Most Popular Books by Thomas Mann

"Mann''s pivotal role during the Nazi period as perhaps the most eloquent spokesman for the ''other Germany'' that lived in exile means that anyone studying the history of our century must begin with him. . . . These letters are literary and cultural documents that have few equals in our age."--James K. Lyon, University of California, San Diego "Mann''s pivotal role during the Nazi period as perhaps the most eloquent spokesman for the ''other Germany'' that lived in exile means that anyone studying the history of our century must begin with him. . . . These letters are literary and cultural documents that have few equals in our age."--James K. Lyon, University of California, San Diego

A Major Literary Event: a brilliant new translation of Thomas Mann''s first great novel, one of the two for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1929. Buddenbrooks, first published in Germany in 1900, when Mann was only twenty-five, has become a classic of modem literature -- the story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany. With consummate skill, Mann draws a rounded picture of middle-class life: births and christenings; marriages, divorces, and deaths; successes and failures. These commonplace occurrences, intrinsically the same, vary slightly as they recur in each succeeding generation. Yet as the Buddenbrooks family eventually succumbs to the seductions of modernity -- seductions that are at variance with its own traditions -- its downfall becomes certain. In immensity of scope, richness of detail, and fullness of humanity, Buddenbrooks surpasses all other modem family chronicles; it has, indeed, proved a model for most of them. Judged as the greatest of Mann''s novels by some critics, it is ranked as among the greatest by all. Thomas Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929.

Presents the correspondence of Thomas and Heinrich Mann

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • A monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, The Magic Mountain is an enduring classic. With this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Thomas Mann rose to the front ranks of the great modern novelists, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. The Magic Mountain takes place in an exclusive tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps–a community devoted to sickness that serves as a fictional microcosm for Europe in the days before the First World War. To this hermetic and otherworldly realm comes Hans Castorp, an “ordinary young man” who arrives for a short visit and ends up staying for seven years, during which he succumbs both to the lure of eros and to the intoxication of ideas.

Two works by one of the 20th-century''s great writers. In Death in Venice, a renowned author finds himself infatuated by a young boy — an attraction that proves fatal. A Man and His Dog is a charming essay about Mann''s canine companion, a friendly mongrel pointer that accompanies the author on his morning walks.

A classic, controversial book exploring German culture and identity by the author of Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, now back in print. When the Great War broke out in August 1914, Thomas Mann, like so many people on both sides of the conflict, was exhilarated. Finally, the era of decadence that he had anatomized in Death in Venice had come to an end; finally, there was a cause worth fighting and even dying for, or, at least when it came to Mann himself, writing about. Mann immediately picked up his pen to compose a paean to the German cause. Soon after, his elder brother and lifelong rival, the novelist Heinrich Mann, responded with a no less determined denunciation. Thomas took it as an unforgivable stab in the back. The bitter dispute between the brothers would swell into the strange, tortured, brilliant, sometimes perverse literary performance that is Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man, a book that Mann worked on and added to throughout the war and that bears an intimate relation to his postwar masterpiece The Magic Mountain. Wild and ungainly though Mann’s reflections can be, they nonetheless constitute, as Mark Lilla demonstrates in a new introduction, a key meditation on the freedom of the artist and the distance between literature and politics. The NYRB Classics edition includes two additional essays by Mann: “Thoughts in Wartime” (1914), translated by Mark Lilla and Cosima Mattner; and “On the German Republic” (1922), translated by Lawrence Rainey.

A title in the Bristol Classical Press German Texts series, in German with English notes, vocabulary and introduction. Thomas Mann (1875-1955), was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929, and "Tonio Kroger" occupies a central position in his spiritual and artistic development. A study of youth, it draws together many strands of his life and work: the duality of his parentage; his abhorrence of discipline; and the influence of Schopenhauer and Wagner on his early phase of writing.

Recounts the enchanted career of the con man extraordinaire Felix Krull--a man unhampered by the moral precepts that govern the conduct of ordinary people.

