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Thomas Mann: A Biography
An acclaimed biographer provides a compelling portrait of the German novelist, based on his unexpurgated diaries, that sheds new light on the man--his self-absorption, bisexuality, obsession with appearances--and provides new insights into his work. 15,000 first printing.
672 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 1994
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About the author
Ronald Hayman
69 books14 followersRonald Hayman is a critic, dramatist, director and writer best known for his biographies.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 18, 2013
Mann's novels have a lot of understated humor, but interestingly very little of that comes through in this biography. He seems like a very hardworking man with not many parenting skills and a lot of physical ailments.
August 9, 2024
Overall, this was a detailed and informative biography. I’m especially glad, Hayman pointed out several weak points of Mann’s first English translations by Helen Porter-Lowe – I still enjoy her versions the most, but I see why Mann called her work “inadequate.”
Three aspects of Hayman’s writing made reading this biography unpleasant – for me, personally:
1. Hayman has a tiresome predilection for discussing Mann’s sex life – and I don’t even mean Paul, or the other gay adventures – that would have been interesting. Hayman can easily spend a paragraph deciphering the sexual context of a single ambiguous entry from Mann’s diary. That’s right – Europe might be crumbling to pieces, the aftershocks of WWI might be mutilating the face of Germany forever, but you better believe, Hayman’s busy trying to decide whether on a particular night in 1919 Thomas Mann had sex with his wife, or if he performed an act upon himself. The man’s a bedroom detective.
Now, my personal admiration for Thomas Mann is at a level 10, verging dangerously on 11, and I might have kissed his autograph in my 1927 edition of The Magic Mountain, but even I don’t want to know the bedroom particulars of his married life. The ends do not justify the means. Hayman’s repeated transgressions against good taste bring no new insight to Mann’s fiction.
2. I’m not certain whether Hayman knows how diaries work – perhaps he’s never written one himself – but they’re often a place to vent your innermost thoughts, and those thoughts are often not pretty. That’s right, all day long you might be kind, considerate and generous, and then have a moment to yourself, when you’re not.
To take a diary entry and judge a man’s entire character upon it, is preposterous. To imply that Thomas Mann was selfish, because he wrote about his sister’s elaborate suicide with unsympathetic anger, is laughable. Now I don’t know if Thomas Mann was selfish or unsympathetic – perhaps he was. That’s beside the point. A diary is often a dark mirror of the soul, and when you look into a dark mirror, you won't see the truth. That’s why people destroy their diaries – Thomas Mann destroyed many. You never know when your own personal Mr Hayman comes along; perfectly willing to misconstrue whatever he reads.
3. Not every single decision in life must be a direct result of what your parents said or did, or didn’t say or didn’t do. Heavens help us, if we were this deterministic. Nor is it Hayman’s place to put forward theories that Klaus Mann had a drug addiction, because he had a bad relationship with his father, or that Elisabeth Mann married an older man, because she had a good relationship with her father. We cannot know this for certain.
Hayman also wrote Carl Jung’s biography, and perhaps he developed a psychoanalysis streak, but I beseech you, good sir Hayman, restrain thyself! Supress the puerile urge for witless speculation, which brings us no new knowledge about the Mann family, but gives your biography the rather fetid whiff of cheap sensationalism.
Still, if you’re prepared to sift through Mr Hayman’s opinions, I recommend you read this book; there’s a lot of information to be found. Just bear in mind: perhaps in real life, Mr Hayman was a gentleman, but he doesn’t write like one.
Three aspects of Hayman’s writing made reading this biography unpleasant – for me, personally:
1. Hayman has a tiresome predilection for discussing Mann’s sex life – and I don’t even mean Paul, or the other gay adventures – that would have been interesting. Hayman can easily spend a paragraph deciphering the sexual context of a single ambiguous entry from Mann’s diary. That’s right – Europe might be crumbling to pieces, the aftershocks of WWI might be mutilating the face of Germany forever, but you better believe, Hayman’s busy trying to decide whether on a particular night in 1919 Thomas Mann had sex with his wife, or if he performed an act upon himself. The man’s a bedroom detective.
Now, my personal admiration for Thomas Mann is at a level 10, verging dangerously on 11, and I might have kissed his autograph in my 1927 edition of The Magic Mountain, but even I don’t want to know the bedroom particulars of his married life. The ends do not justify the means. Hayman’s repeated transgressions against good taste bring no new insight to Mann’s fiction.
2. I’m not certain whether Hayman knows how diaries work – perhaps he’s never written one himself – but they’re often a place to vent your innermost thoughts, and those thoughts are often not pretty. That’s right, all day long you might be kind, considerate and generous, and then have a moment to yourself, when you’re not.
To take a diary entry and judge a man’s entire character upon it, is preposterous. To imply that Thomas Mann was selfish, because he wrote about his sister’s elaborate suicide with unsympathetic anger, is laughable. Now I don’t know if Thomas Mann was selfish or unsympathetic – perhaps he was. That’s beside the point. A diary is often a dark mirror of the soul, and when you look into a dark mirror, you won't see the truth. That’s why people destroy their diaries – Thomas Mann destroyed many. You never know when your own personal Mr Hayman comes along; perfectly willing to misconstrue whatever he reads.
3. Not every single decision in life must be a direct result of what your parents said or did, or didn’t say or didn’t do. Heavens help us, if we were this deterministic. Nor is it Hayman’s place to put forward theories that Klaus Mann had a drug addiction, because he had a bad relationship with his father, or that Elisabeth Mann married an older man, because she had a good relationship with her father. We cannot know this for certain.
Hayman also wrote Carl Jung’s biography, and perhaps he developed a psychoanalysis streak, but I beseech you, good sir Hayman, restrain thyself! Supress the puerile urge for witless speculation, which brings us no new knowledge about the Mann family, but gives your biography the rather fetid whiff of cheap sensationalism.
Still, if you’re prepared to sift through Mr Hayman’s opinions, I recommend you read this book; there’s a lot of information to be found. Just bear in mind: perhaps in real life, Mr Hayman was a gentleman, but he doesn’t write like one.
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April 21, 2008I read this biography some years ago, and I will have to review my underlinings and marginal notes and then revise this review. My recollection is that I became rather impatient with the book, but I'll revisit that opinion.
Read
May 13, 2013Fascinatin' stuff.
July 16, 2016
Very Good.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews