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Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family

by Thomas Mann, John E. Woods (Translator), T.J. Reed (Introduction)

4.12 of 5 stars 4.12 · rating details · 5,731 ratings · 239 reviews

Introduction by T. J. Reed; Translation by John E. Woods

Buddenbrooks, first published in Germany in 1901, when Mann was only twenty-six, has become a classic of modern literature.

It is the story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany facing the advent of modernity; in an uncertain new world, the family’s bonds and traditions begin to disinteg...more

Hardcover, 731 pages

Published October 4th 1994 by Everyman's Library (first published 1901)

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Dec 30, 2007 Michael Braithwaite rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who like familial decline

Shelves: booksmellnice, fiction

The Buddenbrooks are an upper middle class bourgeois family in Germany. The story follows multiple generations through traditions of mediocrity and "appearance only" family life. As modernity takes hold and renders their family traditions antiquated and their familial bonds tenuous at best, they begin to fall apart. I suppose some people would say it's about modernity's inability to support traditional family life, but I thought it highlighted the ways in which the middle classes focused more on...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Denis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Another epic by one of the world's greatest writers. Couldn't put it down. Stunning in every way, complex, fascinating, it's one of those novels that seems to have at its core a beating heart that leaves the reader breathless and deeply moved. Mann's painting of the rise and fall of a family, and of German society, is much more than a brilliant social document: it is simply a showcase for the power of literature, when stories and ideas mix in such a way that the reader is taken on a journey whic...more

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Sep 03, 2007 David Saslav rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone over 21

One of the all-time masterworks in terms of plot and inter-generational character development. One can see clearly what existed before soap opera - in terms of characters you simply cannot wait to find out their fate, next move, inner motivation, etc. You could easily devour this in a few sittings but of course you realize that one chapter at a time will spread the pleasure out over a longer period. Don't rush!

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Apr 14, 2008 Lorne Fienberg rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Pretty smart people who like long, worthwhile reads.

A giant book by a master author. This is also an amusing and brilliant translation. Sure, it's Thomas Mann and everyone thought Death in Venice was too heavy, even for a novella. But Buddenbrooks is a very accessible book, with a bit of Dickens, a bit of James, a lot of Flaubert and Balzac in it. Read something that will make you feel really good about yourself.

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Jul 13, 2009 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enjoying this so far (approximately one-quarter through an old translated copy [will update with translator's name:]). Rampant speculation in money matters lead to bankruptcy and family chaos. Very topical!

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Apr 04, 2013 Noce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Monumentale invidia

Ecco un altro tomazzo che la pimpante Noce ha letto durante il liceo, periodo d’oro ove, per sfuggire a una preoccupante timidezza, faceva incetta di letture classiche. Poi, non avendo nessuno con cui confrontare le sue giovanili impressioni, si dimenticava il tutto nel giro di un annetto. La prima pagina reca la scritta, in bella grafia tonda tondissima, da liceale per niente sui generis “Roma, ‘95”. Il che vuol dire che lo comprai alla Stazione Termini, mentre con la mia cla...more Monumentale invidia

Ecco un altro tomazzo che la pimpante Noce ha letto durante il liceo, periodo d’oro ove, per sfuggire a una preoccupante timidezza, faceva incetta di letture classiche. Poi, non avendo nessuno con cui confrontare le sue giovanili impressioni, si dimenticava il tutto nel giro di un annetto. La prima pagina reca la scritta, in bella grafia tonda tondissima, da liceale per niente sui generis “Roma, ‘95”. Il che vuol dire che lo comprai alla Stazione Termini, mentre con la mia classe si aspettava di salire sul treno per Vienna, per una promettente e cazzeggionissima gita scolastica di fine liceo. Di sicuro, lessi il libro al rientro, ché allora non ero mica conciata come adesso, dove il mio ritmo di lettura è imbarazzantemente indietro rispetto all’acquisto compulsivo di materiale cartaceo. Quindi, facendo due calcoli, letto nel ’95, al rientro da una gita di cui non ricordo quasi nulla se non le palle di Mozart e una polverosa ed elegante atmosfera, condensata in architetture secolari di cui non ho saputo godere a pieno, per osmosi non mi dev’essere stato difficile entrare in sintonia con la famiglia Buddenbrook. Sono certa, sempre basandomi su dati storiografici, che avrò anche edith-whartoneggiato un po’, considerando che L’età dell’innocenza di Scorsese era uscito appena un paio d’anni prima, e la festa d’apertura con l’ardita e suggestiva teoria di salotti di casa Beaufort, ricorda molto il fragilissimo equilibrio borghese del sontuoso banchetto inaugurale con cui apre la scena Mann.

