"Often, the outward and visible material signs and symbols of happiness and success only show themselves when the process of decline has already set in."
First published in 1901, Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks tells the story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany as they face the advent of modernity, and paints a vivid portrait of bourgeois life, spiritual decay, and the quiet erosion of tradition.
As the story shifts focus from the confident patriarch Johann Buddenbrook to his descendants, the Buddenbrooks of successive generations experience a gradual decline of their finances and family ideals, finding happiness increasingly elusive as values change and old hierarchies are challenged by German's rapid industrialisation.
The novel remains a profound exploration of human experience, legacy, and cultural change.
Thomas Mann (1875-1955) was a renowned German novelist, short story writer, and essayist, celebrated for his exploration of complex themes, his profound psychological insight, and critique of bourgeois society.
Born into a wealthy trading family, he studied law and economics before turning to writing and had his major breakthrough with Buddenbrooks, which depicts the decline of a bourgeois family. International acclaim came with the publication of The Magic Mountain (1924), a philosophical novel set in a sanatorium that explores themes such as life, death, time and ideological conflict. His other notable works include Death in Venice (1912) and Doktor Faustus (1947). In 1929, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his significant contributions to German literature.
Mann was politically active against fascism, leading him to leave Germany in 1933 due to the rise of the Nazi regime. He lived in Switzerland and later in the United States during World War II. Despite the challenges, he continued to write and became a prominent voice against totalitarianism.
