Buddenbrooks
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Lübeck — much to the disconcertment and shock of many Lübeck citizens at the time , and the streets and houses of Lübeck as well as the nearby seashore and countryside are all realistically described and recognizable .
Mann had initially planned to write a novella about the fourth-generation only child , Hanno , who was modeled on Mann minus his three siblings , but transformed it to include the eldest sons of the three previous generations , covering the years 1835 – 1877 . The family decline is charted from generation to generation with the changes in business fortune , moral principles , psychological characteristics , philosophical views , and musical sensibility . Very memorable family members and characters are portrayed and developed in unforgettable detail , as is the life of the Lübeck bourgeoise . Humor and irony give lightness to the grave themes of death and decline , as well as the conflict between the artistic and bourgeois natures .
Buddenbrooks is a masterpiece , carefully constructed and beautifully written . It still has relevance more than 120 years after its publication . It is a meaningful read for us living in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , just forty miles south of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck . It gives insight into German culture and the bourgeois life behind the ubiquitous classical facades found in Hamburg . In comparison to many contemporary novels , it is a quiet , slow read that takes one back in time . ( Carol S .)
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which laid the foundation for his lifelong literary fame and for his celebration as one of Germany ’ s most important writers .
Toibin ’ s novel covers Mann ’ s private , artistic , and family life before and during World War I ; postwar Munich ; exile beginning in 1933 in Switzerland , southern France , Princeton , and Pacific Palisades ; and the1950 return to Switzerland and Germany . This novel is carefully constructed , ambitious and intimate — in some ways almost a family saga . Toibin gives us great insight not only into Thomas Mann but also into his formidable wife , Katia , their six children , and his famous brother , Heinrich . He succeeds in shedding light on this complex and unconventional family in a simple and direct way without being overdetailed . His takes on Mann ’ s meetings with prominent people ( e . g ., Einstein , FDR , Eleanor Roosevelt , the Meyers of The Washington Post ) are sprinkled with bon mots .
The novel ends when Mann returns to his native Lübeck , ravaged by war , and recalls a long-forgotten story about Johann Sebastian Bach and Buxtehude , organist and composer at the St . Marien Cathedral Lübeck .
It is a story about recognizing beauty and is legendary , but was it told to him and his siblings by his mother , as Toibin writes , or is this Toibin ’ s imaginative take ? He artfully weaves fact and fiction in this remarkable and beautifully written novel . ( Carol S .)