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Death in Venice (A Norton Critical Edition) Paperback – June 17, 1994

by Thomas Mann (Author), Clayton Koelb (Editor, Translator)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 355 ratings
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Thomas Mann is widely acknowledged as the greatest German novelist of this century. His 1912 novella Death in Venice is the most frequently read example of Mann's early work.

Clayton Koelb's masterful translation improves upon its predecessors in two ways: it renders Mann into American (not British) English, and it remains true to Mann's original text without sacrificing fluency. For American readers, this is the translation of choice.

"Backgrounds and Contexts" includes Mann's working notes, which allow students to observe the author's creative process. The notes are available here for the first time in English.

Illuminating selections from Mann's essays and letters are also reprinted, as are period maps of Munich, Venice, and the Lido.

"Criticism" includes six essays―by Andre von Gronicka, Manfred Dierks, T. J. Reed, Dorrit Cohn, David Luke, and Robert Tobin―sure to stimulate classroom discussion.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    June 17, 1994
  5. Dimensions
    5.2 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0393960137
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393960136
  8. Lexile measure
    1410L
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Mann, a member of a Hanseatic family with deep roots in Lübeck, was arguably Germany’s most famous twentieth-century writer. In 1929, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Clayton Koelb is Guy B. Johnson Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  He is the recipient of Guggenheim, Woodrow Wilson, and Danforth fellowships and the author of Thomas Mann’s "Goethe and Tolstoy," The Incredulous Reader: Literature and the Function of Disbelief, Kafka’s Rhetoric: The Passion of Reading, and Inventions of Reading: Rhetoric and the Literary Imagination.  He has also edited several volumes of critical readings.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition (June 17, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393960137
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393960136
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1410L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 355 ratings

About the author

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Michael Henry Heim

Michael Henry Heim

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Michael Henry Heim (January 21, 1943 – September 29, 2012) was a Professor of Slavic Languages at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He was an active and prolific translator, and was fluent in Czech, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, French, Italian, German, and Dutch. He died on September 29, 2012, of complications from melanoma.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
355 global ratings
Human obsession in an epidemic scenario, and other literary symbols. Great novel!
4 Stars
Human obsession in an epidemic scenario, and other literary symbols. Great novel!
"His motto was Persevere, the essence of a cardinal virtue: action in the face of suffering... nearly everything great owes its existence to 'despites': despite misery and affliction, despite poverty, desolation, vice, passion, and a thousand other obstacles. It was his experience the very formula of his life, the key to his work." A short but very deep book about the human emotions and obsessions, and the pressure of maintaining one's own dignity. Very vivid narrating style; I enjoyed and recommend this book.
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Top reviews from the United States