L’egoteque giovanile, mi deve quindi aver distratto da un particolare che adesso non posso ignorare e che fa dell’autore tedesco, oggetto eterno della mia ammirazione. Cioè che questa fu la sua prima opera. E non parlo di una di quelle opere meditatissime, che gli autori conservano nel cassetto della scrivania in mezzo a pacchetti di sigarette, pistole ad eventuale usum suicidium, e testamenti poco compiacenti. Opere che dopo lustri di ritocchi e rimaneggiamenti vengono finalmente alla luce, grazie a un editore più sveglio degli altri, e capace di riconoscere il genio latente. No no. Non è il caso del giovane virgulto Mann. Alla stessa età in cui io prendevo il treno per Vienna, e l’unico mal sottile che mi consumava era quello di avere una cuccetta con la mia amichetta del cuore, lui era già redattore di un foglio satirico e già si avviava verso una consapevolezza di sé che io non ho manco ora. All’età di ventidue anni, un’editore importante lo sollecita a scrivere qualcosa di più corposo di qualche raccontino. E Mann cosa fa? Leggero come solo un genio può essere, prima chiede al fratello se vuol fare una cosa a quattro mani, stile Goncourt, poi siccome non se ne fa nulla, si stringe nelle spalle e dice “vabbè, faccio da solo”. Una cosa tipo che io dico a mio padre, ci vieni a far la spesa con me? Non vuoi accompagnarmi? Vabbè dai, vado da sola. E quindi Thomas si mette a scrivere. All’inizio pensa, ma sì, faccio una cosina corta, la storia di una famiglia che decade nell’arco di quattro generazioni, poi si accorge che è un tantino più lunga di quello che aveva previsto. L’editore gli dice, bello di zio, il lettore ti manda a quel paese se si deve cimentare in cose lunghe quanto un rotolone Regina, taglia un po’, da retta a me,ma Thomasino bello punta i piedi, o così o pomì. L’opera viene quindi pubblicata integrale, e dopo un primo tiepido approccio da parte del pubblico lettore, più per una questione di prezzo che di gradimento, fa il botto in edizione economica. Un clamoroso successo. A distanza di quasi un secolo, aggiungerei meritatissimo.

C’è un verso molto famoso di una canzone di Mercede Sosa, che dice “cambia el màs fino brillante, di mano in mano su brillo*”. Mann, di quel verso, si può dire ne abbia fatto una parafrasi, raccontando il processo di opacizzazione di una famiglia, preziosa e fine come un brillante, incastonata tra personaggi diversi ma luminosi come zaffiri, tra una Toni che ricorda i vezzi infantili di una Rossella O’Hara senza la sua saggezza finale, un Christian ipocondriaco e tutto teso in una concentrazione interiore, un Hanno sensibile e quasi catartico, e un Thomas giudizioso e severo, che scopre il segreto dell’esistenza troppo tardi, e come Martin Eden, nel momento in cui seppe, cessò di sapere. Una saga monumentale che a me servirebbero quattro generazioni solo per pensarla, figuriamoci per scriverla. Invece Thomas, fresco fresco, la scrive a ventidue anni, tra Roma, Palestrina e Monaco. Come dire, la gioventù bruciata come fenomeno sociale, ha ancora da venire.

Se volete sapere quanto sia salutare e necessario leggere un classico come questo, per stile, per realismo e per caratterizzazione psicologica, leggete altre recensioni. Io vi dico solo che leggere è un po’ come partire per altri lidi, ma partire è anche un po’ morire. Ecco, se volete morire invidiosi ma soddisfatti, questo è il libro giusto.

