Royal Highness [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Thomas Mann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1997

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

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

From the Inside Flap

"The great virtue of Royal Highness is its relaxed, fairy-tale quality that naturally brings the reader inside that 'Edwardian' calm which preceded everything common to contemporary social life. It is very easy to make connections between the book and theories of stratification, statemaking, ritual, legitimacy, even the political economy of preindustrialized states."--Alan Sica, author of Weber, Irrationality, and Social Order --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786111917
• ISBN-13: 978-0786111916
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,544,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mann's fairy tale, May 1, 2005

By 

D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Royal Highness (Paperback)

Here is an early Mann work that might be an excellent introduction to those who are interested in his work. It is witty, the story flows naturally and it is much less sombre than many of his later works.

The plot centers around a small German town that is a "throwback" to the days of royalty. It maintains a monarch, although the position is mainly just for show. A young Prince is promoted to being a "virtual" monarch when his lazy older brother feels he has better things to do with his time than be king.

The Prince, then, does his best to use his "exalted" (albeit symbolic) position to better the quality of life of his people. Unfortunately, the financial ministers of the kingdom are incompetent enough to make the ENRON executives proud with their mis-dealings.

For a refreshing look back at 19th (and perhaps early 20th) century Germany, this is a truly wonderful book. Mann's prose is exquisite and he always manages to poke fun at "royalty" in the most subtle ways. So, if you're looking for a fairy tale for grownups, the great Thomas Mann just MIGHT be the place to look!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not for the Mann novice, but a great book., May 2, 2001

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Alexiel (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Royal Highness (Paperback)

Thomas Mann is an excellent author, but if you've never read anything by him before, begin with "Magic Mountain" and "Death in Venice," followed by "Buddenbrooks" and "Felix Krull" before tackling this book. This is Mann's second novel and a bit of a letdown from "Buddenbrooks." Mann uses the literary technique he would later exploit in such marvelous fashion with "Magic Mountain" -- that is, examining a small, isolated part of society as a microcosm of the larger whole, namely Europe.

Without giving away any of the surprises, this book is about a rather idealistic female's impact on a small village. Mann poses thoughtful questions about the usefulness of artistic values in a bourgeois society while revealing the inner nuances of his characters as he does so artfully, as in "Buddenbrooks" and "Felix Krull."

To top it all off, this Mann novel is probably his most humorous. For those not knowledgable on Mann, he is not readily identifyable for the humour in his works, making this one rather noteworthy.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My first Thomas Mann-- seems like a good place to start., September 3, 2006

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frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Royal Highness (Paperback)

I was interested in reading Thomas Mann-- it was a big hole in my knowledge of German literature. A friend of mine who is something in the way of a Mann scholar recommended that I begin with Royal Highness.

I loved it. I have seen it compared to a fairy tale, but if so it is a fairy tale for modern times. The Prince is heir to a line of helplessness and theater and the Princess is a railroad heiress driven from US society because of mixed racial heritage.

I have also heard the theme of the book described as the US providing the necessary energy and change to a decaying European nation. While that is true, it is also worth bearing in mind that it is only in Europe that the railroad baron can find a place to rid himself of his legacy of exploitation. It is also only in Europe that he finds his daughter can be accepted despite her Native American grandmother. Royal Highness is the optimistic marriage of two cultures which leads to cultural renewal as much as it does a love affair.

The Curtis/McNab translation seemed very well done-- it had none of that strange stiffness than can often characterize German prose translated into English. I do not know how this will compare to other Mann books, but it was a big success as a first experience.