Thomas Mann

Thomas Mann

Paul Thomas Mann (UK: /ˈmæn/ MAN, US: /ˈmɑːn/ MAHN; German: [ˈpaʊ̯l ˈtoːmas ˈman]; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas are noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized versions of German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Schopenhauer.

Mann was a member of the Hanseatic Mann family and portrayed his family and class in his first novel, Buddenbrooks. His older brother was the radical writer Heinrich Mann and three of Mann’s six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann and Golo Mann, also became significant German writers. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Mann fled to Switzerland. When World War II broke out in 1939, he moved to the United States, then returned to Switzerland in 1952. Mann is one of the best-known exponents of the so-called Exilliteratur, German literature written in exile by those who opposed the Hitler regime.

Mann’s work influenced many later authors, such as Yukio Mishima.

Books in order of publication:

Play

1905: Fiorenza

Prose sketch

1893: “Vision”

Short stories

  • 1894: “Gefallen”
  • 1896: “The Will to Happiness”
  • 1896: “Disillusionment” (“Enttäuschung”)
  • 1896: “Little Herr Friedemann” (“Der kleine Herr Friedemann”)
  • 1897: “Death” (“Der Tod”)
  • 1897: “The Clown” (“Der Bajazzo”)
  • 1897: “The Dilettante”
  • 1898: “Tobias Mindernickel”
  • 1899: “The Wardrobe” (“Der Kleiderschrank”)
  • 1900: “Luischen” (“Little Lizzy”) – written in 1897
  • 1900: “The Road to the Churchyard” (“Der Weg zum Friedhof”)
  • 1903: “The Hungry”
  • 1903: “The Child Prodigy” (“Das Wunderkind”)
  • 1904: “A Gleam”
  • 1904: “At the Prophet’s”
  • 1905: “A Weary Hour”
  • 1907: “Railway Accident”
  • 1908: “Anecdote” (“Anekdote”)
  • 1911: “The Fight between Jappe and the Do Escobar”

Novels

1901: Buddenbrooks (Buddenbrooks – Verfall einer Familie)

1909: Royal Highness (Königliche Hoheit)

1924: The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg)

1939: Lotte in Weimar: The Beloved Returns

1947: Doctor Faustus (Doktor Faustus)

1951: The Holy Sinner (Der Erwählte)

Series

The Blood of the Walsungs

  1. The Blood of the Walsungs (Wӓlsungenblut) (1905)
  2. The Blood of the Walsungs (2nd edition, 1921)

Felix Krull

  1. Felix Krull (Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull) (written in 1911, published in 1922)
  2. Confessions of Felix Krull, (Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull. Der Memoiren erster Teil; expanded from 1911 short story), unfinished (1954)

Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder) (1933–43)

  1. The Stories of Jacob (Die Geschichten Jaakobs) (1933)
  2. Young Joseph (Der junge Joseph) (1934)
  3. Joseph in Egypt (Joseph in Ägypten) (1936)
  4. Joseph the Provider (Joseph, der Ernährer) (1943)

Novella

  • 1902: Gladius Dei
  • 1903: Tristan
  • 1903: Tonio Kroger
  • 1912: Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig)
  • 1918: A Man and His Dog (Herr und Hund), sometimes translated as Bashan and I
  • 1925: Disorder and Early Sorrow (Unordnung und frühes Leid)
  • 1930: Mario and the Magician (Mario und der Zauberer)
  • 1940: The Transposed Heads (Die vertauschten Köpfe – Eine indische Legende)
  • 1944: The Tables of the Law – a commissioned work (Das Gesetz)
  • 1954: The Black Swan (Die Betrogene: Erzählung)
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