Status
Available
Genres
Publication
New York, A. A. Knopf, 1938.
Description
A Major Literary Event: a brilliant new translation of Thomas Mann's first great novel, one of the two for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1929. Buddenbrooks, first published in Germany in 1900, when Mann was only twenty-five, has become a classic of modem literature -- the story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany. With consummate skill, Mann draws a rounded picture of middle-class life: births and christenings; marriages, divorces, and deaths; successes and failures. These commonplace occurrences, intrinsically the same, vary slightly as they recur in each succeeding generation. Yet as the Buddenbrooks family eventually succumbs to the seductions of modernity -- seductions that are at variance with its own traditions -- its downfall becomes certain. In immensity of scope, richness of detail, and fullness of humanity, Buddenbrooks surpasses all other modem family chronicles; it has, indeed, proved a model for most of them. Judged as the greatest of Mann's novels by some critics, it is ranked as among the greatest by all. Thomas Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member thorold
Definitely one of the great novels, but it takes a long time before you really see where it's taking you. Mann feeds you an enormous quantity of fine detail about bourgeois life, business practices, and values in Lübeck in the second half of the 19th century, until you feel you could have a stab
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at buying and selling corn yourself, or you start to think that you're stuck in a Zola novel where — inexplicably — no-one has yet gone mad and committed a violent crime. But then in the last hundred pages we get Thomas Buddenbrooks's Schopenhauer epiphany and Hanno's day at school, and suddenly the sane, orderly realism of the preceding chapters is destabilised and you're forced to look back at them from a very 20th-century perspective. Quite a different sort of reading experience from the in-your-face philosophical debate of late Mann, and quite a different style of writing too, but extremely rewarding. Show Less
LibraryThing member technodiabla
I found this book to be surprisingly readable considering it's age (I read the original English translation). Also, considering the plot was just basic life events it was a real page turner. The character development is sublime throughout.
The best thing about Buddenbrooks though is the interesting
The best thing about Buddenbrooks though is the interesting
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perspective into family decline and societal evolution. If you try and find the parallels in today's world, in your own family, it is very eye-opening. Mann finds and reveals so many timeless truths. Some passages are worth re-reading, even commiting to memory. I highly recommend this book to anyone-- do not be put off the length, age, or origin. This book is for everyone and very accessible. Show Less
LibraryThing member Miguelnunonave
As the (sub-)title implies, this is the story of the decadence of a family. Thomas Mann is one of the greatest German writers of the XXth century. The characters description is flawless and there is probably no better novel on the city of Lübeck. The book is full of northern German, hanseatic,
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Prussian rational mentality and, yet, it is equally sad and moving. Show Less
LibraryThing member carioca
The audacity - to review Mann's Buddenbrooks. I adore this book, and I still can't shake the revelatory feeling I got while reading it for the first time back in my teens. Because of Buddenbrooks, Thomas Mann became fast one of my favorite authors. And that is easy to understand - judging by my
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library choices, it is clear I have a preference for generational novels, family sagas and German literature in general. I just love the descriptions, the subtle eloquence (ok, that's borderline oxymoronic - and now neologistic!! - but that is how I felt about it), the restraint, the convoluted emotions, the complicated relationship with the German state and so on. What more could I possibly say? This is one of the greatest works of literature and I could never imagine owning a book collection that did not include this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member jwhenderson
Before there was The Magic Mountain and before Death in Venice Thomas Mann gained critical acclaim for Buddenbrooks. It is a long, beautifully written account of a declining bourgeois family, that some have suggested was inspired by his reading of Tolstoy among others. While the book has lighter
When we first meet the family one is immediately impressed by their conservatism and traditional ways. It is set in the 1830s in a northern German trading city and the fine mansion where they live and everything else about them exudes the feeling of haute bourgeoisie. The central characters are introduced, Johann and Elisabeth the father and mother with three children, Antonie (Tony), Thomas, and his younger brother Christian. It is their lives that form the center of the story for the first half of the novel.
