يحتوي هذا الكتاب على حكايتين من أهم ما كتب توماس مان في صنف الرواية القصيرة. "اضطراب وأسى مبكر" (1925) ترصد عبر حكاية مركزها طفلة صغيرة حالة التأزم التي تعرض لها المجتمع الألماني بعد هزيمة الحرب العالمية الأولى، وفي "ماريو والساحر" (1930) يقدم توماس مان أمثولة كلاسيكية رائعة عن صعود الفاشية في إيطاليا كما شهدته عين ألمانية مأزومة. هنالك أواصر وثيقة بين الروايتين يضم هذا الكتاب دراسة معمقة عنها كتبها أستاذ الأدب الألماني ألان بانس.
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.
Germany, with a galloping inflation, in the early 30's before Hitler's full rise to power. Dr. Cornelius, a professor, has an ongoing party in his house for his two teenage children. The younger ones, Ellie (five years old) and Snapper (only slightly older) are having fun too with their older siblings' guests.
Ellie is the spitting image of Dr. Cornelius's wife when the latter was at that age and he loves this child most of all.
Thomas Mann's descriptive prowess is in full display here. One would be made to feel, if he devotes proper attention to the detailed narrative, that he's really inside the professor's house and watches the family and their young guests in person and even see how times were hard at that time even for a middle class family like that of the Corneliuses.
There's dancing and merriment. Five-year-old Ellie gets to dance, by way of a joke, with the young man Hergesell who is his older brother's and sister's guest. Later, when Dr. Cornelius returns home after a brief personal errand outside, he finds his beloved little Ellie crying in bed, inconsolable. She had fallen in love with Hergesell after their one dance.
There's a touching and bittersweet ending here, between the father and his young girl, which I can whisper into your ear if you have a tolerance for spoilers.
This strange and rather claustrophobic tale is set in the Weimar years, during the inflation -- during the middle part of it, not the later part of it (though published in 1925). It shows the typical Mann strains of suppressed neuroticism. The purile bourgeoisie is passing and Weimar culture is but a clown, created to cheer the dying child. The translation I read was neither very good nor very bad. At any rate, I know little about Mann, so will stop here. http://literaturesave2.files.wordpres...
Sehr eindrucksvoller Text, der mich stellenweise sehr mitgerissen und bewegt hat. Praktisch ein Stück Biografie Thomas Manns. Sehr gekonnt und einnehmend.
Is it a conceit of every age that thinks it is living through great and unprecedented change? Certainly Thomas Mann's characters are puzzled by the pace of change as Weimar Germany emerges from a post-War malaise and embraces liberal democracy and a dynamic bohemian culture.
We are told today that the professions that have served the middle classes so well, in terms of social mobility and financial independence, will change more in the next two decades than they have in the past two centuries as artificial intelligence and the internet will replace our need for doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, journalists and architects to work as they did in the 20th century. In Disorder and Early Sorrow Thomas Mann describes a Germany in the throes of great change - economic, political and social - as liberalising influences are at work and the country throws off austerity and emerges from a deep seated malaise.
The author posits a well meaning and widely respected university professor who can’t come to terms with the behaviour of his own teenage children who reject the past and are embracing new ideas and attitudes as they reject the traditional aspirations of middle class society in Germany, in favour of new professions and modes of behaviour wildly different to their father’s experience.
Professor Cornelius is a man of habit and takes his daily morning walk during which he mentally prepares for his academic tasks facing him, and then returns to the quiet of his study for more careful preparation of a series of lectures that will be delivered in time honoured fashion, illustrated by references in papers delivered by his fellow academics. He isn’t fossilised nor is he ridiculed but he is a traditionalist only comfortable with formal and orderly behaviour. He is now out of sync ! His once respected position has become virtually irrelevant but he cannot adapt nor appreciate just how fast and significant is the pace of change all around him. He is appalled that his teenage children Ingrid(18) and Bert(17) have no interest in attending the university and prefer more frivolous activities, music, theatre and dancing. Their accents, mannerisms, make-up and hairstyles, like their aspirations, are now fuelled by contact with an exciting vibrant new society epitomised by a fast and flash young broker, Max Hergesell, wearing rouge and making pots of money from fat bonuses and the debt crisis.
