If I have read Thomas Mann before, it was 'Death in Venice' 40 years ago.
This, especially the first half, was a wonderfully stately novel about a prosperous North German family’s decline throughout the 19th century. I love the character of Antoine, Thomas’ sister with her love affair which would take the family in a different direction, her disastrous marriages, and her stoic old age as the main survivor of the family. She is wonderfully drawn and not at all idealised.
The middle passages of the book brilliantly describe Thomas’ growing depression – just the way in which the brain can only focus on the negative aspects of life, for no obvious reason. My depressions are like this.
Although the ending of the book was, for me, unsatisfactory— the long penultimate chapter about Hanno’s school life, followed by his sudden and rushed death – did nothing for me—there are some brilliant descriptions of music as Hanno is seduced by this and away from his father’s aspirations that he would run the family firm.
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