With Thomas Mann every detail is important, so as time goes by (and it seems to fly by decade after decade) the background of the changes resulting from both the Industrial Revolution and the politics of the German states is as important as the family social struggles. And struggles they have as the Grandfather dies and the firm passes on to Johann who too few years later passes the firm on to his eldest son Thomas. If there is one central figure in the family saga it is TOny who first marries an older man rather than her young love as her father demands only to see that marriage end in divorce due to the bankruptcy of her husband who (wrongly) assumed the Buddenbrook family would bail him out. I hope you are beginning to get a feeling for the theme of decline.
Buddenbrooks reminds me a bit of Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, a noel about another family who fails to change with the times and struggles to maintain their social standing. Mann's satirical side is borought home often and is best seen in a set piece when the workers challenge the leaders of the Town. The mini-revolt (it pales in comparison to the real revolution of 1848) is defused by Consul Johann while one of the town elders is parodied as he shows more concern for his carriage than anything the workers (who like children should be silent) might have to say.
One of the keenest issues for me is the position of women in the Buddenbrooks family and society in general. That is the lack of standing and choice that they have. This is evident not only in Tony's failed marriages (she has a second divorce before the midpoint in the novel) but also in other female members of the family, particularly Tony's younger sister Clara who is considered unmarriageable until a Minister, Sievert Tiburtius, takes an interest in her. Most woman in this society are prepared for nothing in life with limited choices and the prospect of life as second class citizens.
Throughout the novel Mann develops themes through the use of lietmotifs. These stem from his admiration for the operas of Richard Wagner, in the case of Buddenbrooks an example can be found in the description of the color – blue and yellow, respectively – of the skin and the teeth of the characters. Each such description alludes to different states of health, personality and even the destiny of the characters.
Aspects of Thomas Mann's own personality are manifest in the two brothers, Thomas and Christian, whose find it difficult to live together. Christian is much the free spirit who cannot be happy working in the family firm, the leadership of which Thomas has inherited as the eldest son. It should not be considered a coincidence that Mann shared the same first name with one of them. The influence of Schopenhauer is also present and it is through the brothers that both Buddenbrooks reflect a conflict lived by the author: departure from a conventional bourgeois life to pursue an artistic one, although without rejecting bourgeois ethics.
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moments it is overwhelmingly bleak. The Buddenbrooks' family success is behind them and there are few of the current and upcoming generations that are up to the task of maintaining the family much less improving it.When we first meet the family one is immediately impressed by their conservatism and traditional ways. It is set in the 1830s in a northern German trading city and the fine mansion where they live and everything else about them exudes the feeling of haute bourgeoisie. The central characters are introduced, Johann and Elisabeth the father and mother with three children, Antonie (Tony), Thomas, and his younger brother Christian. It is their lives that form the center of the story for the first half of the novel.
With Thomas Mann every detail is important, so as time goes by (and it seems to fly by decade after decade) the background of the changes resulting from both the Industrial Revolution and the politics of the German states is as important as the family social struggles. And struggles they have as the Grandfather dies and the firm passes on to Johann who too few years later passes the firm on to his eldest son Thomas. If there is one central figure in the family saga it is TOny who first marries an older man rather than her young love as her father demands only to see that marriage end in divorce due to the bankruptcy of her husband who (wrongly) assumed the Buddenbrook family would bail him out. I hope you are beginning to get a feeling for the theme of decline.
Buddenbrooks reminds me a bit of Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons, a noel about another family who fails to change with the times and struggles to maintain their social standing. Mann's satirical side is borought home often and is best seen in a set piece when the workers challenge the leaders of the Town. The mini-revolt (it pales in comparison to the real revolution of 1848) is defused by Consul Johann while one of the town elders is parodied as he shows more concern for his carriage than anything the workers (who like children should be silent) might have to say.