In "Bashan and I," Thomas Mann presents a reflective and richly layered narrative that navigates the themes of identity, loss, and the search for meaning in a post-war society. Written in a lyrical style characteristic of Mann''s oeuvre, the novella is infused with autobiographical elements, drawing heavily on the author''s own experiences and observations of European culture. The text weaves the personal with the philosophical, as Mann explores the evolution of self against a backdrop of historical upheaval, making it a poignant commentary on the complexities of modern life. Thomas Mann, one of the 20th century''s most significant literary figures, grapples with the existential dilemmas of his time through this work. Born into a German bourgeois family and an early observer of the tensions that would culminate in two World Wars, Mann''s deep literary and philosophical inclinations manifest vividly in this novella. His mature reflections on life''s dislocations and the impact of societal change reveal a profound understanding of human nature, shaped by his own socio-political reflections. "Bashan and I" is a recommended read for those seeking not only a compelling narrative but also a deep philosophical inquiry into the human condition. Mann''s masterful prose and intricate character development invite readers to contemplate their own journeys of self-discovery, making this novella an essential addition to the canon of modernist literature.

Mann''s humorous life of Pope Gregory provides an ironic take on medieval beliefs, and examines the relationship between religion and magic. The story, published in 1951, can also be read as a critique of the condition of Europe after World War II.

In "Royal Highness," Thomas Mann crafts a nuanced exploration of the interplay between personal ambition and societal expectations set against the backdrop of a fictional European principality. Mann''s prose demonstrates his trademark psychological depth and incisive wit, painting a vivid portrait of aristocratic life while dissecting the intricacies of identity and fidelity. The novella is steeped in the early 20th-century context of modernism, echoing the tensions of a rapidly changing Europe, and highlighting themes of individuality versus duty within the rigid structures of nobility. Thomas Mann, Nobel laureate and a pivotal figure in German literature, was deeply influenced by his own experiences within a bourgeois family and the complex socio-political milieu of his time. His examination of the moral dilemmas faced by his characters often mirrors the existential concerns of his own life. "Royal Highness" was written during a period of profound transformation in Mann''s career, reflecting his evolving views on fame, identity, and human relationships, and providing insight into the conflicts that plagued both individuals and society. This novella is a must-read for those interested in a masterful allegory of class and identity, where Mann''s eloquence reveals the sublime and the absurd in the lives of his characters. Readers will find a rich tapestry of thought-provoking themes and literary elegance that not only captivates the mind but also resonates with the broader human experience.

Lit Hub: Most Anticipated Books of 2023 Sparkling new translations highlight the humor and poignancy of Mann’s best stories—including his masterpiece, in its first English translation in nearly a century. A towering figure in the pantheon of twentieth-century literature, Thomas Mann has often been perceived as a dry and forbidding writer—“the starched collar,” as Bertolt Brecht once called him. But in fact, his fiction is lively, humane, sometimes hilarious. In these fresh renderings of his best short work, award-winning translator Damion Searls casts new light on this underappreciated aspect of Mann’s genius. The headliner of this volume, “Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow” (in its first new translation since 1936)—a subtle masterpiece that reveals the profound emotional significance of everyday life—is Mann’s tender but sharp-eyed portrait of the “Bigs” and “Littles” of the bourgeois Cornelius family as they adjust to straitened circumstances in hyperinflationary Weimar Germany. Here, too, is a free-standing excerpt from Mann’s first novel, Buddenbrooks—a sensation when it was first published. “Death in Venice” (also included in this volume) is Mann’s most famous story, but less well known is that he intended it to be a diptych with another, comic story—included here as “Confessions of a Con Artist, by Felix Krull.” “Louisey”—a tale of sexual humiliation that gives a first glimpse of Mann’s lifelong ambivalence about the power of art—rounds out this revelatory, transformative collection.

"John E. Woods is revising our impression of Thomas Mann, masterpiece by masterpiece." —The New Yorker "Doctor Faustus is Mann''s deepest artistic gesture. . . . Finely translated by John E. Woods." —The New Republic Thomas Mann''s last great novel, first published in 1947 and now newly rendered into English by acclaimed translator John E. Woods, is a modern reworking of the Faust legend, in which Germany sells its soul to the Devil. Mann''s protagonist, the composer Adrian Leverkühn, is the flower of German culture, a brilliant, isolated, overreaching figure, his radical new music a breakneck game played by art at the very edge of impossibility. In return for twenty-four years of unparalleled musical accomplishment, he bargains away his soul—and the ability to love his fellow man. Leverkühn''s life story is a brilliant allegory of the rise of the Third Reich, of Germany''s renunciation of its own humanity and its embrace of ambition and nihilism. It is also Mann''s most profound meditation on the German genius—both national and individual—and the terrible responsibilities of the truly great artist.

