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Τριστάνος
Η τελείωση του έρωτα στον θάνατο και η ιδέα της αιωνίας νύχτας που λύνει με μουσική τους δεσμούς και συντρίβει τα δεσμά του φωτός, απελευθερώνοντας τους ανθρώπους απ' την ψευδεπίγραφη χαρμόσυνη της "ζωής" και δωρίζοντάς τους στο Επέκεινα την ποθούμενη και επιδιωκόμενη εσωτερική γαλήνη, είναι τα δύο κεντρικά σημεία, όπου περιστρέφεται αυτό το sui generis έργο του Thomas Mann. Το ονόμασε νουβέλα· ίσως μάλιστα και να είναι. Το βέβαιο πάντως είναι ότι το έργο διαθέτει μόνον μέσον, ή μάλλον είναι ολόκληρο ένα μέσον, αφού η αρχή και το τέλος συμπίπτουν στο σκότος, στη βάφτιση του ανθρώπου στα νάματα του σκότους, στον επαναπατρισμό του στο αρχαίο Μαύρο, με τη συνοδεία της πλέον μυστικής τέχνης: της μουσικής.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1903
40 people are currently reading
1242 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Mann
2,220 books5,354 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
See also:
Serbian: Tomas Man
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate in 1929, 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 intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer. His older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann, and three of his six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, also became important German writers. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. When World War II broke out in 1939, he emigrated to the United States, from where he returned to Switzerland in 1952. Thomas Mann is one of the best-known exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur.
See also:
Serbian: Tomas Man
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate in 1929, 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 intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer. His older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann, and three of his six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, also became important German writers. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. When World War II broke out in 1939, he emigrated to the United States, from where he returned to Switzerland in 1952. Thomas Mann is one of the best-known exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 148 reviews
March 10, 2023
Этот рассказ кажется продолжением «Волшебной горы» - похожий санаторий для чахоточных больных в живописных горах, похожий распорядок жизни, похожие разношерстные пациенты. Писатель влюбляется в пациентку Габриэлу Клетериан, которой врачи говорят, что у нее не туберкулез, а проблемы с дыхательным горлом. Удивительно, что даже кровь на платке не настораживает их. Но суть не в этом. Габриэла была прекрасной пианисткой, влюбленной в музыку, обладала необыкновенной красотой и другими несомненными достоинствами, но вот только замужем она была за хоть и внешне успешным коммерсантом, да только приземленным до плебейства, с неохотой отрывавшимся от своих дел, чтобы навестить ее. Этот диссонанс поразил другого пациента, тайно влюбленного в Габриэлу и также, как и она, тонко чувствующего музыку и всё возвышенное и прекрасное. Они пережили поистине волшебные минуты, наслаждаясь фортепианной версией оперы Вагнера «Тристан и Изольда». Он еще более был потрясен, узнав, что болезнь началась у нее после рождения крепенького здоровяка-сыночка, который, как он думал, забрал у нее все силы. Трагедию автор видит в том, что такие возвышенные, нежные и уязвимые в своей утонченности натуры достаются таким вот мужланам, которые заботятся только о своих плотских удовольствиях, сытной еде и сексе на стороне с горничными.
October 4, 2015
The Magic Mountain in a nutshell
This short novella, that Thomas Mann wrote at the tender age of twenty-seven, already contains quite a few themes from his later "big" work.
In both cases...
... the story takes place in a remote sanatorium for lung diseases;
... different outlooks on the world collide;
... music plays a certain role [which is already evident in the title of this book].
Also equal is the distinctive choice of names, the author gave to his minor characters, like...
... Doctor Leander, the "Lionman", head of the institution;
... Miss von Osterloh, without whom nothing is accomplished;
... Pastor Höhlenrauch ["Cave-Smoke"] an insane house spirit, symbol of all mortality;
... Magistrate Spatz ["Sparrow"], who is always around somehow.
And of course the main characters...
... Detlev Spinell ["Spinel", named after a mineral], a more or less unsuccessful writer (of a single novel), who seems to perceive the world exclusively as an would-be artist;
... wholesale merchant Klöterjahn ["Chunkman" – or – "Testicleman"], the exact opposite of Spinell;
... Klöterjahn's wife Gabriele, the angel, the only one actually ill, in her role as the relationship triangle's hypotenuse.
Last but not least: Anton, the plump and brazen baby in the Klöterjahn family.
I don't want to go into the content. For this the book is simply too short. Only this: Don't let anyone tell you that one of main characters dies in the end. This is simply not true! [Although there is some presumption]
The style is consistently ironic, not to say mockingly, much more than the one in Magic Mountain. Thomas Mann referred to his own work as a "burlesque". Arrows are shot in every direction and hit everyone; except for Richard Wagner, whose music for Mann apparently was inviolable.
A great read for anyone who ...
... already knows The Magic Mountain and like to take a peek at a similar setting;
... didn't dare to read the The Magic Mountain and want to know a little bit about the setting;
... always wanted to read something by Thomas Mann.
The German version is free to read on Project Gutenberg.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
March 25, 2018
«Η αδυναμία της μεγάλωνε και συχνά την έπιανε πυρετός, μια ήρεμη φλόγα, που γαλήνευε μέσα της με μια συναίσθηση γλυκιάς έξαρσης και που την άφηνε μετά σε μια διάθεση, που ‘χε κάτι το στοχαστικό, το πολύτιμο, το αυτάρεσκο και το ελαφρώς προσβεβλημένο.»