One of the keenest issues for me is the position of women in the Buddenbrooks family and society in general. That is the lack of standing and choice that they have. This is evident not only in Tony's failed marriages (she has a second divorce before the midpoint in the novel) but also in other female members of the family, particularly Tony's younger sister Clara who is considered unmarriageable until a Minister, Sievert Tiburtius, takes an interest in her. Most woman in this society are prepared for nothing in life with limited choices and the prospect of life as second class citizens.
Throughout the novel Mann develops themes through the use of lietmotifs. These stem from his admiration for the operas of Richard Wagner, in the case of Buddenbrooks an example can be found in the description of the color – blue and yellow, respectively – of the skin and the teeth of the characters. Each such description alludes to different states of health, personality and even the destiny of the characters.
Aspects of Thomas Mann's own personality are manifest in the two brothers, Thomas and Christian, whose find it difficult to live together. Christian is much the free spirit who cannot be happy working in the family firm, the leadership of which Thomas has inherited as the eldest son. It should not be considered a coincidence that Mann shared the same first name with one of them. The influence of Schopenhauer is also present and it is through the brothers that both Buddenbrooks reflect a conflict lived by the author: departure from a conventional bourgeois life to pursue an artistic one, although without rejecting bourgeois ethics.
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LibraryThing member Laiane
After seeing a reference to this book -- not once but twice -- from a blogger whose literary opinions I respect highly, I decided to take the plunge and buy this in hardcover. My experience with German lit is slender, but I'm so glad I decided to read Buddenbrooks! I was impressed by the
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psychological detail of the characters. The chapters of the family Christmas and Hanno's school day are nothing short of stunning. A classic, truly. Show Less
LibraryThing member ElenaDanielson
Given the subtitle (Verfall einer Familie/Decline of a Family), reviewers don't need to worry about spoilers. The real surprise is that a book with this gloomy subtitle and written by someone in his early twenties has engaged so many readers for so many decades, even readers who don't much care for
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German literature in general. Why do so many readers get wrapped up in the problems of Tony and Tom when you know in advance it will not end well? Some reviewers called it a soap opera, and there is a certain soap quality to it. You want to shake Tony and say "don't marry that guy" not once, but twice..actually with her daughter's husband, three times....There is also a fairy tale quality to it. Gerda, Tom's beautiful distant wife, is an ice queen who watches with benign indifference as things fall apart one step at a time. There is even the hint of a fairy tale curse. Tom abandons his sweet florist shop girl Anna to marry aristocratic Gerda for practical financial and class reasons. When Tom constructs an ostentatious house for his family, he compliments Iwersen the florist for the magnificent decoration at the party for the construction workers. Iwersen explains that his wife Anna made the floral decorations for the new house. In parts of norther Europe construction parties have a sense of blessing the house and warding off evil by making the workers happy. You get the feeling Tom doing Anna wrong does not placate bad spirits...The earnest med student Morten from a working class family is the only man Tony ever loved. At the seashore he has to wait for her sitting "on the rocks" while she talks to her fancy friends in the pavilion. Then her father forces her to give Morten up for an oily repulsive business associate, who it turns out is colluding others to drain the Buddenbrook wealth. The most horrific scene, Tony in the arms of the disgusting Bendix Gruenlich, is left completely off stage. When it comes to the inevitable end, Tony says to Tom that she's sitting "on the rocks". The story comes to its conclusion at a crucial time in German history. Mann provides precise dates, some before unification in 1870, at the end just afterwards. He only obliquely alludes to unification and only mentions Bismarck once, but I suspect a German reader would be more attuned to the momentous events taking place off stage. Business practices change with economic integration, and the Buddenbrooks are easily swindled because of their old fashioned way with transactions. There are very subtle references to technological change as oil lamps on chains across the street are replaced by gas lights, and at the end the servants' bell pulls are replaced by electric buzzers. Long rides in horse drawn carriages are described in loving detail, and at the end Gerda goes home to her father in Amsterdam on a train. The horrific final scene of Hanno's agony at school takes place under the rule of a new Prussian school director. The old gentler director who governed the school when his father and grandfather were children has died and been replaced. There is just one paragraph in the school scene that explicitly mentions how unification and military success have ushered in an era of harsh manners and bravado, an era Hanno just does not want to live in. His soul mate Kai is a writer and so we can hope Kai will tell Hanno's story...and Anna prepares the floral arrangements for Tom's funeral. She has children, the oldest is old enough to be Tom's child. Show Less
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
I wished that this book had no ending, that it could have continued on and on, because no other book I have read in ages felt so satisfying. Mann's exploration of a Lubeck merchant family is so involved, and so passionate, and so sad.
