![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Review: Thomas Mann - Death in Venice (1912)
An interesting novella. A nice quick read.
Spoilers.
Story
Gustav von Aschenbach was a writer who kind of lost his zest for life, and decided to go to Venice for a refresh. It was okay, until he met a beautiful Polish boy named Tadzio, who he became infatuated with. He would plan his days around getting to see Tadzio. When Aschenbach was to leave, his luggage got lost and so he returned to the hotel in Venice, but he was overjoyed because that meant he had an excuse to stay at the hotel for longer. Later on, it was revealed that there was a cholera epidemic in Venice, but the hotel staff were not supposed to share this with the guests. Aschenbach found out anyway. He went to the salon to beautify himself, and went to the beach, where he saw Tadzio one last time. Tadzio was playing before he and his family would leave. Aschenbach watched Tadzio and then passed away, found shortly after.
Writing
The version I read was translated by Michael Henry Heim, with a foreword by Michael Cunningham. I’d read the foreword so I knew the gist of the story I’m glad that I did, because I do often find it difficult to read older books. This book was a fairly graspable read, though because of the longer and meandering passages, I did sometimes lose sight of the plot. But because this was a short book, the story was fairly focused.
Characters
Gustav von Aschenbach was our main character and our central character. I was prepared to compare Aschenbach to Humbert Humbert, but this is a very different book from Lolita. I felt this book was largely insular, focused on Aschenbach’s thoughts, as opposed to his fantasies about Tadzio. While he did become infatuated with Tadzio, to the point that he fell in love with him, the book focused a lot on Aschenbach’s behaviour, and how he carried himself in light of his new infatuation. We studied how he planned, how he rearranged his itinerary to see Tadzio. While he did attempt to touch Tadzio once, his attempt was thwarted and I don’t think he attempted to touch Tadzio ever again. The only interaction between them was his watching Tadzio.
I won’t go as far to say that Tadzio returned his affections because I don’t think he necessarily did. He would just look at Aschenbach and smile sometimes, which to Aschenbach felt like affection returned, but I think that was just Tadzio’s politeness and curiosity about Aschenbach who was constantly in his periphery.
Aschenbach had lost his zest for life. At the beginning of the book, he had looked at a man with red hair but the man grew uncomfortable with Aschenbach’s staring. I think this set the tone for the rest of the book. Aschenbach simply wanted to look at beautiful things, and the thing about Tadzio was that he didn’t deny Aschenbach the view. Aschenbach died simply looking at beauty and maybe that was just what he wanted.
There was a mini arc about Aschenbach’s own beauty. He found it weird when other old men tried to beautify themselves but he eventually did it. In Cunningham’s foreword, he was saying that maybe it was a statement that if you wanted to die at peace and with love, you had to humiliate yourself a bit, the way Aschenbach tried to beautify himself and make him look younger despite everyone knowing he was an older man.
Themes
Beauty more than attraction stood out to me. Aschenbach was obsessed with Tadzio, but he did nothing more than look and think about him. Yes, it was creepy because he was infatuated, but it was his beauty and not what he stood for. Not only did he like looking at beauty, but there was also a discussion about beauty and oneself. Aschenbach thought it was silly to beautify himself because he was an old man, but eventually he tried it and maybe he did feel a little better, or maybe he basked in the acceptance that even though he didn’t look as beautiful as he would have liked, it’s human nature to want to be beautiful.
What did the cholera outbreak mean? Maybe it was supposed to represent Aschenbach’s breakthrough, of his feelings about beauty starting to take over his life.
Overall
This was an interesting book, but I definitely should reread this to catch the smaller details.
Spoilers.
Story
Gustav von Aschenbach was a writer who kind of lost his zest for life, and decided to go to Venice for a refresh. It was okay, until he met a beautiful Polish boy named Tadzio, who he became infatuated with. He would plan his days around getting to see Tadzio. When Aschenbach was to leave, his luggage got lost and so he returned to the hotel in Venice, but he was overjoyed because that meant he had an excuse to stay at the hotel for longer. Later on, it was revealed that there was a cholera epidemic in Venice, but the hotel staff were not supposed to share this with the guests. Aschenbach found out anyway. He went to the salon to beautify himself, and went to the beach, where he saw Tadzio one last time. Tadzio was playing before he and his family would leave. Aschenbach watched Tadzio and then passed away, found shortly after.
Writing
The version I read was translated by Michael Henry Heim, with a foreword by Michael Cunningham. I’d read the foreword so I knew the gist of the story I’m glad that I did, because I do often find it difficult to read older books. This book was a fairly graspable read, though because of the longer and meandering passages, I did sometimes lose sight of the plot. But because this was a short book, the story was fairly focused.
Characters
Gustav von Aschenbach was our main character and our central character. I was prepared to compare Aschenbach to Humbert Humbert, but this is a very different book from Lolita. I felt this book was largely insular, focused on Aschenbach’s thoughts, as opposed to his fantasies about Tadzio. While he did become infatuated with Tadzio, to the point that he fell in love with him, the book focused a lot on Aschenbach’s behaviour, and how he carried himself in light of his new infatuation. We studied how he planned, how he rearranged his itinerary to see Tadzio. While he did attempt to touch Tadzio once, his attempt was thwarted and I don’t think he attempted to touch Tadzio ever again. The only interaction between them was his watching Tadzio.
I won’t go as far to say that Tadzio returned his affections because I don’t think he necessarily did. He would just look at Aschenbach and smile sometimes, which to Aschenbach felt like affection returned, but I think that was just Tadzio’s politeness and curiosity about Aschenbach who was constantly in his periphery.
Aschenbach had lost his zest for life. At the beginning of the book, he had looked at a man with red hair but the man grew uncomfortable with Aschenbach’s staring. I think this set the tone for the rest of the book. Aschenbach simply wanted to look at beautiful things, and the thing about Tadzio was that he didn’t deny Aschenbach the view. Aschenbach died simply looking at beauty and maybe that was just what he wanted.
There was a mini arc about Aschenbach’s own beauty. He found it weird when other old men tried to beautify themselves but he eventually did it. In Cunningham’s foreword, he was saying that maybe it was a statement that if you wanted to die at peace and with love, you had to humiliate yourself a bit, the way Aschenbach tried to beautify himself and make him look younger despite everyone knowing he was an older man.
Themes
Beauty more than attraction stood out to me. Aschenbach was obsessed with Tadzio, but he did nothing more than look and think about him. Yes, it was creepy because he was infatuated, but it was his beauty and not what he stood for. Not only did he like looking at beauty, but there was also a discussion about beauty and oneself. Aschenbach thought it was silly to beautify himself because he was an old man, but eventually he tried it and maybe he did feel a little better, or maybe he basked in the acceptance that even though he didn’t look as beautiful as he would have liked, it’s human nature to want to be beautiful.
What did the cholera outbreak mean? Maybe it was supposed to represent Aschenbach’s breakthrough, of his feelings about beauty starting to take over his life.
Overall
This was an interesting book, but I definitely should reread this to catch the smaller details.