Charles Michener
5.0 out of 5 stars Death Trap
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2013
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Along with "The Turn of the Screw," "Heart of Darkness," "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," "The Bear," and "The Old Man and the Sea," Thomas Mann's story of a middle-aged writer's fatal obsession with a teenage boy in cholera-ridden Venice is one of the indisputable classic novellas of modern Western literature. Its weaving of Plato, Goethe, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wagner and Freud into a condensed, taut, open-ended story is so elegantly achieved that it possibly outstrips even those other short masterpieces in concentrated power. At once alluring, creepy and in the end oddly moving, it's a book that penetrates the memory like few others. Of the many translations out there, Heim's is among the most lucid and lyrical. Indeed, it perhaps goes down too easily, missing that layer of Germanic formality that Mann used as a kind of parody of his main character's literary "dignity" and lofty reputation. I've read the story many times and it's always mesmerizing - a descent into the abyss of a man's soul that never fails to leave me shaken.
49 people found this helpful
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Wamut
4.0 out of 5 stars Not Lost In Translation
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2013
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This is not a review, but just a comment. There are several versions of Death In Venice for sale through Kindle. I have read samples from them all. Michael Henry Heim's translation is the most expensive, but well worth the few extra dollars. Mann's language is of the older, more stilted and long winded variety to our modern sensibilities. This translation compared to the others is more natural, readable and poetic. It retains the complexity without stumbling over the difficulties into what might be a bumbling translation full of odd English. If you really want a smooth natural flow of language, don't bother with the earlier translations.
13 people found this helpful
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Mr.Punch
5.0 out of 5 stars Translation makes a BIG difference
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2014
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Let's get the Lowe-Porter issue out of the way up front: I know she meant well, but she was anything but faithful to Mann's prose style. As dedicated as she was to the Mann corpus and the Herculean task of churning through some quite languid bits, I think she did this particular gem of Mann's a disservice. I'm not going to say that had anything to do with her not quite "getting it," what would I know about that? I will say that her translation made the story seem almost silly and painted the main character Aschenbach as rather pathetic if totally unsympathetic, or just a curiosity that might exist only in the imagination of someone reluctant to confront his own sexuality (I mean the author here, not the character). But it is so much more! It is a devastating tale, and deserves an adroit translator to convey the nuances flowing throughout the text for the reader to tease out and piece together himself. That's the way Mann intended it, as best as we understand it today. Cunningham definitely accomplishes this with great skill. For those looking for newer translations of Mann's other works, I highly recommend the John E. Woods translations. He is clearly unafraid to approach Mann on his own terms, as Cunningham does here. Mrs. Lowe-Porter had a little too much "decorum," or alternately sought to elevate her own prose style by using sometimes stilted and artificial verbiage. In any case, she seems to have been unwilling to go as far as the German text in front of her went, something wonderfully rectified here and in Woods' translations. Even more curious is Mann's tacit approval and praise of L-P's translations, when certainly he must have found it at least as turgid as native English speakers did.
7 people found this helpful
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Kevin
3.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of an Artist as an Edged Man
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2015
Mann's story, poetically translated, carries a passion, a deft ply of emotion and thought; but lacks a certain morality that would add to the brief tale. It would
Be difficult to endorse reading the novella for anything but it's deep investigation of transgressive Eros and the brilliant characterization of Venice.
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Phyllis Antebi Ph.D
5.0 out of 5 stars What I like about Mann:Everything
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2012
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This is the kindle edition I like best. Aside from Mann's well known work, "Death in Venice", the book includes "Mario and the Magician", "A Man and His Dog," and "Tonio Kroger". These stories are meant to be read with deliberation and sensibility as Mann wants us to feel the drama and tragedy unfold. In "A Man and His Dog", there is little drama and even less tragedy because the journey is mostly internal. It is a journey anyway, with the subtlety and pathos that make me say, Mann's creation of the aesthetic is deeply personal and universal at the same time. Power and powerlessness is one of his themes. Read about "Mario and the Magician" and you'll feel the existential pull of sadism and masochism evolve on so many levels, that the subtlety will seem sublime. Then the story of a man, who left alone on vacation, discovers a need so primal that it eludes his very rational powers to defy. "A Death in Venice", is about this accomplished intellectual who reverts to an early stage of development whereby he becomes enraptured by a young boy's beauty. This superficial knowing of the boy is in steep contrast to the depth of his well acclaimed written biographies. Living in his head for so long, left Aschenbach deeply out of balance. In a sense, Mann's stories are warnings to us to stay connected, generous, and humble. The characters in this volume of short stories, is about lonely people who feel small, moral nihilists who need to create drama to experience a sense of themselves, and about the formation of a union based on affection that is between a man and his dog. Who wouldn't want to enrich their literary tastes with tidbits like these!
14 people found this helpful
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Scrambler
4.0 out of 5 stars A Minor Classic
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2013
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Read this as background for a read of Mann's The Magic Mountain. It is short, well-written, and a powerful little story. You can find out more about this book, a minor classic, many places -- I doubt I have anything unique to add.

The introductory piece by Michael Cunningham on translations is excellent, as well.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

ZENSTAR
5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening and enriching
Reviewed in India on September 17, 2023
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A number of primary and secondary reference material, accompanied by an aptly translated text, make this a truly treasurable tour that makes you understand Mann's intricate and intriguing novella better. Norton Critical Editions have sustained their reliability with this important book. A word of appreciation for the seller, Bookswagon, which always takes care that books are packed and delivered in pristine condition, without wrinkled covers. Wish all sellers had this much love for books. Thank you, Bookswagon.
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gary
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on September 29, 2014
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Classic and enthralling
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A. Crofts
5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Beautiful Translation
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 12, 2015
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Utterly beautiful translation. This must surely be what it feels like to die.
One person found this helpful
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