Der Tod in Venedig

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The language was evocative and haunting, the scene set so vividly that I could almost imagine being there in the 19th century (of course, with a city like Venice that changes little and that we approached by water, conjuring up these images is easy to do). The story originally appeared in 1912, in two numbers of the journal Neue Rundschau, and subsequently in a private edition of 100 unsigned copies. After being repeatedly assured that the sirocco is the only health risk, he finds a British travel agent who reluctantly admits that there is a serious cholera epidemic in Venice.

Und dies beweist, dass der vornehm kultivierte, sinnlich suchende Dichter einem Irrtume aufsitzt: er nicht liebt, sondern begehrt und wertschätzt.Aschenbach checks in to his hotel, where at dinner he sees an aristocratic Polish family at a nearby table. Zwar stirbt er am Ende des erzählten Geschehens an der zu jener Zeit in Venedig grassierenden "Indischen Cholera", aber diese Notiz wird erst mit den letzten Worten des Textes lapidar, nahezu beiläufigen Tones nachgereicht.

As the story opens, he is strolling outside a cemetery and sees a coarse-looking, red-haired foreigner who stares back at him belligerently. Mann was a member of the Hanseatic Mann family and portrayed his family and class in his first novel, Buddenbrooks. Der Protagonist dieser anno 1913 erschienenen Novelle ist die Figur des überfünfzigjährigen Dichters Gustav von Aschenbach, der als Künstler anerkannt und gar mit einem 'von' im Namen geadelt worden ist. A stage production in 2013, directed by Thomas Ostermeier at the Schaubühne theatre in Berlin, titled Death in Venice/Kindertotenlieder, took elements from Gustav Mahler's song cycle Kindertotenlieder. Aschenbach ist von der Form dieses noch nicht pubertierenden Kindes entzückt, fasziniert und gefällt sich in stiller, stets angsthaft beobachtender Huldigung.

One must see it many times to gain sufficient insight into Mann's intentions and the expression of the moods of the doomed protagonist, Dr Aschenbach, and his obsession with the magnificent Tadzio. Next, Aschenbach rallies his self-respect and decides to discover the reason for the health notices posted in the city. There is something unhealthy about this level of intrusive fantasy, even if he did not act on it, which would have been even more unhealthy and frankly dangerous. Aschenbach's first name is almost an anagram of August, and the character's last name may be derived from Ansbach, Platen's birthplace (however, Aschenbach is a real ancient German name, for instance, the founder of the Kishkin family).

A]ll the details of the story, beginning with the man at the cemetery, are taken from actual experience [. While shipbound and en route to the island, he sees an elderly man in company with a group of high-spirited youths, who has tried hard to create the illusion of his own youth with a wig, false teeth, make-up, and foppish attire.One night, a dream filled with orgiastic Dionysian imagery reveals to him the sexual nature of his feelings for Tadzio. Soon the hot, humid weather begins to affect Aschenbach's health, and he decides to leave early and move to a cooler location. FIRST PRINTING IN EXCEEDINGLY SCARCE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS of arguably Thomas Mann’s most celebrated work. Die Liebe weder begehrt noch wertet vergängliche Formen, sondern schaut, erkennt und umarmt das Innere: die Seele.

A fight starts between the two boys, and Tadzio is quickly bested; afterward, he angrily leaves his companion and wades over to Aschenbach's part of the beach, where he stands for a moment looking out to sea, then turns halfway around to look at his admirer. I could not help contrasting my own trip to Venice a few years ago with his: I carried my own luggage, unpacked it, was never rude to those serving me as he was on several occasions, beginning with the gondolier, and would never have dreamed of sitting on critical public health information simply so I could prolong my sense of amusement (the protagonist knew that the city was in the grip of an epidemic and that he should leave, but made no effort to pass this information along to the probably-less-well-informed Polish family who for all we know also succumbed to it). Given Mann's obsession with the works of Richard Wagner, who famously adapted and transformed von Eschenbach's epic into his opera Parsifal, it is possible that Mann was crediting Wagner's opera by referencing the author of the work that had inspired the composer. Aschenbach's name and character may be inspired by the homosexual German poet August von Platen-Hallermünde. The result is a fairly close approximation to the old man on the ship who had so appalled Aschenbach.

I really did not know whose death the title referred to (my money was on the boy, who I imagined from the repeated descriptions of him was dying from some illness, and that his family took him to Venice to enjoy his last days), so this added some suspense for me.