New Selected Stories

by Thomas Mann, Damion Searls (Translator)

A towering figure in the pantheon of twentieth-century literature, Thomas Mann has often been perceived as a dry and forbidding writer—“the starched collar,” as Bertolt Brecht once called him. But in fact, his fiction is lively, humane, sometimes hilarious. In these fresh renderings of his best short work, award-winning translator Damion Searls casts new light on this underappreciated aspect of Mann’s genius.



The headliner of this volume, “Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow” (in its first new translation since 1936)—a subtle masterpiece that reveals the profound emotional significance of everyday life—is Mann’s tender but sharp-eyed portrait of the “Bigs” and “Littles” of the bourgeois Cornelius family as they adjust to straitened circumstances in hyperinflationary Weimar Germany. Here, too, is a free-standing excerpt from Mann’s first novel, Buddenbrooks—a sensation when it was first published. “Death in Venice” (also included in this volume) is Mann’s most famous story, but less well known is that he intended it to be a diptych with another, comic story—included here as “Confessions of a Con Artist, by Felix Krull.” “Louisey”—a tale of sexual humiliation that gives a first glimpse of Mann’s lifelong ambivalence about the power of art—rounds out this revelatory, transformative collection.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Germany, Classics, German Literature, Literary Fiction

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 28, 2023

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[Cherisa B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories aren’t new but the translations are. Except for a recent reread of The Magic Mountain, I haven’t read Mann in decades. Encountering him in what were two new-to-me short stories and in excerpts from three significant novels that I have read, I appreciated his talent anew.

The best of the bunch (and new to me) was the opening story, translated as Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow. With real mastery, Mann encapsulates deep emotions and vivid images of the human heart among household members and party guests in the home of the Cornelius family in the Weimar Republic during the period of high inflation. This is a five star story in itself and rates up there with Joyce’s The Dead in my canon of beloved shorts.

Revisiting Death in Venice here gave me a profound appreciation for Mann’s elegance and restraint. This edition might include the whole novella I’m not sure, but if not it was the longest excerpt. I truly loved the section where he uses Greek mythology to start Aschenbach’s day, infusing some of our cultural root metaphors magically into one morning of a man’s life. Four stars.

A day in the life of the son in Buddenbrooks, early confessions of the con man Felix Krull, and a nasty bit of work in a short story Louisey round out the collection. These left me indifferent.

The translator provided lots of notes on why he crafted his translation the way he did though I don’t know how much it impacted me. He says he sought to show Mann’s humor, but I came away with none of that. Maybe Mann didn’t have any or it’s very subtle and I just don’t get him that way. This is probably my last encounter with him in a long life of reading. And so farewell from me to one who is a classic “Dead White Male” author, and Nobel laureate.

Three and a half stars overall.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book from Good Reads in return for a review.

This book is a collection of 5 short stories and a novella. I was familiar with the name Thomas Mann, but had never read anything of his before. The novella, "Death in Venice" was familiar to me, as it was the name of a movie that was released in the early 1970s, though I don't think I ever saw it. The last story, "Confessions of a Con Artist by Felix Krull" also sounds familiar. The writing is masterful, as is the translation. All five stories are compelling reading, and the writing brings each to life. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who likes to read literate fiction.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damion Searls has translated over sixty titles, and his book on the philosophy behind his able craft appeared last month (Oct. '24). I wish he'd rendered more of Thomas Mann into English before this. The "new" means his fresh take on a handful of Mann's shorter works. The first is a wonderful look into a father's love for his children in an eccentric household full of fun and games, and the petit-bourgeois milieu which as in "Buddenbrooks" remains the setting Mann excels in bringing to life. It only came into the public domain recently, and so gets a fresh take, the first perhaps since H.T. Lowe-Porter had a go at it decades ago. He calls it "Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow." It softly conjures up, vividly, Mann's strengths throughout this anthology: how we felt when far younger.

