Week 1 - Buddenbrooks: May 13 - 19. Until Part III, chapter 4.

[Diane]

Thank you to everyone who researched "courant" for me. That helps a lot.

[Lobstergirl]

From Thomas Mann: A Biography by Ronald Hayman:

By May 1890 (when he wasn't yet 15), Mann had decided against going into his family's business. His "original intention had been to center the novel on his own deviation from family tradition, and to set the action not in Lübeck but in Bavaria, where he was living [he moved to Munich in 1894]. But wanting to tell the story from the beginning...he studied the history chronicled in family records, which went back to 1644....Gradually shifting the balance of the story to make it deal mainly with his ancestors, Thomas ended up with an action that stretches between 1835 and 1877." (p. 85)

[Elena]

Important point: Mann shifted the narrative to the years leading up to unification, that had devastating implications for the small regions swallowed up by Prussia...and he used great restraint in telling the story, no polemics here, just the personal tragedy of absorption into a new gigantic monolith that had tragic consequences that even Mann couldn't predict...

[Mark]

I am new to the group and you are all long beyond this reading of Buddenbrooks [BB], but still - perhaps one comment from a new member and also new reader of Thomas Mann.

I was entirely captivated by BB. One thing that struck me was narrative mode. For about two thirds of the novel, Thomas used something that I would call a "we-narrator". We are being born into the family of the BB with the first line, and then our awareness of our new world grows gradually, illuminating more and more details, like an expanding pool of light reveals more and more objects in a dark room.

We are introduced to the members of the core family, then we hear about the house in which the scene plays, we see the drawing room, gaze into the adjacent room, hear that the oven is working early for this time of year as the cold is already covering the trees in the street beyond the house. All this while the narrative mode, technically, is 3rd person narrator. But we only hear about things that the family experiences as a whole. We do not encounter characters that are not part of the core family. We only hear about them indirectly, they are referred to in conversation, or identified as the sender of a letter.

The reader remains part of the family for a very long time, until the narrative mode switches to 3rd person omniscient two thirds through, and we are slowly pushed out, the distance grows, and as the fortunes of our family wane, we encounter it less from the inside, and more with the eyes of an observer. An observer who is still an intimate part of the family, but who is slowly losing the sense of "warm belonging" that has characterised our relationship with the book for so long.

A masterful piece. I loved it.

[Ted]

Interesting comment, Mark!

[Elena]

Mark wrote: "I am new to the group and you are all long beyond this reading of Buddenbrooks [BB], but still - perhaps one comment from a new member and also new reader of Thomas Mann.

I was entirely captivate..."
Important point on the shift in narrative, I hadn't noticed it until you pointed it out...I think it follows the experience of a lot of people growing up thinking one's own family is the norm, then seeing it with different eyes later in life...Mann went on to write many important novels, but BB is the one that I enjoy rereading. There are bits of his lost world in my Danish background,

[Mark]

Elena,

did GR eat parts of your last sentence? You seem to be saying that the bourgeois world of 19th century merchant families still exists today in Denmark?

I think the focus on the family as the sole social nexus presented in the novel is further heightened by a near-total absence of commentary on the politics of the time.

The plot follows the fortunes of the BB for the better part of the 19th century, a time of intense political change and upheaval. It starts before the time of the customs union and we live through the student revolts, the growth of the customs union, the unification wars with France, and the foundation of the Deutsche Reich.

But for the most part, these incisive political events are only mentioned in passing. Friends of the BB discuss the customs union briefly in the library, but the discussion never surpasses a few lines of dialogue, and does not go deeper than "I am in favour of it economically" - "ah but what about our independence". The foundation of the Reich is entirely passed over, the name Bismarck is not mentioned once in 800 pages of text, and the most elaborate scene that is embedded in the politics of the time is a chapter in which Consul BB steps outside the town hall and calms a gathering of workmen.

This gathering is part of the "German revolution", but the workers act towards Consul BB with childlike deference, and the consul basically disperses the gathering with a few words in "Platt", admonishing everybody not to be silly and go home.

Now, that may well be how the least bloody revolution in Europe actually didplay itself out in reality, but it is still fascinating to see how events in the plot are kept almost entirely free of political, social, or even economic commentary. Where such commentary is made, it only ever serves to develop the personalities of the characters, but never to introduce a plot line that shows the family as a social or economic agent in its own right.

And the result is a remarkable piece that shows the soul of a bourgeois family by painting its characters in vivid colours, but leaving its wider context as a mere pencil sketch.

[Mark]

Ted wrote: "Interesting comment, Mark!"

many thanks, Ted!

[Mark]

Kris wrote: "This is a wonderful discussion -- thanks, Kall, for getting it started, and to everyone for contributing such wonderful posts. I'm especially looking forward to continuing to explore gender dynamic..."

Indeed - a fascinating character, Kris. I know my response to your comment is almost 4 years late, but still... :-) Tony is portrayed as child-like, naive, and consciously proud of her status in life as the first daughter of a family that plays an eminent role in the micro-society of a smaller merchant town in North Germany.

And yet, as we get to know the character more intimately, she shows herself to have depth of maturity that oddly contrast the pride she takes in the superficial. One of the rare scenes in which the novel comments on the wider society in which the family is embedded has Tony as its key character!

It is the scene in which she delivers an impassioned speech supporting the right of a woman to choose her fate, the right to uphold personal dignity in the face of male chauvinism, and it is done in the context of returning home after she found her Bavarian husband in drunken transgression with the maid.

I must say I loved that scene! It is rare that the novel offers any commentary on the society in which the family exists. This one stands out all the more for being delivered by a character who does not only accept, but positively takes pride in her status as a woman of "good family".

[Elena]

Mark wrote: "Elena,

did GR eat parts of your last sentence? You seem to be saying that the bourgeois world of 19th century merchant families still exists today in Denmark?

Our family also has a baptism bowl because the pastor used to come to the house for the official blessing. (I'm not a folklore expert but I believe this only survived in the countryside.) My mother was married at her parents' house with an arbor of greens, not in church even though they were very religious; the pastor came to the home for that ceremony as well. Tony's first home wedding was probably already a bit of an anachronism. We still build arbors for wedding anniversaries. (And the greens in Toni's house and pinned to her dress might be a vestige from pagan rites.) The organized church and state eventually wanted these "vital statistic" events like birth and marriage records under control on the church premises. Other folkways in BB that survive in southern Denmark include a special party with flowers for newly constructed homes, before the house is finished. The fact that the flowers in BB were arranged by the jilted girl friend of the man of the house to me was extremely bad juju, but goes unnoticed in the lit crit. There may be other folkways in BB that I missed.

You are so right that the readers of the time when BB was published would have been very aware of the political events going on offstage with Bismark's wars of unification. The family gets rich in the early wars, but then the Prussian take-over ruins them. I think the new Prussian school master is supposed to symbolize this, and Hanno's experience at school is more painful than a battle scene. I think it's implied that the old school master would have made accommodations for him. Hanno cannot survive in this new world.

I happen to think that the florist's oldest child is a Buddenbrook, but I may be reading too much into this.

[Sue]

Fascinating return to discussion of BB. I feel a need for a second reading rising within me!

[Mark]

Very interesting insights into your family traditions, and by extension into those of the wider society in southern Denmark - many thanks for that, Elena.

I happen to think that the florist's oldest child is a Buddenbrook, but I may be reading too much into this

No I am also convinced that this is the case. The allusions are subtle, you are right, but pretty clear. The timeline works as well - I was anal enough to estimate this... There are about 6-7 years between the farewell scene in the flower shop before Thomas goes to Amsterdam and the scene in the same shop where Thomas talks to the male owner.

Actually, when I read that I thought I could see where the plot would be going next. Senator BB has an extra-marrital son! The shame! But also - the opportunity! Hanno is clearly unfit to be a merchant, indeed, he appeared sickly and sensitive so probably unfit to exist in a society which values practical skills over artistic ones. But there is a BB left - maybe he can be adopted...

Alas none of this happened. Thomas Mann wrote a decidecly un-Victorian family novel. There are no dark secrets here, no gloomy fates, no tales of misery.

[Mark]

Sue wrote: "Fascinating return to discussion of BB. I feel a need for a second reading rising within me!"

Yes quite - I am already thinking of reading it again, and I have only just finished it! :-)

Still, Magic Mountain is next, I think. Never thought I'd be a Thomas Mann fan...

[Sue]

Mark wrote: "Sue wrote: "Fascinating return to discussion of BB. I feel a need for a second reading rising within me!"

Yes quite - I am already thinking of reading it again, and I have only just finished it! :..."

I felt the same way, Mark, and then proceeded to read MM and Doctor Faustus with this group!

[Gary]

I could do a reread. I have never been able to finish MM and never tried DF. Buddenbrooks touched me on so many levels...

[Sue]

Gary wrote: "I could do a reread. I have never been able to finish MM and never tried DF. Buddenbrooks touched me on so many levels..."

I feel a wave rising but I wouldn't be able to read it probably until later this year (and I still have to find it as it remains in one of my unpacked book boxes, I believe).

[Mark]

Sue wrote: "Mark wrote: "Sue wrote: "Fascinating return to discussion of BB. I feel a need for a second reading rising within me!"

Yes quite - I am already thinking of reading it again, and I have only just f..."

That's eerie. MM is next, and after that I have Dr Faustus on my shelf.

[Elizabeth]

Magic Mountain! Magic Mountain! Can't wait!!!

[Mark]

Elizabeth wrote: "Magic Mountain! Magic Mountain! Can't wait!!!"

:-) it's a 1000 page doorstopper though!

[Joao]

Mark wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Magic Mountain! Magic Mountain! Can't wait!!!"

:-) it's a 1000 page doorstopper though!"

But it is wonderful. It is a book of a lifetime. It covers every aspect of humankind: love, culture, ideology, religion, in the end of an era. At the same time, the most perfect bildungsroman. To me, it is Mann’s magnum opus.

[Mark]

I'll start it tomorrow - my reading for the Easter weekend! Not that I expect to finish it, though.

[Elizabeth]

Isn't the sanatorium Mann describes now a ski lodge that was/is featured in the winter Olympics?

Mark: And Mann's prose is so lovely and smooth, you ought to sail right through it!

[Mark]

Elizabeth - it is indeed! You can stay there and relive Thomas' Zauberberg. Check out the link https://www.schatzalp.ch/en/ - I must say it does look good.

I am sure I am going to enjoy the book. I certainly finished Buddenbrooks much more quickly than I should have done for a 800 page novel!

[Sue]

Mark wrote: "Elizabeth - it is indeed! You can stay there and relive Thomas' Zauberberg. Check out the link https://www.schatzalp.ch/en/ - I must say it does look good.

I am sure I am going to enjoy the book. ..."

Thanks for that link. I can imagine the conversations and musings out on the porch in the evening while all bundled up in their blankets.