*Cambia il brillante più prezioso, di mano in mano il suo splendore.
(less)

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Jul 19, 2009 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nobel-prize-laureates, x2009-july, 2009

An architectural marvel, made of only the simplest parts. Four generations of family slowly, inexorably spiral down into ruin. What's remarkable is the utter lack of unlikely events; everyone, in one way or another, is crushed by the milder things in life. A triumph of realism that literally dispenses of morals in lieu of simple awe at the force of everyday life.

"But I don't want to forget! Forget! Is that any comfort?" [152:]

"You fill up your days... creating a whole series of feelings and sen...more

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Aug 24, 2011 Erik Graff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Mann fans

Recommended to Erik by: no one

Shelves: literature

I read Buddenbrooks because I'd already read quite a bit of Thomas Mann, had liked most of it and had been very impressed by college reading of his tetrology, Joseph and His Brothers, and his novella, Death in Venice. Additionally, schooling had inculcated a sense that German culture was my spiritual home, so what better way to spend some summer days than to read a saga of a nineteenth century German family, particularly when it was the first novel of a favorite German author?

Though I got throug...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Jan Szczerbiuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Re-read my old Penguin translation (H.T.Lowe-Porter) for the first time since 1990. Tremendous description of the slow but inevitable decline of a merchant dynasty in Lubeck over the course of the 19th century. Eminent through no particular virtue of their own except luck and the Protestant Ethic, their decline through a series of bad decisions, both commercial and personal, also owes little to vice and much to misfortune; easy-come easy-go you might say. The considerable attraction of the novel...more

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Aug 26, 2012 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Laura by: Gundula

Shelves: audio-books, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, fiction-20th-century, german-literature, nobel-prize, banned-books, read-2012

From BBC Radio 4:
A 19th-century German merchant family fight to keep their supremacy.

According to Judith Adams, this book was banned and burned by Hitler and it was published when the author was 25, in 1901.

A movie Buddenbrooks (2008) and a TV series Die Buddenbrooks (1979) were made based on this fabulous book.

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Apr 29, 2009 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: german, top-10-2009

A 19th century family saga, rich in character study, which serves as a dissection of societal ritual and mores. Mann kills off his namesake Buddenbrook (Thomas) by means of a decayed tooth (sorry for the plot spoiler), thus providing a metaphorical coda to what ultimately went wrong. It is hard to like any one character, but easy to be fascinated by each of them. Many chapters stand very well alone, like the antepenultimate one which examines a day in the life of Hanno Buddenbrook, laying bare t...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Marc L rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: german-literature

Over het algemeen een louter chronologisch verhaal, beschreven vanuit derde persoon (onpersoonlijk). Af en toe briljant afgewisseld met dagboekfragmenten, uitwisseling van brieven en soms suggesties beschrijving van vreemde verschijnselen.
Qua structuur niet echt evenwichtig: de grote lijn zit in op- en ondergang; maar daartussen gaat het verhaal een kronkelweg; het slothoofdstuk over Hanno doet echt epiloog-achtig aan; in feite was het al met de Buddenbrooks gedaan na de dood van Thomas; dat laa...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Andi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, school

i had to read this for class and was surprised by how much i enjoyed it, esp for a fairly run-of-the-mill "repressed rich ppl coming to terms with the emptiness of their lives" story. enjoyable in an arrested development but in nineteenth century germany kind of way. mann is brilliant at constructing scenes and letting things play out and burn in just the right way, if that makes sense. also, he's really good at writing children, which might have been why i liked it so much. there's a chapter ne...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Paolo Gianoglio rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tra le definizione di cosa sia un classico, quella che preferisco è quella che afferma che la caratteristica principale sia l’attualità del romanzo in un epoca lontana da quella in cui è stato scritto. Ed è anche quella che non finisce mai di lasciarmi stupito e sconcertato, quando a distanza di 110 anni leggo qualcosa che anche scritto oggi sarebbe profondo, significativo, determinante.
Un libro come questo, di oltre 700 pagine, non merita e non può essere condensato in una piccola recensione d...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

