Thomas Mann: A Critical Study

by R.J. Hollingdale

Digs down to the foundations of Mann's fictional world and shows what it rests on; illustrates its connection with certain outstanding members of the German literary and philosophic tradition, especially Nietzsche; and indicates in what way it mirrors the real world of its time, which is still our time. Thomas Mann (1875-1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized versions of German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Schopenhauer. European Nihilism; Ideology; Decadence; Irony; Myth; Crime; Sickness; Encyclopaedic.

203 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1971