I compared Heim’s version to the one I read in college, which was done by H.T. Lowe-Porter in 1930. There have been a couple of other attempts, made relatively recently, but Lowe-Porter’s translation is the one with which most of us grew up—the definitive Death in Venice for those who can read English but not German. I’m relieved to say that, as far as I can tell, this altered Aschenbach is not merely a figment of my own aging imagination. Heim’s Death in Venice is, generally, a more lyrical, sympathetic book—a slightly more intimate and personal book—than Lowe-Porter’s rather stern,
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