#DEATH IN VENICE AUTHOR SERIES#

Though it doesnвЂ™t rain, the sun rarely really shines, and Venice proves to be oppressive, almost suffocating, and the shallow, stagnant canals stink with an ever-growing cholera epidemic of which the public is largely unaware. The Adriatic is far less welcoming than the Mediterranean, and von Aschenbach has journeyed, not to a life-affirming, sun-washed landscape of health and restoration, but to a Stygian underbelly of disease and death. What von Aschenbach doesnвЂ™t realize, of course, is that Venice isnвЂ™t Capri or Sanremo or Viareggio.

Von Aschenbach believes that heвЂ™s been successful in trading chilly, northern decorum for the sunnier Dionysian hedonism of the south. Nevertheless, von Aschenbach journeys, not without some difficulty, to the Lido, VeniceвЂ™s famed beach island, where he takes up residence in the luxurious Hotel des Bains (still operating today, and yes, Mann, himself, did spend time there in 1911, but in the company of his wife and brother). Von AschenbachвЂ™s hallucination could well have been a description of Venice, herself. Although highly touted as a city of beauty and romance, Venice is also, to those who know it well, a dank and sinister place, its calli and rii filled to overflowing with darkness and decay. Recovering, von Aschenbach quickly retreats from the specterвЂ™s gaze with the desire to travelвЂ¦to Venice, of course. As he crosses a cemetery at sunset on his way back home, he encounters an apparition that is вЂњbaring his long, white teeth to the gums,вЂќ an apparition so horrifying it sends von Aschenbach into paroxysms of terror and hallucinations of вЂњa tropical quagmire beneath a steamy sky-sultry, luxuriant, and monstrousвЂќ that is filled with вЂњbeds of thick, swollen, and bizarrely burgeoning flora.вЂќ One fine day in May, von Aschenbach, who is a highly complex and complicated man, sets out from his home in Munich, overtired and overwrought, for a stroll in that cityвЂ™s famed English Gardens.

The character around whom Death in Venice revolves is Gustave von Aschenbach, a fussy, repressed, aging German writer who is possessed of a high degree of Apollonian discipline, bourgeois respectability, and dignified solemnity. In fact, Death in Venice is so rich and multi-faceted, so highly symbolic and polarized, that the definitive word regarding its many interpretations will, no doubt, never be written.

#DEATH IN VENICE AUTHOR SERIES#

Yes, Death in Venice is, most certainly, a story of homoerotic obsession, but like a series of nested Russian dolls, just when you discover one aspect of the story, you realize there is another.and another.and another. Thomas Mann rarely, if ever, wrote anything that was straightforward. Though on its surface, Death in Venice seems to be a fairly straightforward story of homoeroticism, itвЂ™s actually a dense, richly layered tale of repression, obsession, and decadence. Because the book is ninety-two years old, and a masterpiece of the Western canon, I felt most readers would be familiar with the story even if they hadnвЂ™t read the book, but to those who arenвЂ™t, and donвЂ™t want to know any plot details, it might be best to exit stage left now, i.e., skip this review. Note: This review contains information that some readers may consider plot spoilers. Book Review - Home by Marilynne Robinson.Book Review - Mysteries - The Likeness by Tana French.Book Review - The Hollywood Dodo by Geoff Nicholson.Book Review - Classics - A Passage to India by E.M.Book Review - Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons.Book Review - Nobel Winning Authors - The Piano Te.Book Review - Classics - Death in Venice by Thomas.The themes that Mann weaves through the shorter pieces come to a climax in this stunning novella, one of the most hauntingly magnificent tales of art and self-destruction ever written. In Tristan, Mann presents an ironic and comic account of the tension between an artist and bourgeois society.ДЄll seven of these stories are accomplished and memorable, but it is Death in Venice that truly forms the centerpiece of the collection. In Gladius Dei, puritanical intellect clashes with beauty. In Little Herr Friedemann, a characterвЂ™s carefully structured way of life is suddenly threatened by an unexpected sexual passion. In these stories he began to grapple with themes that were to recur throughout his work. These seven stories represent MannвЂ™s early writing career and a level of literary quality Mann himself despaired of ever again matching. This superb translation of Death in Venice and six other stories by Thomas Mann is a tour de force, deserving to be the definitive text for English-speaking readers.

Death in venice author