LibraryThing member Coffeehag
This is a really oppressive book.
LibraryThing member Leonard_Seet
Thomas Buddenbrook was a businessman, who followed in the family’s bourgeoisie pragmatism and achieved moderate success. But his brother Christian was the prodigal son, who squandered time and money in theater. And Thomas’s son Hanno, escaped harsh reality into the world of music. The conflict
The reader sees the family’s decline in Christian’s worsening pain, in Thomas’s gloom, in Hanno’s unhealthy teeth, and in the failed marriages of Tony, Thomas’s sister. Although Tony tried to leverage her and her daughter’s marriages to uplift the family status, their failures pointed toward the finale, where Christian was permanently institutionalize and Hanno died without children. Not only had the wealthy dissipated, but also there was no heir.
Buddenbrooks is a monumental family saga.
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between the pragmatic and the ideal, reflected Thomas Mann’s struggles, and would surface again in The Magic Mountain. The reader sees the family’s decline in Christian’s worsening pain, in Thomas’s gloom, in Hanno’s unhealthy teeth, and in the failed marriages of Tony, Thomas’s sister. Although Tony tried to leverage her and her daughter’s marriages to uplift the family status, their failures pointed toward the finale, where Christian was permanently institutionalize and Hanno died without children. Not only had the wealthy dissipated, but also there was no heir.
Buddenbrooks is a monumental family saga.
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LibraryThing member Schmerguls
I read this book in December 1951. On Dec 19 I said of it: "Buddenbrooks is really good. In its way, of course. He is not at all overdevelped and so the shortcomings of the 1900 novel are not so apparent. Furthermore, being translated from the German helps a lot. There is a quaintness that is quite
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redeeming, though one can't feel very greatly for the aristocratic family." On Dec 22 I said: "Quite a book, written differently tfrom anything I've read before. The characters are all upper-class people and I can't rationally be concerned when they don't make too much money, etc. But yet, such is influenceability by the author that insticnctively I react as intended, with sympathy. Senator Tom Buddenbrook has just died and the only carefully delineated characters living are Antonie and Hanno, Tom's son. Antonie is his twice-divorced sister, whose daughter, Erica's husband, was imprisoned and then left her. But what is to become of the business? Hanno can't possibly take it over--nor Christian, Tom's brother. If Marcus runs it it will surely die. Will it be sold out--to Hegstrom? It is a fascinating story, better--though of a different type--than The Forsyte Saga--but not as good as Kristen Lavransdatter. But, then, Kristen has assumed to me such a classic greatness based on my knowledge of my reaction at the time I read it. Whether my ascribal of greatness is objectively valid could, I suppose, be questioned. " On Dec 23 I said: (SPOILER) "The book is very good; it became more detailed towards the end, portraYing Hanno as 15 very well. The Senator's will had the business sold. Hanno died of typhoid in his teens and the book ended, with the family as good as finished. Christian was in a crazy house, Antoine, 50, was still alive and herself, but to what she had fallen! The book was seldom joyful, more bad than good in the fortunes of the family. A noble book, grandioSe, and deserving of the accolades it has won. I did not get The Magic Mountain next as I did not want to satiate myself on Mann, after the graNdeur of this book has faded I'll read The Magic Mountain, but not now. Show Less
LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
To sum up Buddenbrooks it is a four-generational story about the downfall of a middle class family. There is no storyline other than following the lives of the Buddenbrooks from 1835 to 1977. The Buddenbrooks are a typical family. They have their problems like everyone else. Faulty business deals,
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unstable health, failed marriages, partnerships made and broken. My favorite parts involved daughter Tony and her relationships with her family and the men who pursued her. The way her father simultaneously protects her and throws her to the wolves is eyebrow raising, but pretty typical of a father-know-best attitude. Show Less
LibraryThing member theageofsilt
