Most Popular Books by Thomas Mann

Tonio Kroger By Thomas Mann 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. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

Nueva encarnacion del mito faustico, esta B+novela totalB; trasciende el horizonte -ya de por si vasto y apasionante- de las especulaciones esteticas, para plantearse como una parabola de las fuerzas irracionales que mueven a pueblos enteros.

"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.

The world-famous masterpiece by Nobel laureate Thomas Mann -- here in a new translation by Michael Henry Heim Published on the eve of World War I, a decade after "Buddenbrooks" had established Thomas Mann as a literary celebrity, "Death in Venice" tells the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful but aging writer who follows his wanderlust to Venice in search of spiritual fulfillment that instead leads to his erotic doom. In the decaying city, besieged by an unnamed epidemic, he becomes obsessed with an exquisite Polish boy, Tadzio. "It is a story of the voluptuousness of doom," Mann wrote. "But the problem I had especially in mind was that of the artist''s dignity."

The text of the lecture which, in slightly abbreviated form, was delivered by Thomas Mann on his coast-to-coast lecture tour February to May 1938.

Thomas Mann nannte seine Novelle die Tragödie einer Entwürdigung: Gustav von Aschenbach, ein berühmter Schriftsteller von etwas über fünfzig Jahren und schon länger verwitwet, hat sein Leben ganz auf Leistung gestellt. Eine sommerliche Erholungsreise führt ihn nach Venedig. Dort beobachtet er am Strand täglich einen schönen Knaben, der mit seiner eleganten Mutter und seinen Schwestern samt Gouvernante im gleichen Hotel wohnt. In ihn verliebt sich der Alternde. Er bewahrt zwar stets eine scheue Distanz zu dem Knaben, der späte Gefühlsrausch jedoch, dem sich der sonst so selbstgestrenge von Aschenbach nun willenlos hingibt, macht aus ihm letztlich einen würdelosen Greis.

A reworking of the Faust legend in which a fictional German composer, Adrian Leverkühn, makes a pact with Mephistopheles for early fame. After confessing his pact, Leverkühn collapses, dying ten years later, bedridden and helpless. The composer''s life parallels the rise and fall of Nazism.

The first volume, Tales of Jacob, tells of Joseph''s father, Jacob, and acts as a sort of prelude. It presents a very strange world -- a world in which people can bury their own son alive as a sacrifice to the gods. And yet, somehow, the characters are not remote: the mythical and the human are held in balance. Joseph himself emerges in the second volume, Young Joseph, and while the first volume provided ample evidence of Mann''s mastery of pacing (despite the generally slow pulse), it doesn''t perhaps prepare us for what we get in the closing chapters of the second: when Joseph''s brothers imprison him in a pit and then sell him into slavery, the narrative acquires a tremendous forward momentum and leaves one breathless with excitement. - Himadri Chatterjee.

Publisher Description

In ritiro in un sanatorio, lo scrittore Spinnel si ritrova in compagnia della signora Klöterjahn, bella moglie di un uomo d’affari, arrivata al sanatorio in preda a gravi problemi polmonari. Già invaghito dell’acume della donna che lo risveglia dal torpore in cui era caduto a causa degli altri ospiti della struttura, lo scrittore rimane folgorato dopo averla convinta a suonare il pianoforte, passione che la donna ha dovuto abbandonare a causa del matrimonio. Le note del “Tristano e Isotta” di Wagner li legheranno profondamente. Tratto da “La morte a Venezia” pubblicato da Feltrinelli. Numero di caratteri: 92.025

Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder) is a four-part novel by Thomas Mann, written over the course of 16 years. Mann retells the familiar stories of Genesis, from Jacob to Joseph (chapters 27-50), setting it in the historical context of the Amarna Period. Mann considered it his greatest work. The tetralogy consists of: The Stories of Jacob (Die Geschichten Jaakobs; written December 1926 to October 1930, Genesis 27-36) Young Joseph (Der junge Joseph; written January 1931 to June 1932, Genesis 37) Joseph in Egypt (Joseph in Ägypten; written July 1932 to 23 August 1936, Genesis 38-39) Joseph the Provider (Joseph, der Ernährer; written 10 August 1940 to 4 January 1943, Genesis 40-50) Mann''s presentation of the ancient Orient and the origins of Judaism is influenced by Alfred Jeremias'' 1904 Das Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten Orients, emphasizing Babylonian influence in the editing of Genesis, and by the work of Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Mann sets the story in the 14th century BC and makes Akhenaten the pharaoh who appoints Joseph his vice-regent. Joseph is aged 28 at the ascension of Akhenaten, which would mean he was born about 1380 BC in standard Egyptian chronology, and Jacob in the mid-1420s BC. Other contemporary rulers mentioned include Tushratta and Suppiluliuma. A dominant topic of the novel is Mann''s exploration of the status of mythology and his presentation of the Late Bronze Age mindset with regard to mythical truths and the emergence of monotheism. Events of the story of Genesis are frequently associated and identified with other mythic topics. Central is the notion of underworld and the mythical descent to the underworld. Jacob''s sojourn in Mesopotamia (hiding from the wrath of Esau) is paralleled with Joseph''s life in Egypt (exiled by the jealousy of his brothers), and on a smaller scale his captivity in the well; they are further identified with the "hellraid" of Inanna-Ishtar-Demeter, the Mesopotamian Tammuz myth, the Jewish Babylonian captivity as well as the Harrowing of Hell of Jesus Christ.

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.

This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare''s finesse to Oscar Wilde''s wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrim''s Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.