Thomas Mann

Ny gavebogsudgave. Døden i Venedig er fortællingen om den berømte, midaldrende forfatter Gustav von Aschenbach, der på en rejse til Venedig forelsker sig i den unge, smukke dreng Tadzio, som bor på det samme hotel. Han ved, at følelsen er forbudt, men han er ikke i stand til at tøjle sine drifter, og forelskelsen bliver en besættelse, som i sidste ende fører til døden. Med sit nådesløse portræt af den gamle mands håbløse længsel, sat i en kulisse af en døende by og en døende tid og fortalt i et fuldstændig overlegent sprog, hæver Døden i Venedig sig stadig som en af de allerstørste moderne klassikere.

Gregorius synes fra fødslen dømt til en uhellig skæbne: Han er nemlig barn af et incestuøst søskendeforhold og ender, trods sine forsøg på at hæve sig over sit ophav, med selv at reproducere samme synd. Ganske uvidende om deres familieforhold, bliver han gift og får børn med sin biologiske mor. Men selv denne grotesk-nedarvede, skyldløse synd ændrer ikke ved, at Gregorius er den guddommeligt udvalgte, der ad de mest snørklede stier som pave skal føre kirken ind i en ny tid. Den Udvalgte er et sent mesterværk af den aldrende Mann. Her gennemspiller han i et lystigt, til tider nærmest komisk tonefald, forfatterskabets grundtema: Skæbnens og de hylende drifters evige triumf over det civiliserede liv. Men også det enestående individs mulighed for med sin charme og kløgt at puste moral og fremskridt ind i verden. En stor og kompleks fortælling om skyld og nåde, synd og tilgivelse. Denne bog er oversat af Per Øhrgaard.

Tomas Mann byl odnim iz tekh redkikh pisatelej, kotorym v ravnoj stepeni udavalis proizvedenija i bolshikh, i malykh form. Prichem esli v ego romanakh soderzhanie tjagotelo nad formoj, to v rasskazakh forma i soderzhanie nakhodilis v sovershennoj garmonii. "Malye" proizvedenija, voshedshie v etot sbornik, otnosjatsja k raznym periodam tvorchestva Manna. Sredi nikh i povest "Smert v Venetsii" - svoeobraznaja "vizitnaja kartochka" Manna-rasskazchika. Chasche vsego sjuzhety ikh neslozhny - ljubov i razocharovanie, ozhidanie chuda i skuka povsednevnosti, zhazhda zhizni i utrata illjuzij, prinosjaschaja s soboj bol i mudrost zhiznennogo opyta. Odnako imenno prostota sjuzheta podcherkivaet i velikolepie jazyka avtora, i tonkost stilja, i psikhologicheskuju glubinu.Perevodchik: Man Natalija, Apt Solomon Konstantinovich, Kurella Valentina Nikolaevna

Zhemchuzhina tvorcheskogo nasledija Tomasa Manna. Edva li ne luchshij roman v zhanre "semejnoj sagi" nemetskojazychnoj prozy. Istorija vzleta i padenija bogatoj i moguschestvennoj semi Budenbrok, na pervyj vzgljad slovno voploschajuschej v sebe ideal germanskikh dobrodetelej. Istorija trekh pokolenij predstavitelej etogo klana - ot vlastnogo i bezzhalostnogo patriarkha do ego vnukov, uzhe podverzhennykh vsem porokam i slabostjam intellektualov. Istorija ljubvi i predatelstv, vrazhdy i intrig, borby i zavisti, isstuplennoj strasti - i zhguchej nenavisti...Perevodchik: Globa A., Man Natalija

Mann's original intention was to write about "passion as confusion and degradation" after having been fascinated by the true story of Goethe's love for 18-year-old Baroness Ulrike von Levetzow, which had led Goethe to write his "Marienbad Elegy". The May 1911 death of composer Gustav Mahler in Vienna and Mann's interest in the boy Wladzio during summer 1911 vacation in Venice were additional experiences occupying his thoughts. He used the story to illuminate certain convictions about the relationship between life and mind, with Aschenbach representing the intellect. Mann also was influenced by Sigmund Freud and his views on dreams as well as by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who had visited Venice several times.The novella is rife with allusions from antiquity forward, especially to Greek antiquity and to German works (literary, art-historical, musical, visual) from the 18th century.The novella is intertextual, with the chief sources being first the connection of erotic love to philosophical wisdom traced in Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus, and second the Nietzschean contrast between Apollo, the god of restraint and shaping form, and Dionysus, the god of excess and passion. The trope of placing classical deities in contemporary settings was popular at the time when Mann was writing Death in Venice.Aschenbach's name and character may be inspired by the homosexual German poet August von Platen-Hallerm nde. There are allusions to his poems about Venice in the novella, and like Aschenbach, he died of cholera on an Italian island. Aschenbach's first name is almost an anagram of August, and the character's last name may be derived from Ansbach, Platen's birthplace. However, the name has another clear significance: Aschenbach literally means "ash brook".