Buddenbrooks is a family saga, a style of novel with which I was (until this) completely unfamiliar. Is this because it’s: out of fashion generally, a low-profile occupant of my favourite genres (Sf/F), or not a style I enjoy? Or all of the above? I definitely feel like the trend these days is for books with a focus on a hero/heroine or two, close and personal enough for the reader to experience strong identification with them and their story. This is something much harder to accomplish in a fam...more Buddenbrooks is a family saga, a style of novel with which I was (until this) completely unfamiliar. Is this because it’s: out of fashion generally, a low-profile occupant of my favourite genres (Sf/F), or not a style I enjoy? Or all of the above? I definitely feel like the trend these days is for books with a focus on a hero/heroine or two, close and personal enough for the reader to experience strong identification with them and their story. This is something much harder to accomplish in a family saga. For instance, I kept feeling myself getting fixed on one character in Buddenbrooks, wanting her to be the protagonist. But it was a family saga. Didn’t work that way. Her storyline eddied on and off the pages.

The large array of characters were all … well. I was going to say that they were all protagonists, but actually I don’t feel that’s a correct description. Broadly speaking, a protagonist drives a story, is the object of identification for the reader, and could not (should not be able to) be removed from the story. In Buddenbrooks, though, the cast of main characters were all … secondary characters. Lives interlocking, but somehow secondary, none more prominent than the rest, with the novel going back and forth between the characters, telling episodes in their lives and them moving onwards.

And I did find this difficult. For example, Antonie Buddenbrook (Tony) was my favourite character, and I kept on wanting to see more of her, as her storyline was the most appealing to me. But after about two-thirds of the way through, her role in the overall story began to decrease, with more time being given to other characters about whom I cared less. I had to keep on reminding myself this wasn’t bad storytelling, it was simply the rules of a different literary style: and also was a sort of metanarrative metaphor for Tony’s life (I expect I used “metanarrative” wrong there… ). She had her escapades when she was young: but as an older woman, her role was to slide into the background. Also, another instance of this difference of narrative style was the lack of the beginning-middle-end structure with which I’m so familiar as reader. There’s no “inciting incident” to begin the novel. Nor is there an obvious reason why it ends where it does, just a sense that Everything’s Over Now, in a rather grim way.

The novel follows the fortunes of the Buddenbrook family, a prosperous merchant family in northern Germany, from the 1830s to the 1870s. The bulk involves the lives of three siblings, Tom and Christian and Antonie, but there’s also space devoted to their parents and Tom’s spouse and son. The novel charts the family’s gradual decline: partially financially, but mostly personally. I actually found it very sad to read, though I didn’t realise that until the very end, when I closed the book and felt a grey cloud on my heart. The generations die and age, connections of blood and affection fade or fail: there is a sense that time only brings degeneration of what there was before, that the zenith of the past can never again be achieved. For instance, the Buddenbrook family are terribly proud of their ancestry and heritage. Four generations of Buddenbrook men, heads of the family and business, are seen on page: but none of them ever achieve the heights of their fathers. The last, Hanno, doesn’t give a whit for anything mercantile, instead being devoted to music. He and his father are both profoundly unsatisfied with their destined paths as good citizens. And the women of the Buddenbrooks are also, for the greater part, unsatisfied. Antonie’s life is riddled with disappointments, as is her daughter’s, and her cousin Clothilde’s.

Despite my unenthusiastic tone so far, there were a lot of positives to this book! To the credit of both author and translator, the prose flowed easily: and the characters were all well developed, changing over time but remaining rooted in themselves. The sense of place and time invoked by Mann (who was writing of an era before his) was admirable. In particular, I found some of the early chapters, describing a dinner party, to be redolent of another world – details of food, decor and custom soaked every sentence, but weren’t overwhelming.