It's a slog at the beginning. The novel concerns a prosperous German family so wrapped up in business and family honor that it becomes their downfall. The characters are beautiful realized and there are many vivid moments. There is an exquisite description of the family Christmas that I
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particularly enjoyed. I do believe that Mann, like so many writers of the period, equates creativity and an artistic temperament with physical weakness. This is not a book for those who like a lively plot, but rather a study of character and the times as capitalism rises Godzilla-like to dominate the world. Show Less
LibraryThing member libraryhermit
I was saddened as I read of the decline of the family described in this novel. When the older man dies from diabetes, I found that depressing. I understood that this was before the discovery of insulin therapy, and presumably he was an adult-onset diabetic. Any child would die within weeks or
I have read comments about the style of prose of Thomas Mann. Even though the translation into English was of the finest, I would still like read Thomas Mann in German to get the full impact of his prosody. I cannot put my finger on it exactly, but there is something unique about the German idiom that is unavailable to me as an English reader. Must bring out my high school German tutors and get back at them.
We always hear about the mood of Germany from 1870 up to 1914. I wonder what it was really like. Reading books like this one is what can really make that period come alive. Will try to read this one again, and then contrast it with the Joseph and His Brothers tetralogy.
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months of the onset of diabetes. I have read comments about the style of prose of Thomas Mann. Even though the translation into English was of the finest, I would still like read Thomas Mann in German to get the full impact of his prosody. I cannot put my finger on it exactly, but there is something unique about the German idiom that is unavailable to me as an English reader. Must bring out my high school German tutors and get back at them.
We always hear about the mood of Germany from 1870 up to 1914. I wonder what it was really like. Reading books like this one is what can really make that period come alive. Will try to read this one again, and then contrast it with the Joseph and His Brothers tetralogy.
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LibraryThing member ErnestHemingway
"Have read... the 1st Vol. of Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann... Buddenbrooks is a pretty damned good book. If he were a great writer it would be swell. When you think a book like that was published in 1902 and unknown in English until last year it makes you have even less respect, if you ever had any,
Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
Selected Letters, pg. 176
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for people getting stirred up over... all the books your boy friend Menken [H.L. Mencken] has gotten excited about just because they happen to deal with the much abused Am. Scene."Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
Selected Letters, pg. 176
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LibraryThing member ErnestHemingway
"Have read... the 1st Vol. of Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann... Buddenbrooks is a pretty damned good book. If he were a great writer it would be swell. When you think a book like that was published in 1902 and unknown in English until last year it makes you have even less respect, if you ever had any,
Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
Selected Letters, pg. 176
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for people getting stirred up over... all the books your boy friend Menken [H.L. Mencken] has gotten excited about just because they happen to deal with the much abused Am. Scene."Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
Selected Letters, pg. 176
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LibraryThing member Arctic-Stranger
Ok, so this is a "great" novel. They even made a mini-series out of it for Public TV. So let's just assume it is a work of genius, and then we dont have to subject ourselves to the neverending sinking story of this German family.
LibraryThing member WrathofAchilles
Perfectly titled. Mann is a fine portraitist. Like Brideshead Revisited, the advance of democracy, commerce, and learning has no care for the beautiful but useless.
LibraryThing member pauliensijbers
Living with this family for a while makes you never want to part from them.
