," the title character tells a sympathetic friend in "Tonio Kroger," a story which seems at least partially autobiographical. Tonio, who has become a renowned writer as an adult, recalls an instan...more This collection of Thomas Mann's novellas and short stories thematically exhibits the alienation of being a passionate artist in a bourgeois society. "We artists despise no one more than the dilettante, the man of life who thinks that in his spare time, on top of everything else, he can become an artist," the title character tells a sympathetic friend in "Tonio Kroger," a story which seems at least partially autobiographical. Tonio, who has become a renowned writer as an adult, recalls an instance when he was a boy in which he tried to entice the interest of a friend -- a popular, athletic boy, everything that Tonio was not -- by enthusiastically explaining to him the plot of Schiller's "Don Carlos." The attempt was futile, however, and Tonio was left spiritually alone with his unusual love of literature.

"Tristan" takes the artist-bourgeois conflict to a setting that presages Mann's definitive novel "The Magic Mountain." The protagonist, an offbeat writer named Spinell confined to a tuberculosis sanatarium, takes an interest in a fellow patient, a businessman's wife who, he discovers, is a sensitive and tasteful amateur pianist. He writes her husband a derogatory letter, deploring him as a philistine who does not deserve to share his life with this secretly artistic woman, which results in a heated confrontation between the two men.

In "The Child Prodigy," Mann's tone turns satirical as he focuses on an eight-year-old concert pianist giving an electrifying public performance to an audience whose various reactions -- wonder, jealousy, indifference -- are reflections upon themselves more so than on the performer.

"Death in Venice" is the boldest piece in this collection, unambiguously presenting homosexuality in an artistically positive light but also showing something of a German fascination with Italian culture and scenery. Gustav Aschenbach, the protagonist, again seems to reflect Mann to an extent as a middle-aged, widowed, respected author from Munich who becomes infatuated with a teenage boy while vacationing in Venice. Whether this love ever becomes mutual or physical is not as important as the mood Mann invokes about European cultural and moral decadence, possibly symbolized by the cholera epidemic that sweeps through the city.

"Man and Dog: An Idyll" is a brilliant meditation on the narrator's affectionate and occasionally difficult relationship with his pet pointer and also allows a glimpse of life in the industrialized and suburbanized Germany of the early twentieth century. To say that Mann gives the dog a human personality may seem a cliche, but few writers could achieve his level of empathy in relating a dog's behavior and desires in man's terms without resorting to outright personification. A disturbing inversion of this story is told in "Tobias Mindernickel," in which a lonely old man, given no personal background by Mann, ostracized in his neighborhood by adults and taunted by children, buys a dog and demands from it the obedience and respect he has never earned from people.

Mann is truly one of the most important figures in twentieth century literature. What he chose to portray, and the talent with which he portrayed it, brighten the legacy of a century that threatened to destroy art in so many ways for so many insane reasons.

(less)

like · see review

Jan 02, 2009 Kimi rated it 5 of 5 stars

i had read this about 15 years ago (yikes, showing my age again). this second reading made me realize (again) how little it means to have 'read' a book. there of course is so much that you misremember, don't remember, etc. of course, i knew the plot, but had forgotten just about everything else.
i recently read an LRB article about the Mann family. interesting bits included the fact that it was Mann's children, Klaus and the daughter (what was her name) who pushed their father to denounce the naz...more

like · see review

Mar 05, 2007 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thenovella

Death in Venice is a philosophical examination of the plight of the artist.

Aschenbach--the fallen artist--has lost his soul in his pursuir of success. He goes on vacation, where he falls in love with Tadzio, a young boy. As cholera overtakes Venice, Aschenbach slips deeper and deeper into his love affair.

This novella is a really masterful combination of action and philosophy, seemlessly interwoven through Aschenbach's character.

1 like · like · see review

Apr 16, 2011 Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars

I never know where to start writing a review of a book like this. It's an absolute classic of literature, what am I going to say that could possibly add anything to the discussion?!? I suppose all I can do is say, briefly, what I thought about it, whether I liked it or not, and why.

I thought it was amazing. Now, I have to admit that my reading of the book was coloured by Visconti's film, of which I'm a fan. However, the book was, as usual, vastly superior to its film version. The themes of beaut...more

like · see review

Aug 30, 2010 Keith Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

firstly, i don't feel like this is a story is about a pedophile. to apply terms like "homosexual" and "pedophile" is to grossly malign the intentions of the author. just like calling somebody a "black" instead of a "human being" is a limiting statement, not a summary. this is a story about desire. nothingness, perfection and humanity are all explored in the story also. the vastness of the sea represents a sort of perfect nothingness, a void. in one particular scene, a human actually interrupts t...more

1 like · like · see review

May 24, 2010 Persepolis130 rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book because it was listed as Publishing Triangle's #1 best gay novel, so I figured it must be good. I have to admit that I was disappointed.

I have two issues with this book. The first is that the style is so dated and dense (the book was first published in Germany in 1912) that it was terribly difficult to get into. Secondly, though the main character is obviously obsessing to a stalker-ish level over a 14-year-old boy, comparing him with the most beautiful of the Greek gods, I don...more

like · see review

Dec 23, 2008 Kerfe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, re-reading-the-classics

A staple of high school English classes (which is where I read it long ago), it's easy to see why--the Greek mythological references alone would probably lead to at least some interesting discussions. At first, being used to the spare language of contemporary writing, I was put off by the florid prose, but I soon got used to it.

This story of a self-centered and overly disciplined esthete who surrenders to his Dionysian impulses and inevitable death, while a bit melodramatic, held my interest. Th...more

like · see review

Aug 31, 2011 Christian Crowley is currently reading it

This is one that I picked up in 2000, when Margaux D and I were heading to Bologna for a visit with Kevin C. We knew that we'd be in Venice for Carnavale, and we thought this would be a good way to get a taste of the place beforehand. We never made it through the story before we went, and it's been sitting on my bookshelf ever since.

Over a decade later, I've picked it up again as part of my Classics in Flight kick - choosing my airplane reading from among the books that I somehow missed during m...more

like · see review

Jun 22, 2011 Lena Hillbrand rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Gay men who like young boys

Recommended to Lena by: Elana Hillbrand

Shelves: book-club, disturbing-sh-t, banned-books, classics

This was a really weird book. It was super short but full of lengthy, wordy sentences, and half of them I had to go back and reread because I forgot what the sentence was about by the end of it. I also really should have had a dictionary next to me--I didn't realize how lacking my vocabulary is!
About the story itself: the first couple chapters (and there are only 5 total) took me a few days. They were pretty dull and it def. is not a book that sucks you in right away; rather, it grows on you sl...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (40)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

172 users

European Literature > German Literature

65 users

Short Stories

62 users

Literature

50 users

Cultural > Germany

20 users

Literature > 20th Century

19 users

Novels

18 users

Literary Fiction

12 users

Cultural > Italy

11 users

Glbt

10 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Thomas Mann

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intel...more

More about Thomas Mann...

Books by Thomas Mann

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Death in Venice a...

14 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Death in Venice and Ot...

“Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous - to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd.” — 1,073 people liked it

“Solitude produces originality, bold and astonishing beauty, poetry. But solitude also produces perverseness, the disproportianate, the absurd and the forbidden.” — 106 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Death in Venice and Other Tales
avg rating	preview: Death in Venice and Other Tales Goodreads rating: 3.80 (8065 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53064.Death_in_Venice_and_Other_Tales?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309376701l/53064.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53064.Death_in_Venice_and_Other_Tales?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Death in Venice and Other Tales by Thomas Mann[/url]

Death in Venice and Other Tales

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website