Μια μικρογραφία του Μαγικού βουνού. Μια σύντομη ιστορία σε σανατόριο. Πανέμορφος ο λόγος του.
Μια μικρογραφία του Μαγικού βουνού. Μια σύντομη ιστορία σε σανατόριο. Πανέμορφος ο λόγος του.
September 29, 2022
Thomas Mann's 1903 medium length novella Tristan most definitely is a story where my original appreciation (if not even my rather massive enjoyment, for like always, Thomas Mann's penmanship is exquisite and delightfully wonderfully descriptive) has slowly but ever more surely over the years completely morphed into not only a decided lack of reading pleasure and enthusiasm but also a deep-down and very personal sense of rabid disgust, infuriating frustration and total annoyance at the fact that in far far too much of his oeuvre, Thomas Mann clearly has a huge and often all-encompassing hatred and ridiculing disdain for the arts and for the artistically inclined. And yes, even though much of this anger is more than likely also and obviously directed by Thomas Mann at himself and at his own artistic tendencies, it does not make me enjoy or even understand Thomas Mann's fury at the arts and how he often seems to think that those of us with artistic temperaments are somehow both unhealthily decadent and often seemingly even a threat to society itself.
I mean in Tristan, there is clearly (and in my very much humble opinion) a huge authorial sense of anger and rather uninhibited fury cast at Detlev Spinell (who indeed is a truly loath-worthy and slimily ingratiating character but who has also been rendered by Thomas Mann as almost something like a ridiculously exaggerated caricature, even though I personally do NOT in fact even remotely tend to believe that Mann is trying to be either ironic or humorous here, that he really does seem to think that many artists, writers etc. have the same type of decadently dangerous tendencies as he has depicted in Spinell and therefore they are threats to society and in particular to those individuals who are sensitive and imaginative). Combined with Thomas Mann in Tristian always and rather clearly also placing the mundane, the everyday, the non artistic above and beyond the artistic and the esoteric (and to also show the former as healthy and the latter as rotten and diseased) and that (as already mentioned above), the artistic is also a recurring and dangerous threat, as a person firmly rooted in the realm of the humanities and as someone who has always found herself to be an alien in her family of non artistic temperaments, the more I consider Tristan, the more I totally, utterly and vehemently despise Thomas Mann basically telling me that artists, that writers, that the imaginative and the artistically inclined (like me) are offensive and heavy duty threats to society, that the non artistic such as Anton Klöterjahn and his son are superior, that individuals like Detlev Spinell (as well as the music of Richard Wagner) are to be at best approached with suspicion and to be fought against in order to rid the world of the taint of the artistic and the spiritual.
I mean in Tristan, there is clearly (and in my very much humble opinion) a huge authorial sense of anger and rather uninhibited fury cast at Detlev Spinell (who indeed is a truly loath-worthy and slimily ingratiating character but who has also been rendered by Thomas Mann as almost something like a ridiculously exaggerated caricature, even though I personally do NOT in fact even remotely tend to believe that Mann is trying to be either ironic or humorous here, that he really does seem to think that many artists, writers etc. have the same type of decadently dangerous tendencies as he has depicted in Spinell and therefore they are threats to society and in particular to those individuals who are sensitive and imaginative). Combined with Thomas Mann in Tristian always and rather clearly also placing the mundane, the everyday, the non artistic above and beyond the artistic and the esoteric (and to also show the former as healthy and the latter as rotten and diseased) and that (as already mentioned above), the artistic is also a recurring and dangerous threat, as a person firmly rooted in the realm of the humanities and as someone who has always found herself to be an alien in her family of non artistic temperaments, the more I consider Tristan, the more I totally, utterly and vehemently despise Thomas Mann basically telling me that artists, that writers, that the imaginative and the artistically inclined (like me) are offensive and heavy duty threats to society, that the non artistic such as Anton Klöterjahn and his son are superior, that individuals like Detlev Spinell (as well as the music of Richard Wagner) are to be at best approached with suspicion and to be fought against in order to rid the world of the taint of the artistic and the spiritual.
August 16, 2021
Há uma lenda celta que narra os amores do cavaleiro Tristão e da princesa e rainha Isolda, tema extraordinariamente popular em toda a Europa medieval.
Em «Tristan» - ambientado no sanatório Einfried -, somos apresentados aos protagonistas com destaque para os que vão reviver o drama de amor e morte de Tristão e Isolda:
Gabriela Klöterjahn, doente da traqueia, casada com um comerciante e com inclinações artísticas para a música.
Detlev Spinell, um escritor com algum talento e um romance publicado, e que se encontra no sanatório por uma questão de estilo nomeadamente o empire arquitectónico do edifício; um ser fraco que se mantém esteticamente ligado ao belo pelo belo em oposição ao comerciante Klöterjahn.
O escritor Spinell (Tristão) trava conhecimento com Gabriela (Isolda).
A partitura de «Tristão e Isolda» de Wagner é tocada, interpretada, sentida.
O estado de saúde de Gabriela agrava-se.
Spinell ataca Klöterjahn: é o conflito burguês-artista, um dos grandes temas da obra de Thomas Mann.
Amor e morte num conto muito bem elaborado, cujo leit-motiv é a música.
Em «Tristan» - ambientado no sanatório Einfried -, somos apresentados aos protagonistas com destaque para os que vão reviver o drama de amor e morte de Tristão e Isolda:
Gabriela Klöterjahn, doente da traqueia, casada com um comerciante e com inclinações artísticas para a música.
