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Thomas Mann

Death in Venice Library Binding – June 1, 1983

by Thomas Mann (Author)

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Translated by Kenneth Burke, Introduction by Erich Heller

Print length

79 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Buccaneer Books
Publication date

June 1, 1983
Dimensions

5.75 x 0.5 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

0899664555
ISBN-13

978-0899664552
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Novella by Thomas Mann, published in German as Der Tod in Venedig in 1912. A symbol-laden story of aestheticism and decadence, Mann's best-known novella exemplifies the author's regard for Sigmund Freud's writings on the unconscious. Gustav von Aschenbach is a revered author whose work is known for its discipline and formal perfection. At his Venetian hotel he encounters the strikingly handsome young teenager Tadzio. Aschenbach is disturbed by his attraction to the boy, and although he watches Tadzio, he dare not speak to him. Despite warnings of a cholera epidemic Aschenbach stays in Venice; he sacrifices his dignity and well-being to the immediate experience of beauty as embodied by Tadzio. After exchanging a significant look with the boy on the day of Tadzio's scheduled departure, Aschenbach dies of cholera. As in his other major works, Mann explores the role of the artist in society. The cerebral Aschenbach summons extraordinary discipline and endurance in his literary work, but his private desires overwhelm him. --Encyclopedia of Literature

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Buccaneer Books (June 1, 1983)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Library Binding ‏ : ‎ 79 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0899664555
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0899664552
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.5 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,866,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #99,827 in Short Stories (Books)
- #263,713 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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Thomas Mann

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Paul Thomas Mann (German: [paʊ̯l toːmas man]; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.

Mann was a member of the Hanseatic Mann family and portrayed his family and class in his first novel, Buddenbrooks. His older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann and three of his six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, also became important German writers. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. When World War II broke out in 1939, he moved to the United States, returning to Switzerland in 1952. Thomas Mann is one of the best-known exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur, literature written in German by those who opposed or fled the Hitler regime.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Carl Van Vechten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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4.2 out of 5

520 global ratings

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Lily Caddy

I liked it :)

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 23, 2022

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Not gonna comment on the story cuz that's subjective but the book itself is in good condition and arrived ontime 👍

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Russell J. Sanders

Too intellectual for me

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 2, 2021

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I surrender. Having taught literature and read—and understood—many of the classics, I turned to Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice thinking it would be a short (barely sixty pages) and pleasant sojourn into classic literature. But with great humility, I announce I am not intellectual enough to understand or appreciate this work. Mann, a Nobel Prize for Literature winner, tells of middle-age Professor Aschenbach’s infatuation with the fourteen-year-old boy Tadzio. This is a subject that normally would have infuriated me, that of what borders on pedophilia, but in the novel, Aschenbach’s admiration is from afar, and the reader senses it will be a tragic thing, making it a bit more palatable. Unfortunately, that story doesn’t begin until at least ten pages of this very short book is spent in the professor spouting viewpoints. I got totally lost in those viewpoints. Aschenbach is a scholar who ponders on Greek literature and art, and I’m not well-versed in those things enough to wade through long, long sentences about them. Once the story begins, the pace picks up, as the professor sees the boy, becomes fascinated, and tries to convince himself, apparently, that loving such a beautiful young creature is more a love of art than a sexual thing. I can say that writing these words just now gave me a bit better understanding of the work, but I can also say that casual readers will most likely be as bogged down as I. And this opinion comes from someone who adores the writings of Henry James, an author that many readers find plodding.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

I love this novella, but the audiobook didn't work for me.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 22, 2017

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This is a story I've read any number of times since I first encountered in college, and I decided to try an audiobook this time around. Big mistake. I don't know what the problem was, but it felt like a wholly different book to me, and not one that I particularly enjoyed. Possibly it was the narrator, a number of people have expressed negative opinions on his work in their reviews. Possibly it's a different translation, but I see no indication of who the translator was, and I really don't have the energy to compare the audio and hard copy versions side-by-side. Bottom line: this didn't work for me.