LibraryThing member williecostello
Buddenbrooks is a dull novel, but wonderful nonetheless. There are no great conflicts in its 700 pages, no grand plot twists, no suspense. Action unfolds, but slowly and without sensation. And yet, the book is hard to put down. Mann's portraits of his characters––especially those of Thomas,
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Christian, and Tony––are just so vivid, so artfully done. The entire cast of characters feels remarkably real, as do the city and spaces they occupy. And though Buddenbrooks is not a novel of ideas, either, Mann displays his wisdom throughout: his perceptive observations of everyday behaviour, his understanding of the inner workings and effects of society, and his keen apprehension of personality. This is realism as its finest, and John E. Woods' translation makes the novel shine even brighter. Show Less
LibraryThing member skavlanj
A Book Set In A Different Country
Buddenbrooks is the multi-generational tale of the of the eponymous merchant class family in northern Germany during the mid-1800s. The novel centers around the lives of the third generation of Buddenbrooks: Thomas, his brother Christian and their sister Tony. This
Despite its length, Thomas Mann's debut novel engagingly portrays the rise and decline of the family as it navigates the changing social customs of an industrializing Germany. Mann refreshingly avoids interjecting authorial commentary, instead allowing his narrative to depict the wisdom or foolishness of the business and marital decisions which bring about the Buddenbrook's many misfortunes. Thomas' misplaced reliance on appearances rather than competency and his inadequacies as a father which result in the lack of a suitable successor to the family business. Christian's unsuitability for work in the family business and his decadent lifestyle. Tony's arranged marriage to a swindling, much older man she does not love. Her subsequent marriage to a man whose cultural inadequacies doom this relationship. Her daughter's unfortunate marriage to a man brought down by the disfavor of his enemies.
Buddenbrooks is an absorbing yet ultimately discouraging portrait of a family's dissolution amidst a changing environment in what for them must have also felt like a story set in a different country.
Buddenbrooks is the multi-generational tale of the of the eponymous merchant class family in northern Germany during the mid-1800s. The novel centers around the lives of the third generation of Buddenbrooks: Thomas, his brother Christian and their sister Tony. This
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generation encompasses both the pinnacle of the family's success and its tragic downfall. Each child is an archetype: Thomas, the tradition-oriented businessman and politician, Christian, the self-indulgent, hard-living ne'er-do-well, and Tony, the obedient daughter obsessively protective of the family's honor.Despite its length, Thomas Mann's debut novel engagingly portrays the rise and decline of the family as it navigates the changing social customs of an industrializing Germany. Mann refreshingly avoids interjecting authorial commentary, instead allowing his narrative to depict the wisdom or foolishness of the business and marital decisions which bring about the Buddenbrook's many misfortunes. Thomas' misplaced reliance on appearances rather than competency and his inadequacies as a father which result in the lack of a suitable successor to the family business. Christian's unsuitability for work in the family business and his decadent lifestyle. Tony's arranged marriage to a swindling, much older man she does not love. Her subsequent marriage to a man whose cultural inadequacies doom this relationship. Her daughter's unfortunate marriage to a man brought down by the disfavor of his enemies.
Buddenbrooks is an absorbing yet ultimately discouraging portrait of a family's dissolution amidst a changing environment in what for them must have also felt like a story set in a different country.
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LibraryThing member Luli81
"Life was harsh: and business, with its ruthless unsentimentality, was an epitome of life." (Buddenbrooks, p.363)
Had I been told that an objective, even detached depiction of the downfall of a merchant family in a North-German town in the nineteenth century would shake me they way Buddenbrooks has
Told in an omniscient, impartial voice and taking for background the first symptoms of major social and economic changes in Germany on its way into 20th Century modernity and uncertainty, Mann opens the narration with an opulent banquet in 1835 where the three generation of Buddendbrooks are celebrating their social and economic prominence and future prospects. Mann describes their world in detail and masterly pictures the characters with all their hopes, fears and ambitions, all this in a brilliantly flowing language.
The story mainly follows two of the children: Thomas, the crown prince who has been prepared to take over the firm and to become the future ruling man in the family, and his beautiful sister Antoine, a spoiled, naive creature with bourgeois airs but good-natured heart who will see her life expectations vanish and her dreams disappear as years go by.
