Death in Venice and Other Stories - Softcover

Thomas Mann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553213334 ISBN 13: 9780553213331

Publisher: Bantam Classics, 1988

Synopsis

This superb translation of Death in Venice and six other stories by Thomas Mann is a tour de force, deserving to be the definitive text for English-speaking readers. These seven stories represent Mann’s early writing career and a level of literary quality Mann himself despaired of ever again matching. In these stories he began to grapple with themes that were to recur throughout his work. In Little Herr Friedemann, a character’s carefully structured way of life is suddenly threatened by an unexpected sexual passion. In Gladius Dei, puritanical intellect clashes with beauty. In Tristan, Mann presents an ironic and comic account of the tension between an artist and bourgeois society.

All seven of these stories are accomplished and memorable, but it is Death in Venice that truly forms the centerpiece of the collection. The themes that Mann weaves through the shorter pieces come to a climax in this stunning novella, one of the most hauntingly magnificent tales of art and self-destruction ever written.

About this title

From the Publisher:

This superb new translation of "Death in Venice" and six other stories by Thomas Mann is a tour de force, sure to establish itself as the definitive text for English-speaking readers. The seven stories in this collection represent the early part of Mann's literary career, beginning with work he produced in 1896 at the age of 21, and culminating in his most celebrated novella, "Death in Venice" (1912). Although Mann continued working until the end of his life in 1955, he despaired of ever matching the quality of his early writing. In these stories, Mann began to grapple with themes that were to recur throughout his work. In the first piece, "Little Herr Friedemann," as in "Death in Venice," a character's carefully structured way of life is suddenly and unexpectedly threatened by sexual passion. In "Gladius Dei," puritanical intellect clashes with beauty. In "Tristan," Mann presents an ironic and comical account of tension between an artist and bourgeois society. All seven of these stories are accomplished and memorable, but it is "Death in Venice" that truly forms the centerpiece of the collection. Themes that weave their way through many of the shorter stories come to a climax in this novella, out century's most haunting, magnificent tale of art and self-destruction.

About the Author:

Thomas Mann was born in 1875 in Germany. He was only twenty-five when his first novel, Buddenbrooks, was published. In 1924, The Magic Mountain was published, and, five years later, Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Following the rise of the Nazis to power, he left Germany for good in 1933 to live in Switzerland and then in California, where he wrote Doctor Faustus (first published in the United States in 1948). Thomas Mann died in 1955.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Classics
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0553213334
• ISBN 13: 9780553213331
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 263