I read Colm Tóibín’s The Magician last year and was honestly mesmerised by the historical fictional narrative of the life of German Nobel Laureate, Thomas Mann. I knew at the end of that reading that I had to get my hands on Mann’s books, to understand more of him and to hear him through his books many of which appeared to be some sort of processing of Mann’s life and person. Death in Venice seemed a good starting point - a novella of sorts, set within an anthology of other short stories.

I find Mann’s writing intoxicating. There’s something about it that draws me in. Each of the stories in this collection is a masterpiece, reflecting something of Mann in each one. I appreciated the 59 page introduction to the collection by translator David Luke to which I turned at the the end of each story to read expanded notes to help me process and understand what I’d just read.

There is something urgent about each of these stories. It’s not a stressful urgent, but almost some sort of anticipatory urgency, as Mann’s emotions express in their fullness almost like the words are going to burst from the page.

Death in Venice as the culminating story is astounding. Clearly Mann gives some kind of insight into his own being as main character Gustav von Aschenbach, ageing writer, who descends into some kind of vortex of all possessing emotion, rendering him impotent to any other action other than imaginatively obsessing over 14 year old Tadzio, a young boy holidaying with members of his family at the same location in Venice. What transpires is honestly bewitching as Mann is unable to function except by following Tadzio as “feelings he had had long ago, early and precious dolours of the heart, which had died out in his life’s austere service and were now, so strangely transformed, returning to him - he recognised them with a confused and astonished smile.” p270. Eventually, there is nothing else but Tadzio, no other reason for living, no other imagining, ultimately leading to an inevitable outcome.

In some ways all the novellas in this anthology pointed to Death in Venice, each a building block to understanding the Mann. Tonio Kröger, the story immediately preceding Death in Venice is yet another expression of Mann and I found myself identifying and resonating so much with it…. “And occasionally he would reflect: “But why am I peculiar, why do I fight against everything, why am I in the masters’ bad books and a stranger among the other boys?” I get the impression that Thomas Mann deeply harboured so much inside himself. I get that.

I could write so much more about each of these stories. They move me and will stay with me. 5 stars no doubt.

Even at only around seventy pages, it feels a little bit trying. Some interesting ideas though, worth checking out.

A collection of stories centred on similar themes, that our dear friend Thomas Mann developed over time: nature and passions vs intellect and a measured distance from the life's darker emotions and experiences. Thus juxtaposed, these antipodes are brought to an inevitable, all-encompassing clash. Death in Venice comes out as the most evolved of the stories, with subtle irony as an undertone to the story of high ideals coming crashing against uncontrollable, low pulsions.

Pretty mixed bag. The first three stories (interestingly, the three that are pre-1900) I loved, but after that...two I really wasn't into at all, and the remaining had both high and low points. I had been planning to read The Magic Mountain but now I'm a little wary of picking up a 700+ page book by this author....maybe one day.

I read this just for Death in Venice. It's an ok story. It is interesting though.