Detlev Spinell, um escritor com algum talento e um romance publicado, e que se encontra no sanatório por uma questão de estilo nomeadamente o empire arquitectónico do edifício; um ser fraco que se mantém esteticamente ligado ao belo pelo belo em oposição ao comerciante Klöterjahn.
O escritor Spinell (Tristão) trava conhecimento com Gabriela (Isolda).
A partitura de «Tristão e Isolda» de Wagner é tocada, interpretada, sentida.
O estado de saúde de Gabriela agrava-se.
Spinell ataca Klöterjahn: é o conflito burguês-artista, um dos grandes temas da obra de Thomas Mann.
Amor e morte num conto muito bem elaborado, cujo leit-motiv é a música.
October 29, 2019
Amor platonico, amor cortese, amore come forza che desta e riscopre passioni e nature celate oltre sterili stereotipi o convenzioni sociali. Amore prevaricante e totalizzante. Amore come esile goccia d'acqua destinata a divenire tempesta. Amore che sogna, che unisce, che crea un contesto alienato in cui viver un sentimento altrimenti precluso. Amor che oltre simili confini, sgomento innanzi alla concretezza della realtà, si ammala, deperisce, svanisce come un sogno tra le braccia dell'aurora e, disilluso, china il capo innanzi al gelo dell'inverno.
May 7, 2023
Thomas Manns ironisch augenzwinkerndes Beschreiben menschlicher Schwächen findet auch in dieser relativ kurzen Erzählung auf höchstem Niveau statt. Manche Details deuten bereits in Richtung Zauberberg.
January 5, 2020
3 stars!
This novella sort of confirmed to me that I adore Mann's writing. If you have not read any Thomas Mann so far, I highly recommend reading this story to get a taste for it as it is quite short. I contemplated giving this novella a 4 star rating but in the end, I can't really justify giving it a higher rating than "Death in Venice"- and that story is only just a little bit longer than "Tristan" so please go read "Death in Venice" if you can.
My problem with this story in particular is that I think that it lacks direction. Do we side with Herr Spinell or see him for the coward that he is? And also there is obviously this whole Wagner, Tristan and Isolde thing going on which never has been my cup of tea because it has been done so many times but obviously, Thomas Mann didn't watch Solaris or Melancholia etc. so credit where credit is due. To be honest, those movies were probably partly inspired by this story as well so hmm. (watch Melancholia though, great movie)
But now, for the most important part of this review, I'd like to give a selection of passages from Tristan: which I can now deem to be the favourite rant/roast I've ever read in my entire life:
"You were not content to look upon it: you had to possess it, to exploit it, to desecrate it.… What a subtle choice you made! You are a gourmet, sir, a plebeian gourmet, a peasant with taste. "
"Please note that I have no wish whatever to offend you. What I have said is not abuse: I am merely stating the formula, the simple psychological formula of your simple, aesthetically quite uninteresting personality..."
"Although in fact your natural constitution is coarse and your position on the evolutionary scale extremely low, your wealth and your sedentary habits have enabled you to achieve a certain barbarian corruption of the nervous system, sudden and historically quite inappropriate, but lending a certain lascivious refinement to your appetites."
"your peasant conscience has never stirred with the slightest inkling of how profound an outrage you committed"
And with that, I thank you all, what an experience.
This novella sort of confirmed to me that I adore Mann's writing. If you have not read any Thomas Mann so far, I highly recommend reading this story to get a taste for it as it is quite short. I contemplated giving this novella a 4 star rating but in the end, I can't really justify giving it a higher rating than "Death in Venice"- and that story is only just a little bit longer than "Tristan" so please go read "Death in Venice" if you can.
My problem with this story in particular is that I think that it lacks direction. Do we side with Herr Spinell or see him for the coward that he is? And also there is obviously this whole Wagner, Tristan and Isolde thing going on which never has been my cup of tea because it has been done so many times but obviously, Thomas Mann didn't watch Solaris or Melancholia etc. so credit where credit is due. To be honest, those movies were probably partly inspired by this story as well so hmm. (watch Melancholia though, great movie)
But now, for the most important part of this review, I'd like to give a selection of passages from Tristan: which I can now deem to be the favourite rant/roast I've ever read in my entire life:
"You were not content to look upon it: you had to possess it, to exploit it, to desecrate it.… What a subtle choice you made! You are a gourmet, sir, a plebeian gourmet, a peasant with taste. "
"Please note that I have no wish whatever to offend you. What I have said is not abuse: I am merely stating the formula, the simple psychological formula of your simple, aesthetically quite uninteresting personality..."
"Although in fact your natural constitution is coarse and your position on the evolutionary scale extremely low, your wealth and your sedentary habits have enabled you to achieve a certain barbarian corruption of the nervous system, sudden and historically quite inappropriate, but lending a certain lascivious refinement to your appetites."
"your peasant conscience has never stirred with the slightest inkling of how profound an outrage you committed"
And with that, I thank you all, what an experience.
March 9, 2020
A doua întâlnire cu Thomas Mann... Nu pot spune că mi-a plăcut, dar finalul a fost neașteptat.
