This triptych of stories represents some of the finest work by the great German master, Thomas Mann. From a classic early account of artistic formation, suffused with deep melancholy, to works that explore the complex social fractures of his time, this volume showcase the range of Mann's genius and his matchless understanding of character.
In sparkling new translations by Lesley Chamberlain, these tales take us from a tense party in Weimar Berlin to a disturbing magician's performance in an Italian seaside town, probing the consolations and limitations of art with wit and profound irony.
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate in 1929, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer. His older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann, and three of his six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, also became important German writers. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. When World War II broke out in 1939, he emigrated to the United States, from where he returned to Switzerland in 1952. Thomas Mann is one of the best-known exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur.
The stories wavered in consistency - whilst all were interesting the emotional draw was a slightly more difficult one to feel pulled into. The accompanying afterword is fascinating and very well written. If you like Mann, it is worthwhile and rewarding to familiarise yourself with these tales in a biographical interest.