But I have yet to decide if I actually liked the book. Certainly I appreciated it, as a literary experience, but would be astonished if I ever were visited by the urge to reread. Books that make me sad in this broad, non-specific way are not my favourites. In fact, perhaps I shouldn’t even describe it as sadness – depression might be better. My hope is always that the world will continue forever becoming better, that things will improve every generation rather than decay, that people will be happier than once they were or could be. Perhaps I’m childishly idealistic. But it’s better than the very grey uber-realism I found in Buddenbrooks.(less)

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Aug 31, 2012 Jorge Maia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reli a primeira obra de Thomas Mann. Tinha-a lido há quase trinta anos, na tradução de Herbert Caro, para os Livros do Brasil. Agora comprei a nova tradução, de Gilda Lopes Encarnação, para a Dom Quixote. Não me lembrava praticamente de nada, tirando o pano de fundo da intriga, a ambiência de uma família burguesa, numa cidade alemã do século XIX. Foi como se a memória, ao fim deste tempo, tivesse reduzido a riqueza das peripécias e personagens a uma mera abstracção que, para sua comodidade, pode...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Maria Thermann rated it 5 of 5 stars

Naturally I read this in the German language edition and, naturally, it has to be one of my favourite books, since it describes the rise and fall of a family dynasty from Luebeck, my own hometown and birthplace of the Hanseatic League (as well as being birthplace and home of several famous writers).

Since I know all the locations and buildings described in the novel, I feel at home with the characters, despite their having "lived" in a different era to my own. The merchant family, who represent...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: summer-2011, published-1901, germany, families, food-glorious-food, nobel-laureate

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 23, 2011 Justin Evans rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Not much to say- it is that good. The fact that Mann went on to write Magic Mountain and Dr Faustus, among others, is staggering. Here he created a range of characters, generally unsympathetic, and as boring as people usually are. But just as in real life, you come to care about them and wish them well. As the subtitle of the novel suggests, it doesn't really work out for anyone. The translation is wonderful- transparent but also just a tiny bit lyrical. My only complaint is that the women in th...more

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Apr 01, 2011 Tommy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the third and final of the epic familial/character novels I read this winter (Middlemarch, Red and Black, and this). Of the three I think this appealed to me most. It followed the rise and fall of a wealthy merchant family through the nineteenth century.

Buddenbrooks deals with the many different characters and familial issues/obligations that still arise in a modern family unit. These include parental expectations, pressures to fulfill ones "duty" or "role" in relation to the family, ho...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Christian Clarke rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: german-writers, 20th-century-novels, representational-works

This book is really long. The version I read is 604 pages. It's nearly inconceivable to me that I once had the mental stamina to read 604 pages. Of literature, no less.

I'm also impressed that Thomas Mann wrote this long book. I can't imagine too many authors today writing such a long book of literature. Maybe Jonathan Franzen. In fact, the Buddenbrooks is kind of ancestor of The Corrections.

The one scene I remember is a protagonist waking up in the middle of night terrified by spiritual doubt....more

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Aug 09, 2009 Mazel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: saga-familiale

prix nobel de littérature 1929
*

Trente ans après sa parution, Les Buddenbrook figure au nombre des livres brûlés dans les autodafés. Les chemises br

unes hurlent sous les fenêtres de Thomas Mann qu'une " famille allemande, une famille de la race élue ne peut jamais déchoir ".

Les Buddenbrook est le roman du déclin, le livre de l'essoufflement.

Thomas Mann traque dans cette dynastie marchande les prodromes du désastre. L'observation de soi-même est le premier pas vers le déclin. Car s'observer, c'e...more

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Jul 29, 2009 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had always been frightened of Thomas Mann. I assumed he was dense and German because he had a four-letter name like Kant and he seemed to be a serious fellow. He was a friend of the Frankfurts and hung out with Teddie and Max in California in the exile times. The only German literature I had read before was Kafka, and me and Kafka don't always see eye-to-eye. I assumed I would be sitting in Thomas Mann's Headful of Ponderous Ideas for seven-hundred fifty pages.

Thankfully, this wasn't the case...more I had always been frightened of Thomas Mann. I assumed he was dense and German because he had a four-letter name like Kant and he seemed to be a serious fellow. He was a friend of the Frankfurts and hung out with Teddie and Max in California in the exile times. The only German literature I had read before was Kafka, and me and Kafka don't always see eye-to-eye. I assumed I would be sitting in Thomas Mann's Headful of Ponderous Ideas for seven-hundred fifty pages.

Thankfully, this wasn't the case -- not in the least!