"- Urâm ceea ce este de folos, știm că utilul este vulgar și urât și apărăm acest adevăr așa cum sunt apărate adevărurile de care ai neapărată nevoie. Și totuși conștiința aceasta încărcată ne roade în așa măsură, că nici un petic din noi nu mai e teafăr. La aceasta se adaugă că întregul fel de a fi al existenței noastre lăuntrice, concepția noastră despre lume, modul nostru de a lucra... au un efect teribil de nesănătos, ne minează, ne extenuează, ceea ce înrăutățește și mai mult lucrurile. Nu există decât mărunte mijloace de alinare, fără de care pur și simplu n-am rezista."
"- Urâm ceea ce este de folos, știm că utilul este vulgar și urât și apărăm acest adevăr așa cum sunt apărate adevărurile de care ai neapărată nevoie. Și totuși conștiința aceasta încărcată ne roade în așa măsură, că nici un petic din noi nu mai e teafăr. La aceasta se adaugă că întregul fel de a fi al existenței noastre lăuntrice, concepția noastră despre lume, modul nostru de a lucra... au un efect teribil de nesănătos, ne minează, ne extenuează, ceea ce înrăutățește și mai mult lucrurile. Nu există decât mărunte mijloace de alinare, fără de care pur și simplu n-am rezista."
October 30, 2019
Τον Αύγουστο του 2017 διάβασα το κλασικό "Θάνατος στη Βενετία", το οποίο δυστυχώς δεν με ενθουσίασε, λόγω κάποιων κουραστικών σημείων στην πλοκή. Από την άλλη, βέβαια, είχα θαυμάσει τη γραφή και την όλη ατμόσφαιρα της ιστορίας, οπότε έτσι κι αλλιώς δεν υπήρχε περίπτωση να... ξεγράψω έναν τέτοιο συγγραφέα. Λοιπόν, το "Τριστάνος" μου άρεσε σαφώς περισσότερο. Λόγω μεγέθους, λόγω θεματολογίας, λόγω σκηνικού; Δεν ξέρω, πάντως το διάβασα μονορούφι, βυθίστηκα για τα καλά στον μελαγχολικό κόσμο της ιστορίας, με τον συγγραφέα να καταφέρνει να μου κινήσει το ενδιαφέρον για τους χαρακτήρες και το όλο δράμα τους, από τις πρώτες κιόλας σελίδες. Η γραφή μαγευτική και αψεγάδιαστη, σε μεταφέρει πίσω στον χρόνο και σε βάζει σε διάφορες σκέψεις.
October 11, 2017
Thomas Mann's novella, Tristan, is a modern interpretation of the old Irish legend of Tristan and Iseult, set in a fictional sanitarium (presumably in Bayreuth, German), and fashioned to integrate themes of art, creativity, and social convention. Though it's phenomenally well written and contains several remarkably stark images, it struck me as a story that is inconstant in its tone and uncertain of its intentions. It was at turns satirical and earnest, unsure if it wants to parody romantic drama or imitate them, fickly both sympathizing and disparaging Spinell, the protagonist and fill in for Tristan.
The themes also appear to fluctuate, strengthen and wane, so that the by the end the only appropriate interpretation would be to take both the themes and their antitheses in union. Spinell, for example represents both the tortured artist and aesthetic immorality. He speaks against the oppression of social convention and narrow-minded thinking, a commendable effort without a doubt, but by the end he appears hypocritical, cowardly, absurd, and derisory. Klöterjahn, the antagonist and fill in for Mark, at first seems a model for every detestable facet of industrial, bureaucratic society, but by the end appears as a standard for rationalism and strength. Both personae are ultimately mistaken beings, their fallible mentalities underscored by the very setting of the sanitarium itself.
Overall, I saw both characters as simultaneously flawed and ideal. I can't say this is what Mann intended. I believe Mann may have meant for a more black and white outlook on the story. The title of the novella is named "Tristan" after all, implying the centrality of the protagonist, Spinell. Klöterjahn, meanwhile, in German means something like "shithead" or "pea(pee)-brain", Klöter meaning "shit" or "urine" according to the region. Mann's disdain for Klöterjahn and his son is undeniable and it's quite likely that Spinell is a sort of projection of Mann's own personality.
Nevertheless, I felt more inclined to support Klöterjahn and his outburst towards the end was cathartic for me. I saw Spinell as the embodiment of every cuckolding, ménage à trois romance I've had to study, and through Klöterjahn's rage against him I felt myself being avenged.
I must also mention a particular passage which breaks away from the conventional prose and reworks Wagner's Tristan und Isolde libretto into the narrative to evoke the burst of bottled up emotion and imagination during a piano recital. I was quite astounded by it.
If this novella is to be taken as anything but a satire, if it is meant to seriously reveal the "artist's spirit", then it indicates a lack of mental faculty in its author, as the ideology expounded is quite ludicrous. It ought to be interpreted as a sarcastic portrayal of nascent mentalities, neither of which are optimal alone.
The themes also appear to fluctuate, strengthen and wane, so that the by the end the only appropriate interpretation would be to take both the themes and their antitheses in union. Spinell, for example represents both the tortured artist and aesthetic immorality. He speaks against the oppression of social convention and narrow-minded thinking, a commendable effort without a doubt, but by the end he appears hypocritical, cowardly, absurd, and derisory. Klöterjahn, the antagonist and fill in for Mark, at first seems a model for every detestable facet of industrial, bureaucratic society, but by the end appears as a standard for rationalism and strength. Both personae are ultimately mistaken beings, their fallible mentalities underscored by the very setting of the sanitarium itself.