And the professor’s little girl, Ellie, innocent and uncorrupted, intuitively, loves the new ways and although unable to articulate as such she can’t understand why her Father offers such stubborn resistance - change must come as nothing lasts for ever.
Interesting short stories about the fall of a bourgeois family after the first world war in Weimar Germany. In these times of large money largesse from the central bank, and of Germany's final surrender of monetary orthodoxy to the "Next Generation EU recovery instrument", it fills one with a melancholic mood to read of the hyperinflation that once gave birth to it.
"Das duzt sich allgemein und geht miteinander um, wie es den Alten ganz fremd ist : von Züchtigkeit, Galanterie und Salon ist wenig zu spüren."
"Der eine ist Herzl; Cornelius kennt und begrüßt ihn. Der andere heißt Möller — ein Wandervogel typ, der bürgerliche Festkleider offenbar weder besitzt noch besitzen will (im Grunde gibt es das gar nicht mehr), 98 ein junger Mensch, der fern davon ist, den »Herrn« zu spielen (das gibt es im Grunde auch nicht mehr) — in gegürteter Bluse und kurzer Hose, mit einer dicken Haartolle, langem Hals und einer Hornbrille."
"Nach einer halben Stunde fällt ihm ein, daß es nicht mehr als freundlich von ihm wäre, mit einer Schachtel Zigaretten zu der Lustbarkeit beizu- tragen. Es geht nicht an, findet er, daß die jungen Leute ihre eigenen Zigaretten rauchen — obgleich sie selbst sich wohl nicht viel dabei denken würden. Und er geht ins leere Eßzimmer und nimmt aus dem Wandschränkchen eine Schachtel von seinem Vor- rat, nicht gerade die besten, oder doch nicht gerade die, die er selber am liebsten raucht, ein etwas zu langes und dünnes Format, das er nicht ungern los wird bei dieser Gelegenheit, denn schließlich sind es ja junge Leute. Er geht damit auf die Diele, hebt lächelnd die Schachtel hoch und stellt sie offen auf die Kaminplatte, um sich sogleich und nur unter leichter Umschau wieder gegen sein Zimmer zu wenden.
Eben ist Tanzpause, der Musikapparat schweigt. Man steht und sitzt an den Rändern der Diele plaudernd umher, an dem Mappentisch vor den Fenstern, auf den Stühlen vor dem Kamin. Auch auf den Stufen der eingebauten Treppe, ihrem reich- lich schadhaften Plüschläufer sitzt junge Welt amphitheatralisch"
"Einige stehen, aber viele, auch junge Damen, sitzen einfach am Boden, auf dem Teppich, die Knie mit den Armen umschlungen oder auch die Beine vor sich gestreckt. Hergesell zum Beispiel, wiewohl im Smoking, sitzt so an der Erde, zu Füßen des Flügels, und neben ihm die Plaichinger."