Undoubtedly, I will be thinking about Buddenbrooks for many days to come. Some reasons to get excited:

a) It is like that episode of Lost in the second season where you find out what happened to the survivors of the tail section ("The Other 90 Days" or somesuch title). All this time I was reading French realist/naturalist novels between Balzac (the Restoration) and Zola (the Second Empire). Buddenbrooks starts in the 1830s and ends in the 1870s and takes place in Lübeck. French realism represented synchronicity; this specimen of early twentieth-century German realism represented diachronicity.
b) Buddenbrooks is Weber's Protestant Work Ethic thesis in motion. It dramatizes the dialectical relationship between Protestantism and bourgeois capitalism. The accumulation of wealth is not something that sits in Ben Franklin's head; it takes a family, more specifically, Ben Franklin's family. But while demonstrating its power, it also shows the limits of Weber's thesis. One family can't hold onto that wealth - or that desire for wealth, for the sign of Election - forever. The contradictions are manifest from the very beginning!
c) The Woods translation is rather lively. The Buddenbrooks are real people like Bridget Dugger Throneberry and Skywalker Pleasants. They are not cogs.
d) What is success, how do we learn what it is, where does the drive to achieve it come from? This novel seemed to resonate greatly with my twin fears: the Scylla of being a tool, the Charybdis of being a washed out failure. But civilization needs both kinds of people.
e) "Decline" is written into the subtitle. But is the decline inevitable? Who is at fault? Should we look for internal causes, or external ones? Was it that wealth corrupted or that the world changed too quickly? (less)

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Mar 13, 2011 Martini rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-classics, waste-of-paper

Der Roman über die Lübecker Kaufmannsfamilie, die durch verschiedenste Schicksalsschläge innerhalb von knapp 50 Jahren vollkommen ver- und zerfällt, ist meiner Meinung nach absolut überschätzt.

Mann schreibt, als wolle er den inoffiziellen Wettbewerb für den längsten Satz gewinnen; seine Verschachtelungen bringen einen Leser mit durchschnittlicher Konzentrationsfähigkeit an den Rand der Verzweiflung. Dies scheint er unbewusst geahnt zu haben, denn es häufen sich Wiederholungen aus vorhergehenden...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Hareton Linton rated it 5 of 5 stars

პირველი ნაწილი მოვამთავრე, თავიდან ცოტა უინტერესო მეჩვენა, მაგრამ მერე გამიტაცა კითხვამ.
ჩემი აზრით, წიგნის ღირსება იმ ირონიაშია, რაც დროის მატებასთან ერთად, უფრო მეტ ირონიზაციას განიცდის სიუჟეტი. ჩვენი საუკუნის გადმოსახედიდან, ბურჟუა-ბურგერების ცხოვრება უფრო და უფრო სასაცილო, გულისამრევი და სულელური ჩანს.
მომეწონა, როდესაც რომანი ჭამა-სმის სცენებით იწყება და თავიდანვე გამახვილებულია ყურადღება ამ "ფუქსავატურ" ყოფაზე.
"საზოგადოებრივ საქმეებში მის გულმოდგინებას, ფირმა "შტრუნკ და ჰაგენშტრომის" სწრაფ ა...more პირველი ნაწილი მოვამთავრე, თავიდან ცოტა უინტერესო მეჩვენა, მაგრამ მერე გამიტაცა კითხვამ.
ჩემი აზრით, წიგნის ღირსება იმ ირონიაშია, რაც დროის მატებასთან ერთად, უფრო მეტ ირონიზაციას განიცდის სიუჟეტი. ჩვენი საუკუნის გადმოსახედიდან, ბურჟუა-ბურგერების ცხოვრება უფრო და უფრო სასაცილო, გულისამრევი და სულელური ჩანს.
მომეწონა, როდესაც რომანი ჭამა-სმის სცენებით იწყება და თავიდანვე გამახვილებულია ყურადღება ამ "ფუქსავატურ" ყოფაზე.
"საზოგადოებრივ საქმეებში მის გულმოდგინებას, ფირმა "შტრუნკ და ჰაგენშტრომის" სწრაფ აღმავლობასა და აყვავებას, კონსულის დიდკაცურ ცხოვრბას, მის სახელსა და ბატის გულძვიძლის პაშტეტს, საუზმეზე რომ მიირთმევდა ხოლმე, არ შეიძლებოდა სათანადო შთაბეჭდილება არ მოეხდინა".
ეს სათანადო შთაბეჭდილება, ჰერმან ჰაგენშტრომის ბატის გულღვიძლის დამსახურება იყო.