Next comes a stand-alone chapter from near the end of that massive family epic, his first novel written in his mid-twenties (!) which was the main reason, Searls notes in his introduction, why Mann won the 1929 Nobel, not for his 1924 "The Magic Mountain." Hanno B.'s schooldays emerge with again an extraordinary realism. The terror of being called upon for not doing one's homework dominates one day in this adolescent's life. What looms so large and doomed, the recriminations of the master, reverberate with real consequences for one's permanent record, in these times when brutal punishment, career decisions, and one's future hopes could be possibly deflated by sloth.

"Louisey" I found trifling by comparison, but it reveals themes of humiliation, sexuality, and the artifice of theatre and music which resurface in their own repetition and variation in "Death in Venice" and the part one of "Felix Krull, Confidence Man." Neither "Louisey" nor "Death" wowed me, honestly, but Searls' welcome "stealth notes" within the text and the keyed end-notes both inform the reader of these tales set a century ago of many German referents and cultural contexts.

I liked Krull better, as Searls captures the self-satisfied, bon vivant tone of the first person adroitly. But the first installment ends abruptly. There's also a section on the symptoms of typhoid fever Mann appended to the Hanno episode, but I am puzzled why it's included here. In Searls' thoughtful introduction, he delves into another side issue, that of Mann's maternal half-mixed Brazilian creole-"marrano" heritage, which technically allows the author to claim enrollment in the "one-drop" (not that the translator endorses this per se) club among those talents of African descent.

Searls discusses this identification at length, but cautions against its catch-all, reductive, or facile endorsement, as he wisely demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages this allows us to sagely interpret for Mann's role in his own Weimar and of course, soon after as a refugee from the Reich, emergence as a leading German creative power. All in all, a satisfying presentation of Mann's true status. perhaps Searls will take on all of Krull, and some other Mann works needing fresher voicing.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this edition and I want to heartily thank mr. Searls for his crafty work of translation. Now I'm introduced to Thomas Mann's creations and can say I love these grand books. Perfectly written, the translations are magnificent, rich and sharp. Special thanks for the Notes section.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

My take on the strengths and weaknesses of the collection: https://artsfuse.org/270416/book-revi...

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Selected Stories of Thomas Mann, edited and translated by Damion Searls

With a very nice introduction by the translator who explains several of the differences between German and English, and some of the antecedents to Mann’s writing in terms of his Brazilian mixed race mother and his very Hanseatic father.

The choice of stories casts a wide net through Mann’s oeuvre: Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow set in 1922-3, throws a spotlight also on the impact of the post-war hyper inflation on the upper middle class…the story itself, a (formerly) upper middle class family, history professor, his wife, butler, two teenage children, two young children, a nanny, a cook and a chambermaid are all sketched in with the dance party from 4:30-9 as the action … the childhood sorrow suffered by little Lorrie stands perhaps for the bigger sorrows caused by the changing circumstances of all who are described….
Then we have Hanno Buddenbrooks, perhaps he stands for a little Hans Castorp? Of course the age of little Hanno is again about 16 —- a teenager at a very Prussian kind of school; his companion is the wildly insubordinate writer, Kai, Count Moelln; and Hanno has his music in which to retreat….the names ..professor Hueckopp for the Ovid, and for the authoritarian principal, Dr. Wuliche, and a bunch of others. with other ridiculous characteristics so typical of the Prussian schools of the time (possibly pre WWI).
Louisey is a story of a couckolded attorney named Jacoby (sounds Jewish to me) who is humiliated at the big outdoor party that AMRA (the wife, Anna Margite Rosa Amelia plans with her boyfriend… Jacob recognizes that the composer is having an affair with his wife; he drops dead and is so pronounced by the short young Jewish doctor.
The final story, the only one of the set written in the United States, about Feliks Krull’s confessions, is a little too cute. .. but it turns out it too is a snippet of a longer work….

