Thomas Mann (1) (1875–1955)

(For once, this review contains both the original German version which is followed by an English translation.)

Mit Ausnahme einiger Phasen habe ich immer viel und sehr gemischt durch alle Genres gelesen. Da bleibt es nicht aus, daß von nahezu unerträglichem Mist über Durchschnitts-”Kost” so ziemlich alles dabei war. Ganz selten jedoch hatte ich so etwas wie literarische “Erweckungsmomente”. Thomas Manns “Buddenbrooks” war ein solches.

Erschienen 1901 als Mann gerade einmal 26 show more Jahre alt war, hat “Buddenbrooks” seinen Weltruhm begründet und ihm 1929 den Nobelpreis für Literatur eingebracht, weil das Werk "im Lauf der Jahre eine immer mehr sich festigende Anerkennung als ein klassisches Werk der zeitgenössichen Literatur gewonnen hat.”

Daran hat sich zumindest für mich auch nichts geändert, denn obschon “Buddenbrooks” den Niedergang einer spezifischen Familie im Lübeck des 19. Jahrhunderts schildert, so hat es doch in seinen Grundlagen nichts an Aktualität und Wahrhaftigkeit eingebüßt.

Mann erzählt die Geschichte von vier Generationen der hanseatischen Kaufmannsfamilie Buddenbrook von 1835 bis 1877 mit großer Liebe zum Detail und psychologischem Feingefühl. Als stummer Zeuge taucht der Leser tief in das Leben der Protagonisten ein, ohne dass dies jemals voyeuristisch wirkt. Vielmehr kann man sich den Buddenbrooks kaum entziehen - jede Generation und jedes einzelne Familienmitglied überzeugt durch Komplexität und charakterliche Tiefe.

Die Figuren sind so lebendig und vielschichtig, dass sie mich nicht mehr losgelassen haben. Egal ob der materialistische Johann, der schroffe Thomas oder die ewig kränkliche Klothilde - ich habe jede einzelne Person in ihrer Komplexität verstanden und mich zugleich über und mit ihnen geärgert, gefreut, und musste gefühlt auch schon mal mit ihnen “auf den Steinen sitzen”...

Mann beschreibt sowohl die privaten als auch die geschäftlichen Beziehungen innerhalb der Familie und gibt dabei Einblicke in die gesellschaftlichen Strukturen und Normen des 19. Jahrhunderts.

Die eben bereits angesprochene Charakterisierung der Figuren ist ein wesentliches Element des Romans, und Mann gelingt es hervorragend, die verschiedenen Persönlichkeiten, Träume, Ängste und Hoffnungen der Familienmitglieder lebendig werden zu lassen. Mein persönlicher Lieblingscharakter ist Thomas Buddenbrook; ein intelligenter und zielstrebiger Geschäftsmann, der versucht, das Familienunternehmen zu erhalten und gleichzeitig ein erfülltes Privatleben zu führen. Sein innerer Konflikt, seine Ängste und seine unbedingte Loyalität zur Familie haben mich zutiefst beeindruckt - und sein persönlicher Verfall sowie sein Tod (nach einem Zahnarztbesuch - sehr nachvollziehbar für mich!) haben mich betroffen gemacht.

Ein weiterer bemerkenswerter Charakter ist Tony Buddenbrook, die lebhafte und entschlossene Tochter des Hauses. Ihre gescheiterten Ehen und das schwierige Verhältnis zu ihrem Bruder Thomas sind zentrale Themen des Romans. Die Art und Weise, wie Mann ihre Entwicklung von einer jungen, unbeschwerten Frau zu einer gebrochenen, aber dennoch starken Persönlichkeit darstellt, ist beeindruckend.

Die Sprache des Romans ist ebenso fesselnd wie die Handlung; zugleich kunstvoll und verständlich, voller Anspielungen und Zwischentöne, auf eine sehr poetische Art und Weise. Dabei ist die Sprache jedoch nie verschwurbelt oder schwer verständlich, sondern immer klar und präzise. Manns Stil ist reich an Bildern und Symbolen, die den Leser in die Welt des 19. Jahrhunderts entführen. Er macht aus den alltäglichen Vorgängen eine große Literatur. Seine präzisen Beschreibungen der Orte, an denen die Handlung stattfindet, lassen das Lübeck dieser Zeit lebendig werden. Auch die Dialoge sind authentisch und lebendig gestaltet, sodass man sich als Leser direkt in die Gespräche der Charaktere hineinversetzt fühlt.

Selten habe ich einen Roman gelesen, der auf so meisterhafte Weise literarische Qualität mit breiter Wirkung vereint.

