Used book – Death in Venice, Thomas Mann

Death in Venice tells the story of the mad and fatal passion that seizes a middle-aged writer at the appearance of a graceful adolescent of extraordinary beauty. In Tristan, the dilemma facing the heroine is whether to attempt to live by stifling her artistic gifts or "die of music." Lobgott Piepsam's end in The Way to the Churchyard proves that life is hard on the weak, but that death is better than the downfall of constant cowardice. It is perhaps in his novellas that Thomas Mann, one of the most famous German writers of this century, put the best of his ironic verve and musical sensibility, his discreet and controlled emotion, which readily cloaks itself in sarcasm.

Introduction and notes by Armand Nivelle.