Death in Venice and Other Stories

La muerte en Venecia es un profundo y trascendental estudio de la pureza y la belleza, disímiles, embrolladas azarosamente en virtud de las percepciones sensoriales y los engranajes incomprensibles del alma. ( )

Just you try and fall in love with youth and *not* die! Mann's character wants it so bad that it almost happens. ( )

Mann commented on the life of writers and the poor results produced by those who dabble in writing but don't pursue it as a full career. He also seems to be stating that writers must have something wrong with them to be effective, and this must be something that sets them emotionally apart from others and requires writing to restore balance to them as people. This seems to me to be a view of writing that does not really match reality for most writers. His characters in this collection of stories tend to be writers who make unexpected decisions. There are some touching moments in most of the stories. One story can be interpreted as either a debate between classical and modern values or a disturbing view into one man's initial experience with pedophiliac desire. Overall, I was disappointed. ( )

O motivo do contraste entre o apolíneo e o dionisíaco como expressos por Nietzsche era comum na época, mas nunca foi expresso com maior beleza do que nessa novela de Thomas Mann. O escritor Gustav von Aschenbach se torna obcecado pela beleza, pela paixão, e essa obsessão o destrói. É apropriado que, na versão cinematográfica de Luchino Visconti, o protagonista seja um músico, não um escritor. ( )

His work rightly belongs in the pantheon of western literature.