In this second installment of his autobiography (following Kind dieser Zeit), Klaus Mann describes his childhood in the family of Thomas Mann and his circle, his adolescence in the Weimar Republic, and his experiences as a young homosexual and early opponent of Nazism. He also describes how, after the Reichstag elections of September 1930, friends and family began to discuss the looming prospect of emigration and exile. When Stefan Zweig published an article claiming that democracy was ineffective, Klaus replied: “I want to have nothing, nothing at all to do with this perverse kind of ‘radicalism.’” After hearing one of his working-class lovers in a storm trooper’s uniform say, “They are going to be the bosses and that’s all there is to it,” Klaus fled to Paris in March of 1933. He became one of one hundred thousand German refugees in France, losing his publisher, friends and associates, and readers in the process. He describes finding a German Jewish publisher in Amsterdam and the difficulties of starting a journal of émigré writing. In 1934, his German passport expired and he was forced to renew temporary travel documents every six months. The President of Czechoslovakia offered citizenship to the entire Mann family in 1936 but then Hitler invaded that country and Klaus emigrated to the United States. Despite statelessness, bouts of syphilis and drug abuse, neither his pace of travel nor publication slowed. His novel Der Vulkan is among the most famous books about German exiles during World War II but it sold only 300 copies. Klaus stopped reading and writing German in the U.S. “The writer must not cling with stubborn nostalgia to his mother tongue,” he writes in The Turning Point. He must “find a new vocabulary, a new set of rhythms and devices, a new medium to articulate his sorrow and emotions, his protests and his prayers.” This extraordinary memoir, an eyewitness account of the rise of Nazism by an out gay man, was Klaus Mann’s first book written in English. “A highly civilized child of the twentieth century is trying to make peace with his times, trying to find a place to belong... The decay of France, the paranoia of Germany, the coming disasters, the shining myth of Europe... are now compelling concerns... A sensitive, cultivated European looks at his world, his life, and describes them in apt and telling phrase. Toward both his attitude is not so strong as despair, but rather one of alienation. His book is a commentary upon evil times...” — Lorinne Pruette, The New York Times “Klaus Mann... has written an intensely engaging autobiography... This is Klaus Mann’s own story; it is also the story of many young intellectuals in a darkening Europe; and it is the story of a son of a famous man... an eloquent book... a lavish document.” — Winfield Townley Scott, The American Mercury “[Klaus Mann’s] autobiography [is] certainly one of the great autobiographies of the century and probably the definitive one of the life of a German exile… Not only very good reading but also essential in the literature of twentieth-century exile.” — Carl Zuckmayer, Bloomsbury Review “A delightful, modern-romantic group portrait of the Manns en famille.” — The New Yorker “The portrait of the Mann family is excellent. Klaus Mann is at his best describing his childhood and the family life... The value and the interest of this book lies in the intimate impressions and memories of many celebrities who crossed the path of Klaus Mann during his wanderings through the whole world.” — The Saturday Review of Literature “The book moves with passion and conviction in a stirring tempo worthy of the son of Thomas Mann. The years in exile are superbly written.” — The New York Post “This autobiography by the son of Thomas Mann has a double value: first as a distinguished autobiography, a sensitive portrait of a young man growing up in between-wars Germany, second as a loving intimate portrait of his father. A vivid picture of what the first war meant to a child, with its violent patriotism, its deprivations; then the moral disorder of Berlin youth in the 20s and his attempts to express himself against the rising tide of fascism, one of the reasons for the family exile.” — Kirkus Reviews

The story of Joseph and his brothers.

Reprint. Originally published: New York: Knopf, 1954.

"Brilliant…a little masterpiece."—Chicago Sun-Times "Beautiful…one of the best short novels he has written."—New York Times Book Review "Can rank with the best of Mann''s writing."—The Boston Globe "Magnificent…one of the greatest bits of writing which one of the world''s greatest writers has ever given us."—Chicago Herald-American "Brilliant…one of those splendid novelettes which in this reviewer''s opinion represent the very essence of Mr. Mann''s literary art."—Saturday Review of Literature "Thomas Mann wrote this engaging novella in a few weeks in 1943. (The new translation by Marion Faber and Stephen Lehmann, which is brisk and direct, is a welcome replacement of the fussier and less accurate English version done by Helen Lowe-Porter for the original publication.)…What is especially noteworthy about The Tables of the Law among Mann''s fictions is its playfulness." —Robert Alter, London Review of Books "His senses were hot, and so he yearned for spirituality, purity, and holiness—the invisible, which seemed to him spiritual, holy, and pure." Thus Thomas Mann introduces Moses in The Tables of the Law, the Nobel Prize winner''s retelling of the prophet''s life. Invited in 1943 to write this story as a defense of the Decalogue, Mann reveals how strange and forbidding Moses'' task was. As "the Lawgiver"—endowed with the wrists and hands of a stonemason—engraves the tablets, so he hews the souls of his people: "Into the stone of the mountain I carved the ABC of human behavior,but it shall also be carved into your flesh and blood, Israel…" Mann''s tale of the ethical founding and molding of a people sharply rebukes the Nazis for their intended destruction of the moral code set down in the Ten Commandments. But does his famous irony and authorial license mock or enhance the Biblical account of the shaping of the Jewish people? You know the Bible story. Now read Mann''s version—it will grip you anew. Newly translated from the German by Marion Faber and Stephen Lehmann. "To present the foundation of law for half the world is no simple task. The Tables of the Law is a historical title following Moses as he is tasked by God to present the ten commandments, providing a human and much different insight on the role of Moses as the Prophet of God. Expertly translated, The Tables of the Law is a solid addition to any literary fiction collection."—Midwest Book Review

Minuten vergingen, bis man dem seitlich im Stuhle Hinabgesunkenen zur Hilfe eilte. Man brachte ihn auf sein Zimmer. Und noch desselben Tages empfing eine respektvoll ersch�tterte Welt die Nachricht von seinem Tode. Mann selbst hat den Tod in Venedig die ,,Trag�die einer Entw�rdigung" genannt und dabei den Begriff Trag�die durchaus w�rtlich gemeint, Mann described Death in Venice as "the tragedy of degradation", and in so doing he meant this quite literally; his work is full of classical allusions and dark motifs, enriching the compelling narrative of the faltering writer von Aschenbach and his quiet love for Tadzio. The book is short but immensely powerful, and Venice especially is depicted as nowhere else in German literature, as a city of passion and intrigue, but also of sickness and decay. This student''s edition of Death in Venice contains the full 1912 text, complete with background notes and a biography of the author, as well as spacious margins for annotation. Visit www.cbypublishing.co.uk to view our full range of products.

Thomas Mann, fascinated with the concept of genius and with the richness of German culture, found in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe the embodiment of the German culture hero. Mann''s novelistic biography of Goethe was first published in English in 1940. Lotte in Weimar is a vivid dual portrait--a complex study of Goethe and of Lotte, the still-vivacious woman who in her youth was the model for Charlotte in Goethe''s widely-read The Sorrows of Young Werther. Lotte''s thoughts, as she anticipates meeting Goethe again after forty years, and her conversations with those in Weimar who knew the great man, allow Mann to assess Goethe''s genius from many points of view. Hayden White''s fresh appraisal of the novel reveals its consonances with our own concerns. Thomas Mann, fascinated with the concept of genius and with the richness of German culture, found in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe the embodiment of the German culture hero. Mann''s novelistic biography of Goethe was first published in English in 1940. Lotte in Weimar is a vivid dual portrait--a complex study of Goethe and of Lotte, the still-vivacious woman who in her youth was the model for Charlotte in Goethe''s widely-read The Sorrows of Young Werther. Lotte''s thoughts, as she anticipates meeting Goethe again after forty years, and her conversations with those in Weimar who knew the great man, allow Mann to assess Goethe''s genius from many points of view. Hayden White''s fresh appraisal of the novel reveals its consonances with our own concerns.