GermanLitMonth 2025 Death in Venice (novella)
by 
Thomas Mann
Finish date: 01.11.2025
Genre: novella
Rating: A
#GermanLitMonth 2025 – #NovNov25
Good News:
Death in Venice is a novella by German author Thomas Mann, published in 1912. It presents an ennobled writer who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a boy in a family of Polish tourists—Tadzio, a nickname for Tadeusz. Tadzio was likely based on a boy named Władzio whom Mann had observed during his 1911 visit to the city.
Personal: The tension in the novella b/t order and passion begins in chapter one. It starts with a slow pace while Von Aschenbach walks through the empty and somber streets of Munich (order). Suddenly he has the desire to travel (passion). With each chapter Mann accelerates the plot building suspense and tension. We want to know how Von Aschenbach’s stalking of the young boy will end! Somebody is going to die….but who?
Last thoughts: Perhaps not a book that everybody will like….but it is a classic and Thomas Mann is one of the greatest writers of 20th Century !
NancyElin.blog 
Sounds good! Only Mann I’ve read is Buddenbrooks, which I loved.
It was a quick read with plenty of depth. but not overdone. I want to read the new biography (…as soon as it is translated) by Tilmann Lahme (ISBN: 9783423447898) Thomas Mann: Ein Leben that was published May 2025. It will shed more light on the man and his writing.
Two challenges with one post! Well done.
Trying to use my reading time as efficiently as possible during this very busy reading month!