Ein weiteres Highlight des Romans ist die Einbettung historischer Ereignisse und politischer Entwicklungen in die Erzählung. Mann zeigt, wie die gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen und die wirtschaftlichen Herausforderungen des 19. Jahrhunderts das Schicksal der Familie Buddenbrook beeinflussen und zum Niedergang des einst erfolgreichen Kaufmannshauses beitragen. Dabei werden Themen wie der Aufstieg des Bürgertums, die Industrialisierung und der Einfluss der Kirche auf die Gesellschaft behandelt. Diese Themenvielfalt macht den Roman zu einem wichtigen Zeitdokument und zeigt, wie eng miteinander verwoben das Leben der Menschen und die Gesellschaft sind.

Am Ende des Romans bleibt angesichts des Niedergangs der Familie, die nun nur noch in der Erinnerung der Leser weiterlebt, ein Gefühl von Wehmut zurück. Dieser Roman, so mein Gefühl, läßt mich wohl nie mehr los: Ich habe ihn mehrfach gelesen, ich habe das grandiose Hörbuch, gelesen vom unvergleichlichen Gert Westphal, oft auf langen Autofahrten gehört und alle Verfilmungen gesehen (keine war schlecht, keine hat mich vollständig überzeugt).

In Lübeck habe ich mir mit meiner Frau zusammen die Handlungsorte, insbesondere das Buddenbrookhaus in der Mengstraße 4, angesehen und das auch im Roman erwähnte Niederegger Marzipan genossen.

"Buddenbrooks" ist ein monumentales Meisterwerk von zeitloser Gültigkeit und Thomas Mann ein Autor von formativer Bedeutung, dessen Meisterschaft ich jederzeit wieder neu entdecken möchte.

Fünf von fünf Sternen.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Mastodon | Instagram | Pinterest | Medium | Matrix | Tumblr

Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Except for some periods, I have always read a lot and very mixed across all genres. So it's inevitable that there was pretty much everything from almost unbearable rubbish to average reading experiences. However, I rarely experienced something like literary "awakening moments". Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks" was one such moment.

Published in 1901 when Mann was only 26 years old, "Buddenbrooks" established his world fame and earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929, because the work "over the years has gained an increasingly firm recognition as a classic work of contemporary literature."

At least for me, that has not changed, because although "Buddenbrooks" portrays the decline of a specific family in 19th century Lübeck, it has lost nothing of its fundamental topicality and truthfulness.

Mann tells the story of four generations of the Hanseatic merchant family Buddenbrook from 1835 to 1877 with great attention to detail and psychological sensitivity. As a silent witness, the reader dives deeply into the lives of the protagonists without ever seeming voyeuristic. Rather, one can hardly resist the Buddenbrooks - every generation and every individual family member convinces with complexity and character depth.

The characters are so vivid and multifaceted that they never let go of me. Whether the materialistic Johann, the gruff Thomas, or the perpetually sickly Klothilde - I understood each individual person in their complexity and at the same time, was irritated, delighted, and sometimes felt like I was sitting with them "on the stones"...

Mann describes both the private and business relationships within the family, providing insights into the social structures and norms of the 19th century.

The characterization of the characters already mentioned is a crucial element of the novel, and Mann succeeds excellently in bringing the different personalities, dreams, fears, and hopes of the family members to life. My personal favourite character is Thomas Buddenbrook; an intelligent and ambitious businessman who tries to maintain the family business while leading a fulfilling private life. His inner conflict, his fears, and his unconditional loyalty to the family impressed me deeply - and his personal decline and death (after a visit to the dentist - very relatable for me!) left me touched.

Another notable character is Tony Buddenbrook, the lively and determined daughter of the house. Her failed marriages and difficult relationship with her brother Thomas are central themes of the novel. The way Mann portrays her development from a young, carefree woman to a broken but still strong personality is impressive.

The language of the novel is as captivating as the plot; both artistic and understandable, full of allusions and nuances, in a very poetic way. However, the language is never convoluted or difficult to understand but always clear and precise. Mann's style is rich in images and symbols that transport the reader into the world of the 19th century. He turns everyday occurrences into great literature. His precise descriptions of the places where the action takes place bring the Lübeck of that time to life. The dialogues are also authentic and vividly designed, so that as a reader, one feels directly transported into the conversations of the characters.

Rarely have I read a novel that so masterfully combines literary quality with broad impact.