Overall, I saw both characters as simultaneously flawed and ideal. I can't say this is what Mann intended. I believe Mann may have meant for a more black and white outlook on the story. The title of the novella is named "Tristan" after all, implying the centrality of the protagonist, Spinell. Klöterjahn, meanwhile, in German means something like "shithead" or "pea(pee)-brain", Klöter meaning "shit" or "urine" according to the region. Mann's disdain for Klöterjahn and his son is undeniable and it's quite likely that Spinell is a sort of projection of Mann's own personality.
Nevertheless, I felt more inclined to support Klöterjahn and his outburst towards the end was cathartic for me. I saw Spinell as the embodiment of every cuckolding, ménage à trois romance I've had to study, and through Klöterjahn's rage against him I felt myself being avenged.
I must also mention a particular passage which breaks away from the conventional prose and reworks Wagner's Tristan und Isolde libretto into the narrative to evoke the burst of bottled up emotion and imagination during a piano recital. I was quite astounded by it.
If this novella is to be taken as anything but a satire, if it is meant to seriously reveal the "artist's spirit", then it indicates a lack of mental faculty in its author, as the ideology expounded is quite ludicrous. It ought to be interpreted as a sarcastic portrayal of nascent mentalities, neither of which are optimal alone.
February 19, 2017
Things I learned from this story:
* Attractive women must die.
* Music will kill you (at least if you're an attractive woman.)
* Healthy babies are offensive.
* Disease makes women more attractive? (Real talk tho has Thomas Mann ever seen a sick person in his life?)
* Having a life is a waste of a women's ethereal beauty or something honestly I don't even know...
* And of course, no canonized work is complete without a big steaming scoop of misogyny.
Also can we talk about the fact that that Gabriele literally got her own childhood memories mansplained to her? Wow. That was a new one for me.
* Attractive women must die.
* Music will kill you (at least if you're an attractive woman.)
* Healthy babies are offensive.
* Disease makes women more attractive? (Real talk tho has Thomas Mann ever seen a sick person in his life?)
* Having a life is a waste of a women's ethereal beauty or something honestly I don't even know...
* And of course, no canonized work is complete without a big steaming scoop of misogyny.
Also can we talk about the fact that that Gabriele literally got her own childhood memories mansplained to her? Wow. That was a new one for me.
November 8, 2022
despre un incel care avea tupeu doar pe net...
July 31, 2020
0,4 estrellas
¡Suave añoranza! sin engaño ni inquietud ¡Muerte sublime y sin dolor! ¡Crepúsculo bienaventurado en el infinito! Tú eres Isolda, yo soy Tristan, ya no hay Isolda...
¡Suave añoranza! sin engaño ni inquietud ¡Muerte sublime y sin dolor! ¡Crepúsculo bienaventurado en el infinito! Tú eres Isolda, yo soy Tristan, ya no hay Isolda...
November 28, 2010
I skipped this story last time I read Death in Venice and Tonio Kroger, all three of which are in the same volume in my edition. The connection with the other two stories, especially the latter, is now clear to me: the gulf between the vast majority of people who get on with their lives in a practical, no nonsense way and the small partly deluded minority who suffer from an over sensitive artistic nature. Mann is identifying himself with and mocking the artistic type at the same time. It helps if you have some familiarity with Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde.
August 3, 2015
Sometimes I just love the German language. For example when reading Thomas Mann :).
September 9, 2018
"That scene, sir, was an end and culmination. Why did you come to spoil it, to
give it a sequel, to turn it into the channels of ugly and commonplace life? It was a
peaceful apotheosis and a moving, bathed in a sunset beauty of decadence, decay, and
death. An ancient stock, too exhausted and refined for life and action, stood there at the
end of its days; its latest manifestations were those of art: violin notes, full of that
melancholy understanding which is ripeness for death.... Did you look into her eyes-those
eyes where tears so often stood, lured by the dying sweetness of the violin?"
give it a sequel, to turn it into the channels of ugly and commonplace life? It was a
peaceful apotheosis and a moving, bathed in a sunset beauty of decadence, decay, and
death. An ancient stock, too exhausted and refined for life and action, stood there at the
end of its days; its latest manifestations were those of art: violin notes, full of that
melancholy understanding which is ripeness for death.... Did you look into her eyes-those
eyes where tears so often stood, lured by the dying sweetness of the violin?"
August 16, 2011
You can't go wrong with Mann.
June 9, 2024
Well, isn’t this story a tiny run-up to the Zauberberg? Mann captures the unreal, otherworldly atmosphere of a sanatorium very well. I’ve never been; now I never want to go.
At the Einfreid sanatorium, Detlev Spinell, a writer, falls in love with a married woman, Gabriele Klöterjahn; a new patient. This is, of course, a hopeless endeavour of impotent passion and thus a safe one – if you’re certain of failure, your competence at winning is never actually tested.
It remains unclear to me – as the story progresses – whether Gabriele reciprocities any of Herr Spinell’s feelings, or if she’s just vain. Herr Spinell wins her over with flattery; making her see herself for the ethereal fairy dream, she most certainly is not. In reality, Gabriele likes potato pancakes recipes, and has hastily married Herr Klöterjahn, even though he’s a racy, crude, maid-groping womaniser of the intellectually unsophisticated variety.
You almost become sorry for Herr Spinell. The ages-old question returns: does she like you, or does she like herself with you? But then, it’s not clear, if Spinell likes Gabriele, or if he’s just bored out of his wits in the sanatorium, and creates a fairy character out of her.