The collection of stories shows a bit of the times of Thomas Mann, and many of his themes.. I had recently read Death inVenice, which could be said to deal with both his fascination with death and rot and corruption… (Venetian authorities hiding the impact of plague from the guests) and what some would call his homoeroticism (his interest in Tadzio, the polish youth who is staying with his family at the same resort, and whose physiognomy fascinates, captivates, and paralyzes Ashenbach.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Major disappointment. I’m up and down with Mann—I’ve read both Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain and found them mostly rewarding. Likewise a collection of early stories. Death in Venice and Lotte in Weimar (aka Dearly Beloved) on the other hand are yawnfests—labored and tedious. I was really looking forward to this, but— “Chaotic World..” is unbelievably twee. The stand-alone Buddenbrooks cutting is boring without its larger context. “Death in Venice” I simply couldn’t make myself face again, and the “Krull” cutting is smarmy and class-worshiping (and I read more than half before stopping). Only “Louisey” has the chance to bring new readers to Mann—it’s weird, not hopelessly overworked, and surprising.

[David Curry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The remarkable story that opens NEW COLLECTED STORIES by Thomas Mann, “Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow,”is in itself more than worth the price of the book, which turns out to include much other gold as well.

That opening story gives a finely etched portrait of a German family in the unstable later days of the Weimar Republic before the horrendous historical development that followed. The domestic narrative is frequently punctuated with telling details such as the mother’s need “to bike into town with her shopping bag … to transform a sum of money in hand into groceries, so as not to risk devaluation.” The story’s beginning observation is that “there were only vegetables for the main course,” and this is not because of vegetarianism.

Here’s part of Mann’s portrait of the father of the family, a history professor:

“He knows that Professors of History do not love history as it happens, only as it has happened; that they hate the present radical change and upheaval because they feel it to be lawless, incoherent, and presumptuous — in a word ‘unhistorical’ — while their hearts belong to the coherent, pious, historical past. The past, this university scholar tells himself on his strolls by the river before dinner, is draped in the atmosphere of the timeless and eternal, which is an atmosphere far more congenial to the nerves of a history professor than the effronteries of the present.”

The highlight of the story is a traumatic encounter for the infant girl of the family. I won’t be a spoiler but only say that this is is one of the most sensitively realized renderings of early childhood complications I have ever encountered in literature.

After the child is soothed and safely asleep for the night, but with precariousness and uncertainty still strongly hanging over the entire narrative, the father of the family reassures himself that everything is resolved and his family’s routines can continue. The story concludes with his pathetic “Thank heavens.”

I’m not qualified to judge Damion Searls’ work as a translator, but I can assert that “Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow” reads perfectly as a story in English, and I would think that this might stand as a goal for a translator. When I came to a boy in the family having “a particularly berserkerish tantrum,” I at first thought the translator had lost his grip. But a little homework revealed that in pre-medieval and medieval Norse and German history and folklore, berserkers were members of an unruly warrior gang that worshipped Odin, the supreme Norse deity. After that, the translator had my trust and I was ready for anything.

That story is followed by “A Day in the Life of Hanno Buddenbrook,” a chapter from Mann’s great novel BUDDENBROOKS that he felt (surely correctly) could stand alone as a story. In this one, Mann is focused on the insecurities of a schoolboy. One gets pathe feeling that, like the Bard, this author can go through the “ages of man” and render each with precision and understanding.

Here’s a school principal as seen by the schoolboy and Mann: “As for Principal Wullicke’s personality, he had some of the enigmatic, ambiguous, stubborn, jealous awfulness of the Old Testament God. It was as terrible to see him laugh as to see him angry.”

Mann never futzes around getting started. His short story “Louisey,” written even before BUDDENBROOKS when he was just 22, opens with this: “There are marriages that come about for reasons even the most skillful literary imagination cannot describe.” Translator Searls characterizes this story as minor, and I might go so far as to call it unsuccessful. Even so, it has a mordancy that calls Gogol to mind, along with the vivid detail that would distinguish Mann’s work throughout his career. Describing a fat attorney: “ … the funny little green-gray jacket he liked to wear was so hard to fasten, with one single button, over the enormous roundness of his belly that it sprang back to his shoulders on both sides the instant it was unbuttoned.” 


The collection also offers a new translation of “Death in Venice,” which is of course Mann at his complex and daring best, and concludes with “Confessions of a Con Artist, by Felix Krull,” which Mann returned to late in life and expanded into a novel. Nowhere are Mann’s lighter touch and comic gift more evident than in the voice of Krull, who takes his place among literature’s great narrators whom you can enjoy disliking.