Another highlight of the novel is the integration of historical events and political developments into the narrative. Mann demonstrates how the societal changes and economic challenges of the 19th century influence the fate of the Buddenbrook family and contribute to the decline of their once successful mercantile house. Topics such as the rise of the bourgeoisie, industrialization, and the influence of the church on society are explored. This variety of themes makes the novel an important historical document and shows how intertwined the lives of people and society are.

At the end of the novel, in the face of the family's decline, which now only lives on in the memory of readers, a feeling of melancholy remains. This novel, in my opinion, will never let me go: I have read it multiple times, I have listened to the magnificent audiobook, read by the incomparable Gert Westphal, on long car journeys, and seen all the film adaptations (none were bad, none fully convinced me).

In Lübeck, my wife and I visited the locations of the plot, especially the Buddenbrook house on Mengstraße 4, and enjoyed the Niederegger marzipan mentioned in the novel.

"Buddenbrooks" is a monumental masterpiece of timeless relevance, and Thomas Mann is an author of formative significance, whose mastery I would like to rediscover at any time.

Five out of five stars.

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Mastodon | Instagram | Pinterest | Medium | Matrix | Tumblr

Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam show less

First published in 1924, The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann, is one the classic novels from that period that I’ve long been hesitant to read. Presuming it to be a wordy tome, long on philosophical debates and short on plot, I continued to swipe left when considering it. To my surprise, while there is no denying what I’d heard about the book was true, it proved worth the labor to read. To distill the plot to its bare bones, the story is about a young man who comes to visit his cousin at a show more tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Mountains. Intending it to be a three week vacation, within a short period of time he too is admitted as a patient and ends up spending the next seven years there. This young man is Hans Castorp, a recent university graduate aiming to begin a career at a shipbuilding firm in Hamburg. Throughout the novel, there is ambiguity on whether he is truly tubercular, or suffers from the lack of will to begin his adult life.

The time setting is the decade before World War I, and the International Sanatorium Berghoff where Castrop is staying represents a microcosm of Europe and its social customs. Understandably, the themes of sickness and death are examined. So too is the distortion of time, how it stretches or contracts depending upon the situation described. As the months and then years pass, Castorp loses track of time entirely. Cut off from the “flatlands,” real life below no longer interests him. Mann also works in other trending topics of the time period. These include the values of humanism, Christian authoritarianism, technological advances, attempts to communicate with spirits using a medium, and the magical power of music. What finally draws Castorp back to the “flatlands” are the cataclysmic events taking place in the Great War. While indeed sprawling, and best digested in small portions, I found The Magic Mountain to be the perfect winter read when there is time to sit back and ponder, savor, and winnow the chaff from its grains. show less

"...where the hideous death lurked in secret—at such times the atrocious seemed to him rich in possibilities, and laws of morality had dropped away."

The novel astonished me. It wasn't what I expected. It is quite brilliant, a masterpiece.

Unlike others, I didn't find this novel explicitly about pedophilia--unlike Lolita, which distinctly and undeniably is. I know that won't sit well with everyone. I can understand that. When I watched the 1971 film of the novel, that pedophilia lust was a show more major aspect and exacerbated by the shameful exploitation and lack of protection for "the most beautiful boy in the world," the real youth, Björn Andrésen. But the novel is about so much more than that. It is about lust, but also lust for life, for youth, for beauty, for being loved in spite of outward appearances (ironic, I know) by a misguided man who never so much as even speaks a word to the boy.

The man is Gustav von Aschenbach, age 50, who, up to this point, has over-intellectualized his whole life, putting Art with a capitol A as the most desirable and potent of all things. He has never been a physically robust or a remarkably attractive person and does not seem to, thus far, possess any passion, except in theory. He has a grown daughter and had a wife who has since died. He describes their marriage as having been happy, although that seems faint praise since he doesn't even call her by name. From an early age, he has given his truest devotions to his work. That is what has provided his life, if not passion, its meaning, satisfaction, staid acclimation, respectability, honors, and financial reward. His work has been accomplished with deliberate study and steadfastness. His whole identity is Artist. A tightly controlled one.

When he decides to go for a vacation to Venice ("Not far, not all the way to the tigers"), it is the first sign Aschenbach is not quite as satisfied as he once was. He is repulsed by ugliness, and especially the ugliness of, we slowly learn, of aging. And he is aging.

The brilliance of Mann is how deftly he takes readers down the emotionally stifled deterioration of Aschenbach, through so many successively progressive stages, until ultimately to his complete humiliated, unraveled, unfettered indulgence of his long ignored emotions.

