"Buddenbrooks" is a 1901 novel by the German author Thomas Mann. The novel was Mann's first and was published when he was only 26 years old. The novel was a success and was directly referenced as part of the reason that Mann won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929.Mann reported that his chief goal in writing the novel was to represent the clash between the world of business and the … [Read more...]
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a significant German author who made his mark in the German literature of the 20th century. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1929.
Mann was born in Lubeck, German in 1875. After his father passed away he moved to Munich in 1891 where he went to high school. Later on, he went to a university, and he studied history, economy, art history and literature to get prepared to be a journalist.
After finishing his studies, he worked in insurance and then he started his writing career. His first work was "Gafallen" published in 1896 and his first significant work was "Little Mr. Friedemann" published in 1898 and it, later on, became the title of his book of short stories.
His novel "Buddenbrooks" was declared the German novel of the century. It was published in 1901 and then Mann started writing short stories and plays. In 1903 he published a book named "Tristan" in which he perfected him play-writing skills and then he published "Fiorenza".
Mann got married and started his own family. He lived a calm, successful life marked by his glory in literature. His most significant work in those times was the story "Death in Venice". From 1913 to 1924 he wrote "The Magic Mountain". During that time, before World War II, he was banished from Germany but he still continued his writing. He published a novel cycle in four parts "Joseph and his Brothers", a novel "Lotte in Weimar", and "Law". When the war ended he published "Doctor Faustus" and his final novel "Confessions of Felix Krull".
In 1952 he lived in Switzerland with his family and he still pursued his writing career. After getting seriously ill he passed away in 1955.
Death in Venice
"Death in Venice" is a 1912 novella by the German author Thomas Mann. Originally published under the title "Der Tod in Venedig," the novella relies heavily on allusion and metaphor to construct the narrative which centers around an elderly man falling in love with - and becoming obsessed with - a teenage boy.Gustav von Aschenbach is a writer living in Germany shortly before the … [Read more...]
The Magic Mountain
The Nobel winning novel "The Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann was written for 10 years, between 1913 and 1924. It won the Nobel in 1929. Such a long period of writing resulted in a complex work which follows up with the emotional and philosophical growth of the main character because of which this novel can be called a bildungsroman - a type of novel whose main concern are the character … [Read more...]