Reviews

meh

super awesome. my third mann and it’s probably the most distilled exploration of the same themes of obligation/indulgence, love/sickness, etc. nothing super new here besides an intense compactness that isn’t in the longer stuff. i think it works just as well as the longer works, so this would probably be a good starting point but i don’t think it’s better than magic mountain or buddenbrooks. pretty shocked that this lived up to those though tbh. awesome mid-finals on-the-train-to-oberlin read

Read for Complit-obsessions, passions, and desires class Probably would give it a 3.5. There's a lot of description in this story revolving around a writer who is obsessed with the beauty of this boy. Enjoy the analysis I get in class from this book. Interesting.

2.5/5. Although it grabbed me with its style, Death in Venice lacked something. It felt detached from the characters, despite being able to dig into Gustav von Aschenbach's mind. The prose was more focused on physical description and philosophical musings than the psychological depth of the characters. But maybe it's just me, I don't know.

Not a difficult read from cover to cover, but the story's beautifully textured narrative, rich in allusions and symbolism, only begin to sink in when thoroughly considered and reread, of which it is deserving of. Mann's effusive but deliberate prose is breathtakingly beautiful, and warrants revisitations on that merit alone. Effusive but deliberate is an admirable middle-point, an exquisite undertaking. Mann translated by Heim obtains this feeling of never being too excessive, that Mann is generous at times but also sparing, fully knowing the power of each word. As Cunningham observes in his engaging introduction (which is a good read for anyone), Heim's translation deftly attempts to dignify our aging, obsessed artist; while I'm not entirely sure in the end how successfully that could be done (after all, near the ending our artist ironically becomes that "superannuated dandy" which so inspired horror in him at the beginning of the novel), one feels a quiet sense of respect at Heim's work, and towards Aschenbach himself - as writer, as person. That Mann too was concerned about "the artist's dignity" in this novella is a further reason for approval.

DNF!!! No one else has a problem that this “literary classic” is just a book about pedophilia? It’s not even a well written book. It’s as if the author is trying to show off how many words he can use as his main character stalks an adolescent boy around Europe lusting after him. NO! JUST NO!

It was OK.

4.5
















Highlights

But in empty, unarticulated space our mind loses its sense of time as well, and we enter the twilight of the immeasurable.