On the off chance that you don't know the story, writer Gustav von Aschenbach feels restless and takes himself off to Venice where he finds the weather oppressive, but the proximity of a young Polish boy enough to keep him in the city in spite of his health concerns. Much is made of Aschenbach's work ethic, his moral stance, his belief that will power will carry one through all troubles. And yet in a moment, all of his professional nobility is shattered by the appearance of a luminous boy, a perfect amalgam of Eros, Hyacinth, and whatever other gorgeous, mythic youth Aschenbach's besotted brain tosses up to explain away the experience of being utterly gobsmacked by desire.

The irony here is so think you need waders.

In the end, we're the only witnesses to Aschenbach's fall from grace, from the pedestal which he worked so hard to climb. We don't really know why he was so smitten, whether there was something in his past which made him susceptible to a beautiful boy. We see him tart his desire up as casual interest, fascination, as a desire to touch perfection, and as love, but by the end, he's become something he formerly scorned -- an old man trying to be a young one -- in order to be more attractive to Tadzio. It's difficult to watch, and yet impossible to look away from the trainwreck of Aschenbach's end.

Though my favorite Mann story is The Blood of the Walsungs, Death in Venice will always hold a special place in my heart. I'm sorry the audiobook didn't stand up to the task.

2 people found this helpful

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Deep with meaning and symbolism, this work has stood the test of time

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 8, 2011

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It seems like a simple story. But yet it is heavily symbolic and its many translations from the original German have been analyzed by literature buffs since it was first published in 1912. The main character is Gustav von Aschenbach, an esteemed writer in his fifties with his own particular world view. The book is deep with meaning and symbolism. And every sentence which is written in beautiful prose has been analyzed and reanalyzed by scholars for almost a century.

Gustav von Ashenbach takes a trip to Venice. Here, he is attracted to a young boy. Most of this short book consists of his thoughts about this boy. He never speaks to this boy but he follows him whenever he can and lusts for him, seeing him as an innocent thing of beauty. His passion takes over and he becomes quite ridiculous as he tries to make himself look younger. In the meantime, Venice is undergoing some sort of plague which the authorities try to hide from the people although rumors are flying. Gustav has a chance to warn the other guests in the hotel, including the boy's family, but his own inner thoughts seem to prevent him from speaking to them at all.

The writing is beautiful and layered with the meaning of this one man's pursuit of beauty at the end of his life. It is all played out in elaborate early 19th century language and the author sure does know how to use his words. The reader gets to see his dreams, his hesitancy and his complicated thought process and I felt pure pleasure just letting my eyes move across the page and soak up the atmosphere the author created. Clearly, this is a work of art and has stood the test of time.

16 people found this helpful

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Michael LeMay

Certainly a mood

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 17, 2021

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Well… I can’t say I loved the language in English, but certainly a good concept that is not overdone. Worth a read!

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A. G. Lockhart

OK, but not a good translation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 11, 2017