While Thomas embodies the vitality, strength and vigor of a prosperous, responsible merchant of the time, his hypochondriac, indolent brother Christian and eventually Thomas’ introverted and frail son, Hanno, fail their merchant inheritance in allowing their artistic vocation to prevail over their duty to the firm, condemning the Buddenbrook name into oblivion.
In this sense, Mann sets the tone for some themes in his forthcoming works, one of them being the refined and sophisticated artistic attitude opposed to the simple, healthy and pragmatic life of a merchant family, a poignant subject in this novel and one which could also have reminiscences of his own personal experience.
Although Mann treats his characters lovingly he always keeps in an ironic distance which reminds the reader that the fate of the Buddenbrooks is a sealed one and that, like in life, eventual decay and ultimate death can’t be prevented. And this natural cycle of ups and downs both of the firm and the family, for they are bound together, is precisely what makes possible that a naturalistic story such as this one could reach one’s soul and fill it with wonder with its delicate and effortless language.
In the end, nothing is left, no grand house, no flourishing firm, no prominent family. The Buddenbrooks sink back into meaninglessness. Only an old volume with the genealogy of the whole family remains, echo of a long gone world and the only proof of what once was and never will be again.
But with the end comes freedom.
"Was not every human being a mistake and a blunder? Was he not in painful arrest from the hour of his birth? Prison, prison, bonds and limitations everywhere! The human being stares hopelessly through the barred window of his personality at the high walls of outward circumstances, till Death and calls him home to freedom!" (p.506)
Had I been told that an objective, even detached depiction of the downfall of a merchant family in a North-German town in the nineteenth century would shake me they way Buddenbrooks has
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shaken me, I wouldn't have believed it possible. But what I find most impacting is that even though I was prepared to witness the much forewarned decline of this family I was swept away completely all the same by the pragmatic but intense tone of the narrative which stirred unintended, troubled feelings in me.Told in an omniscient, impartial voice and taking for background the first symptoms of major social and economic changes in Germany on its way into 20th Century modernity and uncertainty, Mann opens the narration with an opulent banquet in 1835 where the three generation of Buddendbrooks are celebrating their social and economic prominence and future prospects. Mann describes their world in detail and masterly pictures the characters with all their hopes, fears and ambitions, all this in a brilliantly flowing language.
The story mainly follows two of the children: Thomas, the crown prince who has been prepared to take over the firm and to become the future ruling man in the family, and his beautiful sister Antoine, a spoiled, naive creature with bourgeois airs but good-natured heart who will see her life expectations vanish and her dreams disappear as years go by.
While Thomas embodies the vitality, strength and vigor of a prosperous, responsible merchant of the time, his hypochondriac, indolent brother Christian and eventually Thomas’ introverted and frail son, Hanno, fail their merchant inheritance in allowing their artistic vocation to prevail over their duty to the firm, condemning the Buddenbrook name into oblivion.
In this sense, Mann sets the tone for some themes in his forthcoming works, one of them being the refined and sophisticated artistic attitude opposed to the simple, healthy and pragmatic life of a merchant family, a poignant subject in this novel and one which could also have reminiscences of his own personal experience.
Although Mann treats his characters lovingly he always keeps in an ironic distance which reminds the reader that the fate of the Buddenbrooks is a sealed one and that, like in life, eventual decay and ultimate death can’t be prevented. And this natural cycle of ups and downs both of the firm and the family, for they are bound together, is precisely what makes possible that a naturalistic story such as this one could reach one’s soul and fill it with wonder with its delicate and effortless language.
In the end, nothing is left, no grand house, no flourishing firm, no prominent family. The Buddenbrooks sink back into meaninglessness. Only an old volume with the genealogy of the whole family remains, echo of a long gone world and the only proof of what once was and never will be again.
But with the end comes freedom.
"Was not every human being a mistake and a blunder? Was he not in painful arrest from the hour of his birth? Prison, prison, bonds and limitations everywhere! The human being stares hopelessly through the barred window of his personality at the high walls of outward circumstances, till Death and calls him home to freedom!" (p.506)
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LibraryThing member patience_crabstick
My first Thomas Mann novel. I loved it. A long, delicious soap-opera of a novel. There's a more extensive review at my xanga site (Daylily02) date January 3, 2007.
