The Holy Sinner [Paperback]

Thomas Mann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1992

First published in 1951, The Holy Sinner explores a subject that fascinated Thomas Mann to the end of his life--the origins of evil and evil's connection with magic. Here Mann uses a medieval legend about 'the exceeding mercy of God and the birth of the blessed Pope Gregory' as he used the Biblical account of Joseph as the basis for Joseph and His Brothers--illuminating with his ironic sensibility the notion of original sin and transcendence of evil.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A small masterpiece. . . . It is a triumph of art indistinguishable from moral sensibility which makes the miraculous, most incredible part of the story . . . the most convincing."--Stephen Spender, New York Times Book Review -- Review

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (January 8, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520076710
• ISBN-13: 978-0520076716
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A small, beautifully carved gem by German genius Mann, October 1, 2002

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Holy Sinner (Hardcover)

You don't have to plow through monster works like "The Magic Mountain" or "Buddenbrooks" to gain an appreciation for the art of Thomas Mann. "The Holy Sinner" is a short novel (for Mann) about the medieval legend of St. Gregory. This is a story of sin and redemption, with the horrors of the sins, incest and unbridled lust, making the redemption all the more spectacular.

The style is elegant, stylishly mocking the medieval archaic German which is well-rendered into a stylized antique English by the talented Mrs. Lowe. The story is as gripping as any soap opera but the artistry with which it is told is exquisite. As usual, Mann blends his story-telling ability with his genius as a writer of ideas. I can hardly think of another writer who comes close to being able to combine a good yarn with incredible style and deep concepts (maybe Melville and Nabokov, perhaps.)

This is a good preparatory book for "Joseph and his Brothers"--a monumental book about the biblical story of Joseph in Egypt.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Modern Mythology takes a look at Redemption..., July 31, 2001

By 

Jonathan Burgoine "bookseller" (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Holy Sinner (Paperback)

"The Holy Sinner," on a literal level is a story about a multi-generational incestuous family, and their reconcilliation of their sins. Read as such, "The Holy Sinner" is a disturbing account with a semi-satirical take on the religious rituals of redemption, incest, nepotism and penance.

On a deeper level, "The Holy Sinner" comes forth as a contemporary myth. There is a definite straining in this book for a sense of redemption, forgiveness, and the search for meaning. Ripe with symbolism, and exploring a kind of "less-violent" Oedipal storyline, you can feel Mann's struggle over the contemporary situation in Germany in the late 40s and early 50s.

Though not what I would call a "sequel" to "Doctor Faustus," in the allegorical way you can catch a glimpse of Germany in the pages of "The Holy Sinner," I would nevertheless point out that the theme of "penance and change instead of murder and vengeance" seems very contemporarily bound.

However, the story itself hinges on one coincidence too many, and there are passages that nearly grind to a halt in speed and direction. I did come away from the novel with a new respect for Thomas Mann, but this was not an easy read, and, at times, not even enjoyable. The alliteration and sometimes near-poetry of the writing was in some passages immaculate, and then a few pages later almost clumsy and awkward.

I would consider this book one meant more for study than outright enjoyment, though I did enjoy it more often than I didn't. It was work to finish it, however, and more work to digest and attempt to understand it. If you are in the mood for something serious and allegorical, pick up "The Holy Sinner." But if you're looking for something lighter or entertaining, I'd suggest you pass this one by.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A high point in Western literature, June 6, 2009

By 

William Anderson (Mount Vernon, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Holy Sinner (Paperback)

These lines are, for me, among the most powerful I've ever read:

[The pope-elect has been found on his little rock in the middle of a lake, where he exiled himself.]

"'Ah, holy lord," she sobbed, "I merit not your remembrance or your praise, for God knows my sin. When I protected you that day from the fisher's harsh words, he taxed me with wantonness and fleshly feeling for you and I denied the charge, falsely, as I now confess. For my eyes did really have to do with your limbs in the beggar's rags and with your noble features, and wantonness was at the bottom of the good I did you, depraved lost soul that I am!'
'That is a small matter," answered Gregorius, "and not worth talking about. Seldom is one wholly wrong in pointing out the sinful in the good, but God graciously looks at the good deed even though its root is in fleshliness. Absolvo te.' These were his words. It was the first instance of the extraordinary clemency he was to display as Pope, so consoling to all men and only offensive to the draconians."

There's nothing more important to me, to you, to any of us, than attaining this understanding. We all get it too late.

Of all the literature that I know, only Adalbert Stifter expresses this idea with more transparency, and yet, I have to admit that Mann's work has much greater scope than Stifter's. Mann's conception in this book and in others has the devil in it. (I'm not saying he's a satanist, but that his stuff is Faustian.) Stifter was much more careful. He had to be, in his careful age.

In Goethe, Novalis, Stifter, others, and here in Mann, this theme is treated in various ways-- our civilization is built on a natural foundation that is beyond good and evil, and sex is natural, and likewise beyond good and evil. That our values get their initial impulse from something as dubious as sex is something we all have to come to terms with.

The bible makes this point nicely too, but I don't know that book well enough to comment. German literature after Goethe seeks to reconcile the pantheistic focus on nature with Christian values. This process begins with Goethe's famous quote, ""In natural science, we are pantheists; in poetry, polytheists; morally, monotheists".