This story is not a Tristan-Isolde deal in many other ways:
Gabriele coughs up mucus into a handkerchief and pauses to examine it. How lovely. What a creature of exquisite manners and supreme daintiness. Spinell and Gabriele’s intimate little moment at the piano happens only because Chopin’s Nocturnes give Frau Spatz the trots, and she’s obliged to run upstairs to relieve her bowels. In the garden, Spinell becomes awkwardly intimidated by Gabriele’s toddler-son Anton, and runs away from him.
Mann, who wrote nothing by accident, wrote this on purpose no doubt, to troll and torment the romantically inclined reader. Fortunately, after reading Ann Radcliffe’s novels, I no longer have feelings.
In an unusual attempt at confrontation, Spinell sits down to write a bitter, insulting letter to Gabriele’s pork-cheeked husband. He manages to complete the letter after many hours, and with much difficulty. The narrator comments rather cruelly that words came to Spinell: (…) with such pathetic slowness, considering the man was a writer by trade, you would have drawn the conclusion, watching him, that a writer is one to whom writing comes harder than to anybody else.
Now, I’ve seen this quote taken completely out of context, reduced to A writer is one to whom writing comes harder than to anybody else, and liked by many people, here on goodreads. I believe this is a gross misunderstanding.
In my humble, but correct opinion, Thomas Mann DID NOT, at any point, think writers find writing more difficult than average people. On the contrary: he believed writers possess both the skill and talent to write anything they please, hence the ironic and rather contemptuous remark about Spinell’s inability to produce a letter.
What Thomas Mann did occasionally imply through his characters, was that being an artist is somewhat of a curse; that it often entails being the intellectual recluse, the unwilling eccentric, the perpetual outsider to any honest, carefree fun. As Tonio Kröger puts it, you cannot pluck a single leaf from the laurel tree of art without paying for it with your life. No healthy, happy man writes novels. Mann didn’t whine about it publicly, though because, unlike the soggy-bottomed wimps of today, who cannot pass an hour without advertising their hardships, he was a gentleman.
At the Einfreid sanatorium, Detlev Spinell, a writer, falls in love with a married woman, Gabriele Klöterjahn; a new patient. This is, of course, a hopeless endeavour of impotent passion and thus a safe one – if you’re certain of failure, your competence at winning is never actually tested.
It remains unclear to me – as the story progresses – whether Gabriele reciprocities any of Herr Spinell’s feelings, or if she’s just vain. Herr Spinell wins her over with flattery; making her see herself for the ethereal fairy dream, she most certainly is not. In reality, Gabriele likes potato pancakes recipes, and has hastily married Herr Klöterjahn, even though he’s a racy, crude, maid-groping womaniser of the intellectually unsophisticated variety.
You almost become sorry for Herr Spinell. The ages-old question returns: does she like you, or does she like herself with you? But then, it’s not clear, if Spinell likes Gabriele, or if he’s just bored out of his wits in the sanatorium, and creates a fairy character out of her.
This story is not a Tristan-Isolde deal in many other ways:
Gabriele coughs up mucus into a handkerchief and pauses to examine it. How lovely. What a creature of exquisite manners and supreme daintiness. Spinell and Gabriele’s intimate little moment at the piano happens only because Chopin’s Nocturnes give Frau Spatz the trots, and she’s obliged to run upstairs to relieve her bowels. In the garden, Spinell becomes awkwardly intimidated by Gabriele’s toddler-son Anton, and runs away from him.
Mann, who wrote nothing by accident, wrote this on purpose no doubt, to troll and torment the romantically inclined reader. Fortunately, after reading Ann Radcliffe’s novels, I no longer have feelings.
In an unusual attempt at confrontation, Spinell sits down to write a bitter, insulting letter to Gabriele’s pork-cheeked husband. He manages to complete the letter after many hours, and with much difficulty. The narrator comments rather cruelly that words came to Spinell: (…) with such pathetic slowness, considering the man was a writer by trade, you would have drawn the conclusion, watching him, that a writer is one to whom writing comes harder than to anybody else.
Now, I’ve seen this quote taken completely out of context, reduced to A writer is one to whom writing comes harder than to anybody else, and liked by many people, here on goodreads. I believe this is a gross misunderstanding.
In my humble, but correct opinion, Thomas Mann DID NOT, at any point, think writers find writing more difficult than average people. On the contrary: he believed writers possess both the skill and talent to write anything they please, hence the ironic and rather contemptuous remark about Spinell’s inability to produce a letter.
What Thomas Mann did occasionally imply through his characters, was that being an artist is somewhat of a curse; that it often entails being the intellectual recluse, the unwilling eccentric, the perpetual outsider to any honest, carefree fun. As Tonio Kröger puts it, you cannot pluck a single leaf from the laurel tree of art without paying for it with your life. No healthy, happy man writes novels. Mann didn’t whine about it publicly, though because, unlike the soggy-bottomed wimps of today, who cannot pass an hour without advertising their hardships, he was a gentleman.
May 29, 2023
Ironisch pareltje van nauwelijks 50 pagina’s. Tragikomisch relaas over een passage van enkele weken in een sanatorium in de bergen, en de zonderlinge figuren wiens leven er elkaar kruist.
De titel verwijst naar de opera van Wagner en speelt een sleutelrol in de ontknoping.
De titel verwijst naar de opera van Wagner en speelt een sleutelrol in de ontknoping.