Searls has provided a thoughtful introduction and some helpful notes at the back of the book.

[Tejas Sathian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first experience reading Mann, and I found this collection to be a really accessible and enjoyable entry point to his works. I read much of it on my way home from a trip to German wine country (as I didn't find time while in Germany to do any reading!). I had recently listened to Humanly Possible, Sarah Bakewell's book on humanism, which gave me some context on Mann as a German humanist whose world was upended by WW2 and the rise of antihumanist forces. Mann's empathy, sensitivity to human matters, and humor are all on display in this collection.

My favorite story of the lot is 'Chaotic world and childhood sorrow' which opens the collection. It's told from the perspective of an upper class family living through the Weimar era inflation, doing its best to uphold the proprieties of a bygone era; I especially enjoyed the portrayal of the father, a historian who loves to study history as an organized set of facts but doesn't enjoy living through it. But the real magic and human element in the story comes from its treatment of the children, feeling a range of complex (and to an adult eye, humorous) emotions that provide a refreshing touch against the serious world historic backdrop. I also really enjoyed 'A day in the life of Hanno Buddenbrook' and was amazed at how funny and tender the description of said day turned out to be. 'Death in Venice' was eerily captivating, and I expected its strangeness from what I'd heard in advance. The macabre touch, often combined with some humor, is present in other stories as well (especially 'Louisey').

[Zloi]

I haven't read anything by Thomas Mann in forty-odd years, so I was curious to read a story new to me which the translator titles "Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow." Not quite the German title but he explains why his translation varies. Anyway, he claims this story holds its own against the best short story of any writer, from Chekhov to Joyce to HH Munro. This claim has little to support it IMO. The story clearly derives from a description of the author's own family and is interesting in its psychological insights, but-- hardly captivating. For one thing, as in much of Mann, the gist of the story IS the psychology of the characters because in terms of action, not much happens. I really enjoyed reading Mann when younger, especially "Buddenbrooks" and "The Magic Mountain." But my tolerance for his roundabout way of getting at the intent of his story-telling must have waned in the interim. I intend to read one other story in the collection, also new to me, an early one, "Louisey," but I'm not going back to the others, which I've already read and have little interest in revisiting. I'm a little sceptical that this new translation is an improvement on Lowe-Porter's but I'm sure that is a matter of opinion. I suspect the other stories are included at the publisher's insistence to make the book more marketable.

[John Shillington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damion Searls’s new translation of the first story, ‘Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow’, is enough to make this collection worth getting on its own. It is the first new English translation of the story since 1936 (when it was published under the title ‘Disorder and Early Sorrow’) and it is absolutely wonderful. As I read it, I was reminded of James Joyce’s astonishingly great story ‘The Dead’, from Dubliners, so I was pleased and surprised when I later read Searls’s introduction to the volume, where he reveals that CWaCS is not only his favorite Mann story, but it reminds him of [insert drumroll here] ‘The Dead’. Searls says he had to wait twenty years to translate the story (due to copyright issues). I’m glad he was patient enough to wait: it is truly a gift to have this new translation.

The rest of the stories in this collection are all remarkable, but I wouldn’t be recommending it so enthusiastically if it weren’t for CWaCS. Nonetheless, ‘A Day in the Life of Hanno Buddenbrook’, a free-standing excerpt from Buddenbrooks, has spurred me on to read the full novel, and ‘Death in Venice’ remains the bold and deeply disturbing fever dream it always has been. As a nice bonus, Searls’s brilliant introductory essay is thoughtful, informative and revealing.

[Wayne Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

All I can say is “I tried.”

I keep coming back to Mann because I want to understand why he is considered so great, and I love the historical period he represents.

But it’s the most sedentary passive writing style I’ve ever experienced. So much turgid intellectualism. The big news is that the narrator moves to a different room, where he then sits down again and loses himself in more passive observations about other people, then—wait for it—he moves to another room and starts, well, just noticing again.

This was true—this interminable watching and thinking and sitting—in Death in Venice and Magic Mountain.