"Fräulein Walburga, die ältere der deklassierten Schwestern und der kochende Teil (um sie nicht geradezu als Köchin zu bezeichnen, da sie es nicht gerne hört), schaut mit braunen Au- gen durch ihre dick geschliffene Rundbrille, deren Nasenbügel, damit er nicht drücke, mit einem Leinenläppchen umwunden ist — ein gutmütig-hu- moristischer Typ, während Fräulein Cäcilia, die jüngere, wenn auch nicht eben junge, wie stets eine äußerst süffisante Miene zur Schau trägt — in Wah- rung ihrer Würde als ehemalige Angehörige des dritten Standes. Sehr bitter leidet Fräulein Cäcilia unter ihrem Sturz aus der kleinbürgerlichen Sphäre in die Dienstbotenregion. Sie lehnt es strikte ab, ein Mützchen oder sonst irgendein Abzeichen des Zimmermädchenberufs zu tragen, und ihre schwerste Stunde kommt regelmäßig am Mittwochabend, wenn Xaver Ausgang hat und sie servieren muß. Sie serviert mit abgewandtem Gesicht und gerümpfter Nase, eine gefallene Königin; es ist eine Qual und tiefe Bedrückung, ihre Erniedrigung mit anzusehen, und die »Kleinen«, als sie einmal zufällig am Abend- essen teilnahmen, haben bei ihrem Anblick alle beide und genau gleichzeitig laut zu weinen begonnen. "
"Hie und da tanzen zwei junge Mädchen zusammen, zuweilen sogar zwei junge Männer; es ist ihnen alles einerlei. Sie gehen so zu den exotischen Klängen des Gram- mophons, das mit robusten Nadeln bedient wird, damit es laut klingt, und seine Shimmys, Foxtrotts und Onesteps erschallen läßt, diese Double Fox, Afrikanischen Shimmys, Java dances und Polka Creolas — wildes, parfümiertes Zeug, teils schmach- tend, teils exerzierend, von fremdem Rhythmus, ein monotones, mit orchestralem Zierat, Schlagzeug, Geklimper und Schnalzen aufgeputztes Neger- Amüsement. "
Mario and The Magician & Disorder and Early Sorrow.
للمؤلف الألماني توماس مان، نُشِرَت الأولى في 1929، والثانية في 1925؛ وصدرتا في 2020 باللغة العربية في كتاب يتألف من 148 صفحة، عن دار الرافدين للمترجم فلاح رحيم؛ مرفق بملحق تحليلي وتوضيحي نقلاً عن دراسة أكاديمية لأستاذ الأدب الألماني في جامعة سوثامبتون البريطانية.
يحدث في الأولى أن سلسلة من متاعب تواجه أسرة صغيرة خلال رحلة استجمام، وأثناء حضورهم فعالية ما، يشهد الوالدين مناظرات ولعبة تحدي تنتهي عند حدث يستنفر الجمهور كافة. أما في الثانية، فأسرة من الطبقة الوسطى تقيم حفل في منزلهم، فيتشكل حاجز غير مرئي بين أحد أفرادها وأمرٌ ما هو شغوف به! . لوحة أدبية غامضة تدور أحداثها قبل ما يقارب العقد والنصف من اندلاع الحرب العالمية الثانية حيث هيمنة الفكرين النازي والفاشي، لها واجهة مزخرفة، زجاجية معتمة، تتخللها ثقوب ضيّقة، يُرى من خلالها عرضاً مسرحياً، تظهر خلفيته، وتُسمع حوارات أبطاله حيثُ تراكيب لغوية متداولة وفي منطقة نائية يُختزل المعنى، يُستنبط ولا يُقرأ. . قلمٌ عبقري ينهج أسلوب غير مألوف، يعالج مواضيع على درجة من الحساسية في جو يستبد به الهدوء غالباً، مشاهد تتزاحم فيها تفاصيل منتجة وغير منتجة. سردٌ انسيابي شديد الحذر يندر أن تظهر فيه المنعطفات، وفي حين سجل عنصر المفاجأة حضور طاريء في نهاية الحكاية الأولى، فقد اتسمت قفلة الحكاية الثانية بلون جليدي. . شخصيات لا تتقمص دور يخصها، فإنها أيقونة لأفراد قد يمثلوننا أو من يحيطون بنا أو من تجرفهم الصدفة للحظة إلى حياتنا أو من يُخلِّفون فينا بصمة أو ندبة دون أن نلتقِ بهم أبداً.
نص قد يبدو في ظاهره بسيط تطغى عليه السطحية لكنه في جوهره معقد موغل في العمق، بين سطوره تتجلى إسقاطات رمزية، ومعادلات مثل: سيكولوجيا الطغاة والكاريزما، الحرية والإرادة. وقضايا مثل: ارتدادات الأزمة الاقتصادية على شرائح المجتمع، هامش العالم الخاص بالمرء، وفلسفة الموت والحياة والعدالة.
