Death in Venice

One of the undisputed classics of contemporary European literature’ Independent

‘A monumental writer’ Sunday Telegraph

A stunning fresh translation of one of the most powerful stories of desire and undoing in modern literature

Erudite, respectable writer Gustav Aschenbach lives a life of structured routine. One day, as he puzzles over his stubborn writer’s block, Aschenbach has a dazzling vision that leaves him with a restless urge to abandon his settled life and travel south to Venice.

On checking into his hotel, Aschenbach notices a young Polish boy of perfect, sculptural beauty: Tadzio. As he lingers on at the hotel, Aschenbach falls into an ever-deeper infatuation with the youth, whose curled blond hair and porcelain face fill him with rapture.

Ignoring whispered warnings of a cholera outbreak in the city, Aschenbach chooses to stay close to Tadzio, his mind swirling with mad desire.

Classical in structure yet roiled by disturbing passion, Death in Venice is an enormously powerful story of one man’s undoing.

Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand picked from around the globe.

Translated by Lesley Chamberlain

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) was perhaps Germany’s most famous twentieth-century writer. Born to a merchant family in Lübeck, Mann was preparing to enter the family business when his father suddenly died and the business was liquidated. The Manns moved to Munich, where Mann began his literary career with the epic novel Buddenbrooks (1901), which was a huge success.

Further novels and stories followed, including Death in Venice (1912) and The Magic Mountain (1924); five years following publication of the latter novel, Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. When Hitler came to power, Mann fled to Switzerland, and from there he escaped to California at the outbreak of the Second World War. He is buried in Switzerland, where he spent his final years.