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Usually regarded by scholars and critics as a novella, Death in Venice has the characteristics of a long short story. It features one central character, and we view all the others from his perspective.
Gustav von Aschenbach – the ‘von‘ is a recent ennoblement for his services to literature – is unwell and takes a sabbatical from his writing. Traveling first to what is now Croatia, he eventually settles on a holiday in Venice and books an hotel on the Lido island. He is not long there when he sees and falls in love with a fourteen-year-old Polish boy, Tadzio, holidaying with his mother and sisters.
That Aschenbach’s love is sexual as well as spiritual and artistic is made quite clear in the narrative. Descriptions of Tadzio’s features and dress seem designed to titillate and they create an uncomfortable feeling in the mind of the modern reader. In 21st century terms, we might well consider Aschenbach a paedophile and experience disgust at his weakness. He wants to communicate – to speak, to touch – though, to be fair, he does neither of those things. In one episode, he gets a smile from the boy but otherwise he just follows the family around. Realising how old and grey he looks to the outside world, he goes to a cosmetic artist for a makeover in an effort to make himself more attractive.
The fine weather, the busy beaches and the festive holiday atmosphere prove deceptive. Venice hides a deadly secret which the authorities for commercial motives seek to play down. When Aschenbach goes from the Lido into the city, he sees warning notices everywhere and the ‘hospital smell’ of disinfectant wafts through the lanes and alleyways. No one wants to talk about it but when Ashenbach persists, he discovers that an epidemic of cholera has reached Venice from the orient and that people are already dying from it.
He returns to the island. The resort seems emptier than before. The final scene is played out on the private beach of the hotel. Watching Tadzio at play from his deck chair, Aschenbach succumbs to the epidemic and dies alone.
So, what kind of story is Death in Venice? It was published in 1912, ten years after Buddenbrooks and seventeen before Mann received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Probably the best known of his short works, Death in Venice is a daring novella for its time. A whole library of essays and commentaries have been written in an effort to find historical and artistic parallels and, so it seems to me, to seek ways of softening the explicit sexual nature of the story.
I’m not at all sure that one can do that. The narrative moves through colourful descriptions of the Venetian scene to moments of deep introspection by the central character, from rather obscure classical allusions to haunting nightmares. However, always at the core is that obsession of an elderly man for a beautiful youth. The sort of ‘love’ portrayed here would not be out of place in the Greece of Socrates and Plato, but in the modern world it has a disturbing feel.
Death in Venice is a work I always intended to read but until now never managed to do so. Some time ago, I bought a book of the shorter Thomas Mann stories in the German language, with the promise to myself that I WOULD read it in the original. I was told by a German friend that I was probably just a shade short of crazy (or words to that effect). She pointed out to me that Thomas Mann’s writing can be ‘schwer’ (difficult) even for a native speaker.
After a few false starts, I managed to make some progress, only to find that my friend was right. In despair, I acquired this English translation with the idea of reading the two side by side. The problem was that some of the sentences of Death in Venice are almost equally incomprehensible when rendered into English. The translation itself was bad – which doesn’t help, the translator never quite getting to grips with German adjectival nouns and omitting phrases (it seemed) when it suited him.
To quote from a classic translation of Buddenbrooks by HT Lowe-Porter (1924)
‘…It was necessary to recognise that the difficulties were great. Yet it was necessary to set oneself the bold task of transferring the spirit first and the letter so far as it might …’
This was a goal which I felt the translator of my Death in Venice didn’t quite manage to achieve.
This is an important work of German literature by an author with an international reputation. If your language skills are up to it, read the German version. Otherwise, make sure you read an authoritative translation with annotations.

8 people found this helpful

Paul Allen

Hard Work And A Poor Translation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 10, 2022

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I have always found Thomas Mann hard work. I have started and discarded The Magic Mountain at least twice in the pat 50 years or so. But thanks to the Dirk Bogarde film we all know about Death in Venice and I finally decided to read the book. But a dire translation and a Kindle version full of typos (clearly no one bothered to read it through) made this a disappointing read. Should have paid a bit more for a decent translation.

Look on the bright side - Mann's sentence construction (as translated) is not easy to follow, but is infinitely better than Henry James' Portrtait of a Lady!

Wras

Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous - to poetry.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 20, 2015

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“A solitary, unused to speaking of what he sees and feels, has mental experiences which are at once more intense and less articulate than those of a gregarious man. They are sluggish, yet more wayward, and never without a melancholy tinge. Sights and impressions which others brush aside with a glance, a light comment, a smile, occupy him more than their due; they sink silently in, they take on meaning, they become experience, emotion, adventure. Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous - to poetry. But also, it gives birth to the opposite: to the perverse, the illicit, the absurd.”
― Thomas Mann, Death in Venice and Other Tales

This book is a warning to the reader and to artists, of the price paid for artistic success, and the hidden in the beauty of art, that is the center of culture but also the rejection of culture by the individual that is exploring new possibilities outside the shared reality of a society. this tension of a shared common view and the exploration of possibilities outside the norm tear the peace of one's soul or for dose of us who have no soul our minds. The displacement does not have to be great , it only takes one step to be standing at the edge of the abyss, for it to look back at you with all its fury, and enchantment. For art is the breaking of taboos, and the establishment of new ones, it is reimagining what we are as a group, bubble, culture.