O stora nya tid! tänker jag. Man lägger sig i denna säng precis som hemma, den skakar lite genom natten, och detta får till följd att man på morgonen är i Dresden. Jag tog ut min lilla väska ur bagagenätet för att göra lite aftontoalett. Med uppsträckta armar höll jag den ovanför huvudet. I detta nu inträffar järnvägsolyckan. Jag minns det som om det hände i dag. Med sin sedvanliga humor och lätta sarkasm låter Thomas Mann oss följa med i händelserna vid en tågresa mellan München och Dresden. Men allra mest är detta en vindlande och vinande färd genom hans mästerliga prosa.

A classic, provoctive book exploring German culture and identity by the author of Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, now back in print. When the Great War broke out in August of 1914, Thomas Mann, like so many people on both sides of the conflict, was exhilarated. Finally, the era of decadence that he had anatomized in Death in Venice had come to an end; finally, there was a cause worth fighting and even dying for, or, at least when it came to Mann himself, writing about. Mann dropped the short story he was working on in order to compose a full-throated paean to the German cause. Soon after, his older brother and lifelong rival, the novelist Heinrich Mann, responded with a no less withering denunciation. Thomas took it as this was an almost unforgivable stab in the back. The bitter dispute between two brothers would swell in to the strange, tortured literary monument that is Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man, a book that is as blind as it is troubled and full of curious insight. Mann worked on it and added to it throughout the war years, publishing it only when German defeat was inevitable, and these reflections are in a sense a first draft for his later explorations of German destiny in The Magic Mountain and Doktor Faustus. His effort to hold on to a notion of common good that lies beyond politics in the face of growing and inconceivable political disaster is all the more thought-provoking for being fatally flawed.

I september 1939, ett ögonblick då de totalitära ­staterna tycktes triumfera, skulle Thomas Mann hålla tal på den internationella PEN-kongressen i Stockholm. Hans närvaro i Sverige vållade regeringen stor oro. Hur skulle Nazityskland reagera? Utrikes­departementet ville att Mann skulle avstå från att ­hålla ett politiskt laddat tal. Det borde ligga på ett högt och allmänt plan med undvikande av personligheter och annat som kan vålla förtret . Thomas Mann gjorde tvärtom. I en tid av stort mörker höll han upp ett litet ljus för demo­kratin. Ett övermått av ondska har nu fått oss att släppa vår skepsis och blygsel inför stora ord som frihet, sanning och rättvisa; vi lyfter dem mot mänsklighetens ­fiender.Men kongressen avblåstes i sista minuten när kriget bröt ut och Mann tog sig tillbaka till USA, där han befunnit sig i landsflykt sedan nazisternas maktövertagande. Talet hölls alltså aldrig men gavs ut i bokform kort därpå. Idag är dess innehåll återigen aktuellt. Thomas Mann tilldelades Nobelpriset i litteratur 1929, bland utgivningen märks särskilt Buddenbrooks, Doktor Faustus, Bergtagen och Döden i Venedig.

Death in Venice, novella by Thomas Mann, published in German as Der Tod in Venedig in 1912. A symbol-laden story of aestheticism and decadence, Mann's best-known novella exemplifies the author's regard for Sigmund Freud's writings on the unconscious. Gustav von Aschenbach is a revered author whose work is known for its discipline and formal perfection.

"Byloe Iakova" - pervaja chast monumentalnogo tsikla "Iosif i ego bratja", romany iz kotorogo Tomas Mann schital luchshimi svoimi proizvedenijami. V khudozhestvennoj interpretatsii vetkhozavetnogo sjuzheta on stavit vechnye voprosy o zhizni, proiskhozhdenii cheloveka i poiske Boga, tem samym stiraja granitsy mezhdu proshlym i nastojaschim. Epopeju otkryvaet podrobnejshij rasskaz o neprostoj sudbe Iakova. Ukrav pervorodstvo i ottsovskoe blagoslovenie u brata Isava, on stanovitsja izgnannikom v rodnykh krajakh i nakhodit prijut v dome svoego djadi Lavana. Zdes Iakovu predstoit s chestju projti ugotovlennye ispytanija, poznav kak radosti, tak i goresti: vstretit ljubov svoej zhizni Rakhil, sluzhit za nee dolgikh sem let, po vole sluchaja vzjat v zheny ee sestru, rodit dvenadtsat synovej, odnomu iz kotorykh - Iosifu - suzhdeno budet zanjat osoboe mesto v biblejskoj istorii...