I might just give up.

[George Shetuni · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am glad I am now acquainted with this German writer, whom I had known of a long time but had never read. Unfortunately, he is not one of my favorite writers. There is a certain warmth to the stories and the voice, yet at times there is also a dark strain, which I did not appreciate. I would have to say Felix Krull was my favorite story, but even that was laborious reading much of the time. Mann has a big name, he has Nobel prize to his name, and although I could see he him paint a pleasant picture with a sort of wellbeing and and a sense of satisfaction among his characters, the reading was simply not good all the time, or perhaps not good enough for enough of the time.

[Justin Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Searle's essay at the start is great; most of the stories are great. It's reasonable to object to the selection (nobody needs to read 'Louisey'; I don't think we needed another translation of a bit of 'Buddenbrooks'), but not to the masterpieces in great translations. I'm very glad to have read 'Chaotic World' for the first time; I'm glad to have more readable versions of 'Death in Venice' and 'Felix Krull', part one. Can't wait for Bernofsky's new translation of 'Magic Mountain' (https://nwreview.org/journal/50/02/su... I just wish I'd been able to read that before I read Tokarczuk's 'Empusium'.

[Klissia]

Uma coletânea de contos "desconhecidos ",que inclue também o famoso "Morte em Veneza ".Segundo o editor da obra, sua publicação mostraria um lado menos sisudo e frio que alguns leitores têm da obra e persona do Thomas Mann. Bem não acho que vá convencer, são contos corriqueiros da vida de um estudante em "A day in the life of Hanno Buddenbrook" ou de um casal burguês em"Louisey" que demonstram uma amoralidade,frieza e crueldade. São os mais interessantes deste.

[Robert Reinhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rewarding translation of famous work and the discovery of a great newly appreciated story "Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow" rightfully compared in its artistry to Joyce's The Dead. Revisiting Death in Venice also a memorable pleasure. "Louisey" - new to me - a story of an act of dark emotional cruelty written in 1897.

[Francesca Tronchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, Tadzio! I only read this for Death in Venice, the first time reading it in literally 30 years. I didn’t like it as much as I thought I liked it back then, but I can’t imagine that 20-year-old me really understood much of this novella. I still liked the details of Venice and the classical references (like the Bacchae-dream), but I don’t think I need to read this a third time in 20 years.

[Ray.zorovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

A conflicting review for me to write. On one hand I do love Death in Venice, but on the other hand the selection of stories is pretty disappointing and if you’re looking to read either Buddenbrooks or Felix Krull, you’d most likely be better off finding a complete and better translation. 4 stars, without Venice, it would most likely be 3.

[Andrea Engle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This new translation by Damion Searls includes several signature short stories by Thomas Mann, including the iconic “Death in Venice” … a personal favorite is “A Day in the Life of Hanno Buddenbrook,” which narrates one of teen-aged Buddenbrook’s school-days … minor gems …

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two of the five stories are masterpieces: the early "Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow" and the novella Death in Venice. I found Louisey melodramatic and Confessions of a Con Artist boring. Shall I give Magic Mountain another try?

[Bob Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are for the most part excellent short stories. They include Death in Venice, a novella that I had recently read. I did not reread it, but I do highly recommend it. Mann is a favorite writer of mine, and this collection does not disappoint.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, loved it

[MARC S · Rating 1 out of 5]

Depressing and pointless stories from a well written acclaimed author

[Tyler J Hinds · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.9

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death in Venice hits a little differently now than when I first read it decades ago.

[Stephen Scarano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will write more about this later; going to read Doctor Faustus.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting set of stories. Definitely need to read the Krull book.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for Death in Venice and Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow, 3 for the rest

[Agris Fakingsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

..man patika ievads. un viens otrs stāsts, kurā izdevās tā kārtīgāk iedziļināties. bet šis ir jālasa tā kārtīgi.

[Robert Stroud · Rating 4 out of 5]

good intro after glazing over "non-political man" (bad take snoozer)—cast off the pretentious want to read magic mt.; buddenbrooks & felix Krull previews were much more promising