Upon seeing a remarkably beautiful 14 year old boy at his Venice hotel (we can agree that we too can be momentarily smitten by a remarkable beauty, at any age; we too have eyes)--begins in earnest his slow but pointed rejection of his own aging and transforms the rejection into an absurd hope, then obsession, and then a truly wicked disregard for danger. All for the sake of a ridiculous projected fantasy of a reciprocal budding love with this boy. An elixir.

It's not an easy novel to experience, but it's not exactly about outright sexual deviance either. It is full moral abandonment of self-regard due to fear of aging and death.

It's a story of such pathos, repugnance, and, under Mann's genius, deep sadness, even pity. Aschenbach began a needlessly tragic journey with a mere natural, but much belated observation about his own capacity for lust that he has dismissed since his youth for the sake of his plans for success. When his intellectualizing about Eros and Socrates and whatever Classicism he has hitherto relied on for balance and harmony, when those begin to ring more and more hollow, he progressively becomes consumed by "the tigers" he once avoided, to self obliteration.

And it started with a small belated recognition of delight in feelings,

"Past emotions, precious early afflictions and yearnings which had been stifled by his rigorous programme of living, were now returning in such strange new forms. With an embarrassed, astonished smile, he recognized them..." show less

The German Classic and Nobel Prize winning (originally titled) "Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family" is a novel of epic proportions.

The opening scene takes place in 1835 at the Buddenbrook estate. It’s a formal family dinner party and gathering of the Patriarch Johann Buddenbrook’s relatives and intimate friends including the town’s prestigious doctor, a leading German poet, senator, pastor, stock broker, and several business associates. It is a cheerful, optimistic event with good show more conversation, imported cigars, and vintage liquor, and abundant food served on exquisite china and silver in lush surroundings of crystal chandeliers, velvet drapes, fine art, and tasteful extravagant decor.

The Buddenbrook family is at it’s prime; they are the elite of society, the family business is thriving, and life is good. But as the grandson Tom cynically ponders many years later when he is the Patriarch and everything seems to be going wrong, “often the outward and visible material signs and symbols of happiness and success only show themselves when the process of decline has already set in.”

The plot starts out at a slow pace because Thomas Mann makes quite an effort to familiarize the reader with cultural norms with descriptions rich in detail, and he also does an excellent job of character development. The primary characters are the grandson Tom who inherits control of the family granaries, his sister Tony, and Tom’s son Johann who is expected to follow in his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father’s footsteps.

Throughout the story significant scenes occur involving the various family members and is broken down into 11 parts… each sometimes skipping ahead several years and carrying the reader through 4 generations of the Buddenbrooks to the conclusion in 1877. While Germany is struggling through an industrial revolution, several wars, an economic crisis, and political turmoil, Mann focuses on the Buddenbrooks involvement in their own family struggles; births, marriages, divorce, deaths, the Buddenbrooks 100 year anniversary of being in business, holidays, and vacations... the family dynamics, their accomplishments, and their tragedies.

What makes this book a classic - aside from the realistic plot, the memorable characters, and the great story-telling - is Thomas Mann’s ability to inject authentic social and cultural details. The attitudes of the rich elite, the role women played in society, the tradition of honoring and respecting the elderly, the role religion played in their lives, the disgrace of declaring bankruptcy and shame in criminal behavior, and obligations of family life.

And perhaps a forewarning of things to come in Eastern Europe, the Buddenbrooks anti-semitic attitudes towards Jewish people. Their biggest adversities, regardless of the root cause, always left them pointing the finger at the “contemptible” Hagenstrom family… competitors in business and rivals in society. Whenever a Hagenstrom crossed paths with a Buddenbrook, nasty thoughts ensued.

There are many memorable scenes, but several that made a lasting impression were Tony’s carefree summer holiday at the seaside resort, the violent family argument that took place during the reading of the deceased mother’s will, and the description of little Johann’s typical day at school.

Thomas Mann was only 26 years old when he wrote "Buddenbrooks", but wise beyond his years. He was strongly influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche and Buddenbrooks has elements of psychology. At a point of darkness and debilitating depression in Tom Buddenbrooks life, he ponders his religion and borders on having a miraculous revelation about the meaning of life. But in the end, it alludes him and he concludes, “Was this message meant for me? I don’t know what it was: I only know it was too much for my poor brain.”

As indicated in the title, the decline of the family is eminent but it is not for me to reveal why or how this happens. Perhaps it was inevitable with the changing times. Perhaps it could have been avoided. Like all family sagas, the combination of diverse personalities, critical events, and defining moments all play a part... or as the old German saying goes, “so ist das leben”. show less