August 22, 2025
Коротке, але дуже сильне. Атмосфера доволі тривожна і водночас вишукана. Шпінелль зводить мистецтво в культ, і через це втрачає людину. І це не про кохання — це про холодну естетику, яка душить життя. Залишив складний, навіть трохи моторошний післясмак.
November 18, 2021
Hätte nicht gedacht, dass ich das Buch doch gerne mag. Schreibstil ist voll in Ordnung und die Charaktere fand ich sehr interessant. Hab auch das erste mal eine Lesetagebuch für die Uni geführt und das hat auch sehr gut funktioniert.
Das N-Wort auf Seite 35 hätte man sich sparen können, lieber Herr Mann.
Das N-Wort auf Seite 35 hätte man sich sparen können, lieber Herr Mann.
July 12, 2022
A love triangle that takes place in a sanitarium but the two men are apparently only representative of the virility of their general professional categories. I'm usually not a fan of allegory that can't stand in its own as literature without the allegory.
June 8, 2016
You come to German literature class one day. And your teacher tells you “you’re going to read one of the ‘less famous’ books by Thomas Mann, I’m sure you all are going to like it”. And well, maybe. But I was sure I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much as the previous ones, because I don’t usually like those kind of books which centres completely on the romance. Okay, I hate those. Nevertheless, I started to read it, to turn pages and before I realized it I was already done with it. So…, I couldn’t be more wrong.
LET’S START WITH THE THINGS I LIKED:
• The prose. Do you know one of the few novels that are really well written? Well, this one is obviously one of those. When my teacher told us Thomas Man was an excellent writer and one of the most important in Germany and the whole world during the XX century, she wasn’t lying. I really liked the way everything was described, from the sanatorium they were living to the characters and their reactions. The descriptions were deep and meaningful, everything is said is there for a reason. The names used are also really important. For example: Einfried (the sanatorium it’s literally a peace in German) or Klöterjahn (the name of Gabrielle’s family, with Klöten meaning eggs).
• Klöterjahn. Yeah, I know. He isn’t one of the main characters and in some way he is the typical antagonism, the husband to the Gabrielle who will at last be corrupted by Spinell. But I appreciated the way Mann tried to characterize him: he is ultimately in love with her and even tries to do everything in his power to cure her. It was fresh air to me seeing some different characters.
• It wasn’t long as to be able to enjoy it completely. It’s not necessary to write 600 pages if everything you need to tell is fine with 200.
• The ‘leitmotiv’. I know if you haven’t read the book with someone who knows about that, you won’t be able to figure it for yourself. But I will try to explain it and maybe that way you will next time. The leitmotiv, which was used by Wagner a real obsession for Thomas Mann, is a theme or a topic which is repeated throughout the novel in different situations to characterise the characters or the scenes. It was used in the Opera by Wagner when an actor would sing or when a topic (like the death, or love) would be talked. Mann is able to do that with the little vein on the front of Gabrielle that unfortunately represents death and love, both at the same time.
And that is everything more or less. It is a really good novel that I recommend to everyone, and I’m sure you would like it.
LET’S START WITH THE THINGS I LIKED:
• The prose. Do you know one of the few novels that are really well written? Well, this one is obviously one of those. When my teacher told us Thomas Man was an excellent writer and one of the most important in Germany and the whole world during the XX century, she wasn’t lying. I really liked the way everything was described, from the sanatorium they were living to the characters and their reactions. The descriptions were deep and meaningful, everything is said is there for a reason. The names used are also really important. For example: Einfried (the sanatorium it’s literally a peace in German) or Klöterjahn (the name of Gabrielle’s family, with Klöten meaning eggs).
• Klöterjahn. Yeah, I know. He isn’t one of the main characters and in some way he is the typical antagonism, the husband to the Gabrielle who will at last be corrupted by Spinell. But I appreciated the way Mann tried to characterize him: he is ultimately in love with her and even tries to do everything in his power to cure her. It was fresh air to me seeing some different characters.
• It wasn’t long as to be able to enjoy it completely. It’s not necessary to write 600 pages if everything you need to tell is fine with 200.
• The ‘leitmotiv’. I know if you haven’t read the book with someone who knows about that, you won’t be able to figure it for yourself. But I will try to explain it and maybe that way you will next time. The leitmotiv, which was used by Wagner a real obsession for Thomas Mann, is a theme or a topic which is repeated throughout the novel in different situations to characterise the characters or the scenes. It was used in the Opera by Wagner when an actor would sing or when a topic (like the death, or love) would be talked. Mann is able to do that with the little vein on the front of Gabrielle that unfortunately represents death and love, both at the same time.
And that is everything more or less. It is a really good novel that I recommend to everyone, and I’m sure you would like it.
June 8, 2017
Torn between 2 and 3 stars. Did not like the setting, and thought he mislead us by making this about Spinell the author, when we were preparing ourselves to get to know Dr. Leander or someone more interesting that he introduced at the beginning better. It was a deliberate ploy most likely and fits very nicely within the general theme of antipathy towards Spinell the principal character..its very innovative in a sense that you wouldnt be permitted to like the protagonist, and he does it deftly and I was certainly not liking it as it was slowly turning out to be about him. And the setting seemed commonplace from the beginning, I dont know why exactly because I dont remember reading many books set in a sanatorium,...- just the coming of the fragile beauty and rousing the author's imagination perhaps.. But finally there was the drama, and a drama it was in the truest sense, in the sense that GB Shaw defined it, -the sense of a conflict, and it was brilliantly done, like a first rate dramatist, and with a bonus - with a storyteller's gift of picturesque detail, and like a first rate drama it made you lose sides and sympathize with both parties to the conflict,... you understood completely where Spinell was coming from and worse, you sympathized with him and then saw reality hit you squarely in the form of Kloterjahn and you were left to ponder about your allegiances, with the reality and beyond. So all in all not a waste of time and could give it a 3 perhaps but I dont know for some reason I dont want to give it more than a 2 tonight.