“Even in a personal sense, after all, art is an intensified life. By art one is more deeply satisfied and more rapidly used up. It engraves on the countenance of its servant the traces of imaginary and intellectual adventures, and even if he has outwardly existed in cloistral tranquility, it leads in the long term to over fastidiousness, over-refinement, nervous fatigue and overstimulation, such as can seldom result from a life of the most extravagant passions and pleasures.”
― Thomas Mann, Death in Venice and Other Tales

Gustav von Aschenbach the main character of the book is a famous writer, in his fifties; while walking past a cemetery, while observing the edifices and religious motifs, he reads “THEY ENTER THE HOUSE OF GOD” “THE ETERNAL LIGHT MAY SHINE UPON THEM” (the caps is the way the writer wrote the passages) he observes a wild looking foreigner with read hair this makes him fantasize of a wild kind of eden described in detail. there are three more encounters on his travels they all infer his dislocation from society his fear of the otherness within him, some like this one are obviously religious, others are more of societal and sexual in nature. Thomas Mann eloquently warns us of his intentions in a description of the writer.

“What did one see if one looked in any depth into the world of this writer's fiction? Elegant self-control concealing from the world's eyes until the very last moment a state of inner disintegration and biological decay; sallow ugliness, sensuously marred and worsted, which nevertheless is able to fan its smouldering concupiscence to a pallid impotence, which from the glowing depths of the spirit draws strength to cast down a whole proud people at the foot of the Cross and set its own foot upon them as well; gracious poise and composure in the empty austere service of form; the false, dangerous life of the born deceiver, his ambition and his art which lead so soon to exhaustion ---”
― Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

And so he takes as by the hand into secret passion, the depravity of Gustav von Aschenbach. His very open fascination with a fourteen year old boy, that is staying in his hotel.
He regards him, absorbs him with every look, escalating into obsession or as he sees it love.

“For passion, like crime, is antithetical to the smooth operation and prosperity of day-to-day existence, and can only welcome every loosening of the fabric of society, every upheaval and disaster in the world, since it can vaguely hope to profit thereby. And so Aschenbach felt a morose satisfaction at the officially concealed goings-on in the dirty alleyways of Venice, that nasty secret which had merged with his own innermost secret and which he, too, was so intent on keeping “
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

Little by little this passion consumes him, and physically transforms him into one of his most disdained visions and makes him risk it all, as he falls deeper into visions of the other God.

“But the dreamer was now with them, within them: he belonged to the stranger god. Yes, they were now his own self as they hurled themselves upon the animals, lacerating them, slaughtering them, devouring gobbets of steaming flesh, as they dropped to the trampled mossy ground for unbridled coupling, an offering to the god. And his soul savored the debauchery and delirium of doom.“
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

This a book laden with allusions to antiquity and rich in allegory and symbolism, no word is wasted, not a sentence is there fluf or just adorn, it is a masterpiece delivered powerfully and succinctly.
This book was published in 1911 the world is silently spinning into an abyss of death and destruction unbenounced to all its contemporaries, but here you can feel, almost a premonition a warning, of a malaise a stink in the middle of the best of civilization.

3 people found this helpful

Alan Bailey

Cheap but flawed e-conversion

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 6, 2021

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Rather poor conversion to e-format with many annoying typos, with St.Mark’s being constistently rendered as St. Markfs, and Tadzio as gTadziog, or gTadziu!g. However, for 99p it’s hardly the end of the world.
I first read this novella some 40 years ago and it was worth 99p to learn that it is not the masterpiece I thought it was, rather it is a slight, rather dull offering. Like the Hesse novels I devoured as an eighteen year old, and re-read later with much less pleasure, some thing are best left in the past.

PedanticPedr

A Masterpiece Degraded

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 14, 2017

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I find no credit for the translator! It is as well that he/she wears the cloak of anonymity. Why employ for the translation of a master stylist someone who appears to have no true appreciation of the German language and who writes English with all the grace of a warthog? It is unfortunate that the lack of proofreading in a medium at the mercy of illiterate typists compounds the infelicities of the hack translator so that for a sensitive reader the kindle experience of Tod in Venedig auf English becomes the equivalent of eggshells in pate de fois gras.

4 people found this helpful

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Death in Venice Library Binding – June 1, 1983

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