إصدار كثيف في محتواه، مبتكر في بلورة فكرته، إجتهد المترجم في إعادة بناء صياغته وتوضيح عدد من المفاهيم المتضمنة إياه. قد يمثل مادة غير جديرة بالاهتمام للقاريء المبتديء، وربما غيره أيضاً سيما لو يكن عنصر التسلية ضروري بالنسبة إليه أو تعترضه فترة خمول في القراءة.
لدار الخان إصدار يقتصر على تناول الحكاية الأولى نُشر في 2018، ل��مترجم مهدي سليمان.
This story shines not in its overarching point, in the way the story is tied together at the end or anything as such, but instead in the details. Here, you’re given the opportunity to look through a window into a time that has passed, into a life likely quite different from your own. It gives you a chance to appreciate how similar certain sentiments are, while also noting how different the realization of those sentiments was in the past. The father envies the achievements of his son’s friends as he compares them to his son, but those attributes he looks for in his son are mild manner, sociability across generational lines, helping the father put on his coat. What defines a successful son has changed, but that painful feeling of seeing your son’s friends and seeing in them what you wish was in him, what you see as successful, hasn’t left us.
I just wish the window had given me more life. This was a look into life at the moment of a party, I want to know what it was like in the slow moments between momentous events, how his son dealt with that soul-crushing search for meaning in such a time, how the daughter hoped to find her own, how the father melded such soul churning realizations had on his walk into everyday life. Perhaps I want for too much, it was a good story nonetheless, slow but good.
The central character of this story is a professor, a very Thomas Mann-like professor. Everything we learn is seen through the eyes of the professor. While he is happier when left alone he knows better than to let his feelings be known. He values his reputation as a gentler, more accepting family man. Let them do their thing, that’s the best way to get back to his prized solitude. To lash out would only make things worse, so it grin and bear it and let no one know he’d rather be by himself. Being passive is infinitely better than being perceived in any way as aggressive. So he puts on a loving face.
He looks over the young guests and notes their beautiful physical features, especially the young boys rather than the girls. But, unlike the writer in Death in Venice, he knows better than to let his interest get the better of him. He does not engage them. He has his own children to be more the center of his attention.
This feels like a throwaway story that never gets going. There is no plot here, no arc. Thankfully it ends. You can take a pass on this one without missing much.
Delightful story about fatherhood and inter-generational conflict against the backdrop of the socioeconomic upheaval of Weimar in the period of great inflation.
Clearly drawn from Thomas Mann's own experience as father to six children. Mann's disappointment with elder son Klaus pours into the character of Professor Cornelius and his envy of the bright young things full of prospects and achievements in attendance at a party thrown by his elder children, where boys dance with boys, girls with girls and the doctor's young daughter with one of the male guests. Cornelius is jealous and daughter Elizabeth distraught at bedtime with puppy love.
3,5 para ser precisa. Historia de una familia donde el Doctor Cornelius nos muestra a su familia. Hijos adolescentes con sus vivencias infantiles y preadolescentes. Interesante manera de mostrarnos el comportamiento de ellos en los comienzos de la década del 20. Sus dolores y anhelos quedan expuestos en las páginas. Corta y entretenida aunque ninguna fiesta con invitados significativos ha sido mejor contada que Proust...
Stil natürlich aufgrund der zeitlichen Distanz nicht ganz einfach, aber hoher Wiedererkennungswert und Thomas Mann schafft es, eine dichte Atmosphäre zu erzeugen. Man merkt die viele Arbeit, die er in seine Werke gesteckt hat.
Love this story. It is too adorable for words. I absolutely love the contrast between the bewildered professor and his teenaged guests, and his two little ones. It is so timely and universal, although written in the 1920s. Almost 100 years ago, and it still rings true. The children are delicious. It can be read over and over again.