Thomas Mann: A Life - Hardcover

Prater, Donald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198158610 ISBN 13: 9780198158615

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Author of such classics as Buddenbrooks, Death in Venice, Doctor Faustus, and The Magic Mountain, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature not half-way through his career, Thomas Mann was without doubt the leading German novelist of his era and one of the three or four great writers of our century.

Now, in Thomas Mann: A Life, celebrated biographer Donald Prater illuminates the life and work of this gifted writer, from his upbringing in Lubeck, through his years in Munich, his exile in the United States, and his last years in Switzerland. Prater discusses Mann's tumultuous relationship with his novelist brother Heinrich, which Mann called, "the hardest of my existence," his homosexuality, his career as a prolific essayist, the vast achievement of his novels, and his love of music. Prater writes that as Mann's passion for the gramophone grew almost to a vice, the music became an important motif for his text and a stimulus in its composition. Indeed, Mann conceived of such books as The Magic Mountain as symphonic constructions, interweaving its themes in strict counterpoint. Prater also reveals the personal side of Mann, from his marriage to Katia and his relationships with their six children, all of whom remained marginal to his firmly dedicated life as a writer, to his obsession with the minor ups and downs of his health. Mann's seventy-fifth birthday, for example, found him in typical form: pursuing the usual daily routine of morning work, afternoon correspondence, evening relaxation with the gramophone, and considering the year's lecture tour; but depressed over ailments, which were more or less minor, of ear and throat. But, the particular strength of the biography is the attention Prater devotes to Mann's political thinking and his role in the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. In Mann's development from a nationalistic conservative to a vigorous, anti-Nazi humanist, Prater recognizes a fascinating and crucially important illustration of the "German problem" still so relevant to the Europe of today. Mann could hardly bear even to mention the name of Adolf Hitler, still less to write about the horrors of the concentration camps. And later in his life while still in exile, he admitted it was no easy matter to be a German writer, with conflicting feelings towards one's country "of rage, revulsion, the desire for its destruction, yet an attachment that is inalienable."

Elegantly written and always stimulating, Thomas Mann depicts a man whose life and writing continue to impact our lives today. It will take its place as the major biography of Mann, and as a compelling portrait of 19th- and early 20th-century Germany and the political metamorphosis that country saw during Mann's lifetime.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author:
Donald Prater is a freelance writer and translator. He is the author of A Ringing Glass: The Life of Rainer Maria Rilke and European Yesterday: A Biography of Stefan Zweig (both published by Oxford University Press). Since 1973 he has lived in Switzerland.

Reviews

German novelist Thomas Mann (1875- 1953), as depicted in this demythologizing biography, was an egotist who lacked feelings for others. A lifelong hypochondriac, he was an aloof parent; his six children were left largely to their own devices. His wife, Katia Prinsheim, daughter of a wealthy mathematics professor, served as his dutiful business manager, chauffeuse and social secretary, allowing him to compartmentalize his life. Using Mann's diaries, Prater, biographer of Stefan Zweig and Rainer Maria Rilke, throws light on Mann's strong homosexual proclivities, which he concealed and apparently never acted upon, but which, from childhood onward, intensified his feelings of being an outsider. In an engrossing, remarkably intimate narrative, Prater ably charts Mann's metamorphosis from reactionary jingoist during World War I to antifascist humanist and opponent of Hitler, and he follows the novelist's "increasingly representational" life in exile in the United States and Switzerland. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Mann, the 1928 Nobel laureate, is arguably the most representative German author of the 20th century. Drawing on information from immediate family members of the author and various other sources, Prater (A Ringing Glass: The Life of Rainer Maria Rilke, Oxford Univ. Pr., 1994) presents a solid, chronological life of a man of tremendous literary talent. Although perceived as a conservative in his earlier years, Mann reformed himself into a humanist; his novel The Magic Mountain (1924) marks his espousal of tolerant political views and principles. Later on, he openly attacked Nazi ideology and policies, which earned him an extended exile mainly in Switzerland and the United States. Until his death he refused to go back to repatriate. Prater's comprehensive and detailed biography relies much on Mann's diaries, correspondence, and autobiographical writings, with limited emphasis on his works. It is one of the few full-scale analyses of Mann's life to be published in English. Highly recommended, especially for literary collections. [See also Ronald Hayman's Thomas Mann: A Biography, LJ 3/1/95; coming in February 1996 from Knopf is Anthony Heilbut's Thomas Mann: A Biography.-Ed.]-Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.
--Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198158610
• ISBN 13: 9780198158615
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 572