LibraryThing member chrisblocker
Buddenbrooks is not a book I would've likely noticed or picked up had it not been for an invitation from the Thomas Mann group. German literature has never attracted me and Thomas Mann was among that class of authors whose work, I felt, was probably more effort that it was enjoyable. (He had that
What I most appreciated about Mann's writing was his use of description. I'm not a big fan of descriptive passages, authors that drone on and on about the shape of the table and how the hands of a grandfather clock move. Normally, I find it irrelevant, tiring, and detrimental to the forward movement of the plot. But Mann succeeds in this regard. His descriptions give life to the story. It paints the background and sets the stage for the scene. Colors and props become meaningful to the theme. In fact, I think it would be easy to say that his scenery is a character of its own.
Aside from scenery, excellent characters were also found in Toni and Hanno. Both were developed wonderfully, and I looked forward to their every scene. I think I could've like Christian had he been similarly developed, but he was more of a plot device than a character. Unfortunately for me, a large part of the novel focused on Thomas and I was never able to connect with him. By the novel's conclusion, I was completely ambivalent toward his character.
In the end, I enjoyed Buddenbrooks greatly. There were moments I lost interest, particularly when Thomas was at the center, but this did not take away from the grand setting and story that made this novel fabulous. Thank you, Thomas Mann, for reminding me not to make assumptions.
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look about him, okay?) So I made some assumptions based on nothing, so what? Had it not been for the subtitle of the book, “The Decline of a Family,” I probably still would be ignorant of Mann's abilities; but that subtitle pulled me in—I wanted to know more about this family tragedy. I'm glad Mann included it as part of his title.What I most appreciated about Mann's writing was his use of description. I'm not a big fan of descriptive passages, authors that drone on and on about the shape of the table and how the hands of a grandfather clock move. Normally, I find it irrelevant, tiring, and detrimental to the forward movement of the plot. But Mann succeeds in this regard. His descriptions give life to the story. It paints the background and sets the stage for the scene. Colors and props become meaningful to the theme. In fact, I think it would be easy to say that his scenery is a character of its own.
Aside from scenery, excellent characters were also found in Toni and Hanno. Both were developed wonderfully, and I looked forward to their every scene. I think I could've like Christian had he been similarly developed, but he was more of a plot device than a character. Unfortunately for me, a large part of the novel focused on Thomas and I was never able to connect with him. By the novel's conclusion, I was completely ambivalent toward his character.
In the end, I enjoyed Buddenbrooks greatly. There were moments I lost interest, particularly when Thomas was at the center, but this did not take away from the grand setting and story that made this novel fabulous. Thank you, Thomas Mann, for reminding me not to make assumptions.
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LibraryThing member mbmackay
My first novel by Manne, and his first published novel.
Set in the mid 1800s, the book tells the story of a leading business family in a small regional town in what is now northern Germany. I found it fascinating - the characters believably fallible, and set in a rich background of town and
It made me realise how little I know of that place and time.
It also made me wonder why I couldn't think of an English language twin - what 19th century English books are centred on the business class? From Austen to Hardy, they all seem to focus on the clergy, landholders, or the aristocracy. Dickens covered the disadvantaged - but who wrote about the families driving the industrial revolution?
Set in the mid 1800s, the book tells the story of a leading business family in a small regional town in what is now northern Germany. I found it fascinating - the characters believably fallible, and set in a rich background of town and
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commercial life. It made me realise how little I know of that place and time.
It also made me wonder why I couldn't think of an English language twin - what 19th century English books are centred on the business class? From Austen to Hardy, they all seem to focus on the clergy, landholders, or the aristocracy. Dickens covered the disadvantaged - but who wrote about the families driving the industrial revolution?
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Subjects
Awards
Nobel Prize in Literature (1929)