Der Tod in Venedig
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Longing and desire, beauty and death. Where else but in old Venice could one fall in love and be consumed by it like the writer Gustav Aschenbach in Thomas Mann's famous novella? Thomas Mann tells of the "onslaught of passion," of the writer's forbidden love for the beautiful boy Tadzio. But at the same time, he also recounts the outbreak of a pandemic, cholera, from which Aschenbach ultimately dies. From John Neumeier to Luchino Visconti, the novella has inspired very different artists – just as it continually invites us readers to rediscover it.
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I love short stories. How the author can with so few words tell a perfect story to make us see something we didn't know existed... or did know, but weren't aware of.
Gustav is so human in his love, obsession, desire, and effort to please... thinking of him sitting in the barber chair getting “rejuvenated”, seeing the youth blossom on his face... a ridiculous old man, like the old man he despised at the beginning of the story. Ridiculous, but so sad, so recognizable... I can't help but feel deep sympathy.
This story reminds me very much of Lolita, as we don't know at all what goes on in the head of the boy. We don't know if he is basking in the older man's obsession, or if he is wary of it. We only have Gustav's story of it. But contrary to Lolita, Gustav doesn't r the boy.
The protagonist of this novella, an aging novelist with writers-block - a stand-in for Mann himself - travels to Venice and falls in love with a golden-haired god-like 14-year old boy. What starts as shy adoration spirals into an obsession. And even though he stays at a distance, it signifies as the character's loss of dignity and leads to his succumbing to the cholera epidemic plaguing Venice. Apparently Mann called this a “strange moral self-chastisement through a book”. Which makes so much sense when one reads up on Mann's own feelings towards younger boys. This is written in partially incredibly hard to follow German. I started with an audio-book but had to switch to the written word, as the half-page long sentences often demanded rereading. A dislike of the main character and the heavy symbolism made this drag a bit, despite it being a short novella. And despite that all, I am still glad I read it. But I definitely remember enjoying [b:Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family 80890 Buddenbrooks The Decline of a Family Thomas Mann https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1337128414s/80890.jpg 3458174] a bunch more.
My second book from Thomas Mann and another amazing story written in one of the best german I have read in a long time. It feels that this was written at an even higher and more complex level than Buddenbrocks. Short and wonderful. A must read.
