NOTE: Some plot points are discussed in my review. One of the Great Novellas of the 20th Century Topical Listening During the 2020 Corona Virus Pandemic So, perhaps, I am ready for Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family. We all would be so lucky if our passions destroyed us, perhaps. I love the idea of Aschenbach's obscession overtaking him and ultimately (perhaps?) destroying him. I don't read German and have only read ONE translation, but I loved Heim's take. So, how was this translation? I don't know. Gustav von Aschenbach will appear the fool to some or an artist gripped by obscession and passion by others. Different translators are going to experience Mann's Death in Venice in different ways. Even the same work, read by the same reader at different times (think King Lear) will feel different to the reader at different stages and ages. Both imperfect, both carrying their own history. All works differ, since they all are impacted by writer and reader. First, the introduction by Michael Cunningham is a fantastic introduction of the difficulties associated with translation. So, finding myself in a position where I really felt I could delay no longer, I started with his shorter work - Death in Venice.

For me he has sat waiting like a distant leviathan or like death.

I own a bunch of his works, in various translation, but keep finding reasons to walk another road, skip ahead, fall behhind. But solitude also produces perverseness, the disproportionate, the absurd, and the forbidden.” ― Thomas Mann, Death in Venice I've been intimidated by Mann. “Solitude produces originality, bold & astonishing beauty, poetry.

Author of death in venice