Death in Venice : And Seven Other Stories

In addition to Death in Venice , this volume includes "Mario and the Magician," "Disorder and Early Sorrow," "A Man and His Dog," "Felix Krull," "The Blood of the Walsungs," "Tristan," and "Tonio Kröger." These stories, as direct as Thomas Mann's novels are complex, are perfect illustrations of their author's belief that "a story must tell itself." Varying in theme, in style, in tone, each is in its own way characteristic of Mann's prodigious talents. From the high art of the famous title novella ("A story," Mann said, "of death...of the voluptuousness of doom"), to the irony of "Felix Krull," the early story on which he later based his comic novel The Confessions of Felix Krull , they are stunning testimony to the mastery and virtuosity of a literary giant. Translated from the German by H.T. Lowe-Porter.

This collection includes Death in Venice, Mario and the Magician, Disorder and Early Sorrow, A Man and His Dog, Felix Krull (the basis for a later novel), The Blood of the Walsungs, Tristan and Tonio Kruger.

Kirkus Reviews

New versions of 12 celebrated stories, including the famous title novella, many previously collected in Mann's seminal Stories of Three Decades. Neugroschel's persuasive "Preface" makes a strong case for fresh translations, given both this century's inevitable linguistic shifts and Mann's employment within individual works of specific vocabularies and styles (e.g., those of Wagnerian opera in the hair-raising "The Blood of the Walsungs"). And Neugr"schel essentially finesses the issue of revealing the stories' inherent sexuality; their author was, after all, a master of elegant indirection dedicated to muted presentations of matters that were anathema to both his public and his own sedulously respectable persona. That said, it's wonderful to have vivid, lucid English versions of Mann's sophisticated portrayals of sexual obsession and humiliation ("Little Herr Friedemann"), illness- as-metaphor in a tale ("Tristan") that concisely prefigures The Magic Mountain, and the transfiguring intersection of artistic with homosexual passion (Death in Venice, Tonio Kr"ger). Brilliant work, in any case, from one of the century's great writers.

In DEATH IN VENICE, an elderly, famous, and wealthy writer named Aschenbach goes on vacation. He becomes fascinated with Tadzio, a young teenager who is staying with his family at Aschenbach's hotel. As his obsession grows, and despite warnings that a plague is threatening Venice, Aschenbach remains at the hotel hoping to make a connection with the elusive Tadzio. Mann's novel is celebrated for its subtle characterization, and its exploration of the struggles of the artist--the longing for transcendence and ideal beauty vs. the need to sacrifice for one's art. Translates twentieth-century Nobel Prize-winning German writer Thomas Mann's novella "Death in Venice," as well seven of his short stories: "Tonio Kroger," "Mario and the Magician," "Disorder and Early Sorrow," "A Man and His Dog," "The Blood of the Walsungs," "Tristan," and "Felix Krull." Eight complex stories illustrative of the author's belief that'a story must tell itself,'highlighted by the high art style of the famous title novella.