September 21, 2021
Immer wieder sensationell, wie Thomas Mann auf engstem Raum Verdichtung und Andeutung zu einem aussagekräftigen Stück Literatur zu machen versteht.
Musik und Tod, Leben und Kunst, Tätigkeit und Betrachung – die Reihe der Gegensatzpaare ließe sich fortsetzen, es gibt viele verarbeitete literarische Motive, die Abrechnung mit einer ziellosen Wagner-Schwärmerei, natürlich die Fähigkeit, Personen zu charakterisieren – und vor allem gibt es die grandiose sprachliche Umsetzung der wesentlichen Teile von Wagners "Tristan und Isolde".
Detlev Spinell, ein Schriftsteller, "bloß aus Lemberg gebürtig", überredet die kranke Gabriele Klöterjahn zum Klavierspielen. Sie spielt den Klavierauszug vom Blatt, preziös und präzise. Wie Thomas Mann das in Worte faßt, ist schlichtweg grandios. Ich kann die Musik hören, die Szene sehen – "O, sink hernieder, Nacht der Liebe!" Während im Opernhaus die Musik enthüllt, was passiert, das für die Zeitgenossen Unaussprechliche offen zutage treten läßt, geschieht im Aufenthaltsraum von "Einfried": nichts. Spinell wird von seinen Empfindungen überwältigt, aber nicht zum Liebesakt emporgerissen.
Seine Impotenz setzt sich in einem sehr einseitigen Wortgefecht mit Herrn Klöterjahn fort und findet ihren Tiefpunkt, als er vor dem drallen, lebenstüchtigen Kinde Klöterjahns Reißaus nimmt.
Musik und Tod, Leben und Kunst, Tätigkeit und Betrachung – die Reihe der Gegensatzpaare ließe sich fortsetzen, es gibt viele verarbeitete literarische Motive, die Abrechnung mit einer ziellosen Wagner-Schwärmerei, natürlich die Fähigkeit, Personen zu charakterisieren – und vor allem gibt es die grandiose sprachliche Umsetzung der wesentlichen Teile von Wagners "Tristan und Isolde".
Detlev Spinell, ein Schriftsteller, "bloß aus Lemberg gebürtig", überredet die kranke Gabriele Klöterjahn zum Klavierspielen. Sie spielt den Klavierauszug vom Blatt, preziös und präzise. Wie Thomas Mann das in Worte faßt, ist schlichtweg grandios. Ich kann die Musik hören, die Szene sehen – "O, sink hernieder, Nacht der Liebe!" Während im Opernhaus die Musik enthüllt, was passiert, das für die Zeitgenossen Unaussprechliche offen zutage treten läßt, geschieht im Aufenthaltsraum von "Einfried": nichts. Spinell wird von seinen Empfindungen überwältigt, aber nicht zum Liebesakt emporgerissen.
Seine Impotenz setzt sich in einem sehr einseitigen Wortgefecht mit Herrn Klöterjahn fort und findet ihren Tiefpunkt, als er vor dem drallen, lebenstüchtigen Kinde Klöterjahns Reißaus nimmt.
January 14, 2024
Абсолютна насолода, яку не хочеться споживати похапцем. Чотири новели — і чотири кардинально різні емоції, на яких ти себе вловлюєш після прочитання. Може лише здатися на перший погляд, що Манн пише про якісь банальні та звичні події, обрамлюючи їх у складнопідрядні речення (до слова, переклад геніальний — я знаю, як в оригіналі звучить німецька мова, вивчала п'ять років, але те як її "вивернув" Попович гідно поваги — кришталево чистий потік, який хочеться читати вголос), проте це лише перший погляд.... А далі треба давати волю фантазії, пригадувати історичні контексти, витягати з пам'яті думки античних мислителів, розмотувати цей клубок — і під фінал знаходити себе, нестямно кліпаючого очима, в стані, який мудреці колись назвали "катарсис"
April 12, 2013
Mann lyricism is not everyone's cup of tea. Admittedly his sultry atmosphere and sober colors makes the reading tedious. But there are moments of extreme intensity such as when, despite being prohibited to by her doctor, the sickish Frau Kloterjahn plays on piano some of Chopin's Nocturnes and then extracts form the second act of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. As Isolde fictionally dies, the 'angelic' Mrs Gabriel Kloterjahn, corrupted by marriage and parenthood, finds her real Artist-self once again due to the writer Spinell encouragement. Tragically, the burden is not longer bearable and she fades away with Consumption to a sad end.
June 13, 2012
Tristan was a novella that was very confusing. I'm pretty sure the author tried to ridiculate artistery. I didn't understand the author's purpose in Tristan at all. After a lot of page turning and painful reading and no plot, except what the author must have thought was amazing description I finished it with no picture or regard of Tristan.
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February 12, 2018Is it even fair to put this on my Goodreads challenge considering it's so short? But like who cares, I read it plus with the length of the Outlander book I'm reading I think they equal out each other.
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