მერვე ნაწილის მეექვსე თავის ბოლო მონაკვეთი და მთლიანად მეშვიდე თავი გენიალური იყო, აი, ნამდვილი თომას მანი! ჰანო ბუდენბროკი – დაქცევის მარცვალი, როგორ შემოიყვანა რომანში, როგორი კუთხიდან წარმოაჩინა ხელოვნებასა და სმენადახშულ ოჯახში.
ამის შემდეგ მთელი ხაზი იოჰან–ჰანოს გაჰყვება და შემიძლია ვაღიარო, ეს პერსონაჟი შემიყვარდა. ფინალმა გამაოგნა: "ცხოვრება ჩვენში ისე ანადგურებს რაღაც გრძნობებს, რომ რწმენასაც კი გვირყევს..." და საერთოდ რელიგიისადმი ეს დამოკიდებულება და კაის უკანასკნელი საქციელი, რომანის უკანასაკნელი სიტყვა "წინასწარმეტყველი", როგორი ამაო და ფუჭი გეჩვენება ყველაფერი. წიგნი სცილდება მხოლოდ ბურჟუაზიულ გააზრებას და ზოგადადამიანურ პორობლემებს მოიცავს.
თომას მანი, კიდევ უფრო მეტად მომეწონა, როგორც მწერალი და სურვილი გამიჩნდა, მის შემოქმედებას საფუძვლიანად გავეცნო.(less)

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Apr 18, 2009 Josie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oh man so good! I don't know where to start. It is so good. Go realism!

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Aug 31, 2012 Phil rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I recently realized that there are at least a half-dozen "classics of world literature" I had never read and had successfully avoided; one can describe them as "door-stops."

Buddenbroooks was one of them. I do not know what possessed me to take a copy off the shelf at the public library, and I have to admit, it took me several readings of the first page or two (Toni on her grandfather's knee) for me to get into it. (Why did I read it more than once? Normally if I do not like the first page or so...more

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May 11, 2013 Jonfaith rated it 5 of 5 stars

Apparently this was Faulkner's favorite novel from Mann. Aspects of it likely permeated his epic of the Compson family. Coincidentally I read this one while my wife's sister was staying with us over the holidays. The Sound and The Fury was read in 2004 when we visted her in London.

I thought of this novel yesterday while reading Nancy Mitford's Pursuit of Love. One almost needs to polish silver when pondering these works.

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Nov 16, 2011 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Maybe I was hoping it would be more modernist in style or have something more to say about German society, but I was disappointed. I didn't realize the degree to which enjoying the book would be a product of appreciating the descriptive power of the language and use of leitmotif. I was hoping for greater comment on the 19th century bourgeoisie, and all I learned was that they weren't that different from all bourgeoisie up to today (some relatives of mine included). Some of the book wasn't that d...more

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Dec 07, 2011 Shadazz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who enjoyed middlemarch

Recommended to Shadazz by: indirectly

Shelves: read-because-of-a-lecture, 2011, deutsche

I had a copy of the Buddenbrooks sitting around for a year, and I couldn't quite psyche myself into reading it until some german playwright used it as an example in a lecture. It was a comment on the vein of "Thomas Mann in Buddenbrooks knows what he is talking about and whether he describes reunions or meals, if you have been to Lübeck, it was just like that." So this was the little kick that made me intiate the Buddenbrook challenge.

I find that Buddenbrooks has much in common with George Elio...more

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About Thomas Mann

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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

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“The Ladies Buddenbrook from Breite Strasse did not weep, however - it was not their custom. Their faces, a little less caustic than usual at least, expressed a gentle satisfaction at death's impartiality.” — 2 people liked it

“Das Gute kommt immer zu spät, immer wird es zu spät fertig, wenn man sich nicht mehr recht darüber freuen kann.” — 1 person liked it

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