Rating: 
Summary: A Dreadful Translation
Review: This, the most famous of novellas (ostensibly ased on the death of Mahler), is given very poor treatment here; the wording, however, accurate, is clunky and graceless; while the price is agreeable the Thomas Mann is not; David Luke's version, in a Bantam paperback, is far sweeter, far more readable and should appeal to anyone named Dena from Toronto.
Rating: 
Summary: On beauty, ideals and our very human realities
Review: Thomas Mann lived during the golden age of "La Belle Epoque" (this novel was published in 1913). Europe was a place free of wars, at the same time that outstanding scientists and artists were producing great achievements. It seems then that "our" rational behaviors and good social practices make people happy, wealthy and healthy. But people feel inner conflicts (Mr. Freud created a new science of the spirit those times). They are taking values and practices from former generations, these ones which created capitalism and rational political orders. Those who just have arrived to that time don't have their urgencies nor their fears. They are heirs of a heavy legacy but they don't have the same passion. They miss a freedom of privacy and life style that doesn't belong to that time. The world wars would stop these concerns for almost 40 years.Von Aschenbach lived under the rules he believed right, but his human nature doesn't fit the ideals other people created. His life doesn't have energy, but tireness. He could had lived like this if he hadn't been an artist, someone who needs the freedom of the spirit. That fact explains Von Aschenbach's resistance and anxiety and tireness towards his work. His work is a cause of his occasional sufferings. Venice is symbol of freedom, under-development, and exotism, near home, near to europe's heart. And his moral defeat under the force of his passion for Tadzio a terrible example of what happens when our ideals of behavior are not based on our inner-reality but on the other's judgement of what is proper and right. But he is loyal to himself until the end. Von Aschenbach's search for beauty finds other path watching Tadzio.His moral fall is a matter of point of view. He is an artist until the last moment. What goes to bankruptcy are his social practices and social conventions, not his quest for beauty. I wonder myself about our times. It seems that we are free to choose, to be satisfied, to get happiness. If it is like that, why the increasing mass of drug consumers and lonely people?. Can we say, honestly, that we are OK, and that our inner- self is happy?. I think that our quest for happiness meets the same odds and troubles Von Aschenbach's search for beauty met in this story. Our time requires another Thomas Mann (actually, we have some), to tell us stories at which our search lead us to return to our nature and the awareness of our values, of the real ones. Thanks Mr. Mann. A short,beautiful, plenty of meanings, and perfect story.
Rating: 
Summary: This novella is my favourite book of all time.
Review: Thomas Mann was inspired to write Death in Venice after seeing the composer Gustav Mahler break down in tears on the train departing Venice. Mann, like James Joyce, had the rare ability to create a character of deep psychological subtlety whose thoughts and experiences transcend the superficial and the immediate, but become part of a deep and lasting identity with the spiritual and the everlasting. The beautiful city of Venice will be forever identified with Gustav van Aschenbach just as Dublin will always belong to Leopold Bloom. The beauty of this book is hard to express in words - it is word perfect! I suggest that anyone who has not read it has missed out on a deep and joyful experience. It is one of our departing millennium's greatest works of fiction. The brilliant Italian director Visconti (on a par with Fellini, in my opinion) made a film worthy of the book in 1970. When Dirk Bogarde (von Aschenbach asked him about a script, Visconti told him the book was the script- and to read it over and over again. At the commencement of filming he asked the actor how many times he had read it. Bogarde said "about 30 times". Visconti replied that he should read it another 30! The film is brilliantly decadent and melancholic, and captures the essence of the book to the Nth degree. (It was made on a shoestring budget, with the leading actress not being paid and Bogarde working for peanuts. As a work of art it towers over the profligate Titanic). Anyone visiting Venice should read this masterly work and view the film beforehand. Then I would recommend a visit to the Venice Lido (a ferry ride across the lagoon from St Mark's Square) and visit Hotel des Bains. Then walk the beach, Mann's novella in hand, and take a sample of Aschenbach's sand home with you. Then keep reading Death in Venice in honour of Mann and Visconti. What a joy!
Rating:
Summary: So beautiful and sad that hurts
Review: Thomas Mann wrote one of the most beautiful novels ever. 'Death in Venice' is short but it has more depth that many novels with hundred of pages. By the way, the conciseness is a great value of this little jewel. The most important thing in this narrative is the development of Gustav von Aschenbach, the protagonist. And Mann does succed in doing that. Once he was a famous writer that is now decadent. He goes to Venice, where he expects to have a great time and relax. Little did he know that he would find a great obsession that would bring up the worst in him. Aschenbach's passion and obsession is not the one we usually think of. There is not a sexual attraction to the teenager Tadzio, the protagonist is much more concerned on the beauty and its aesthetic rather than what we would call love. Mann's prose is slow going, but very beautiful what makes the book so worthwhile reading. His descriptions bring to the pages the best of Venice, and the more we appreciate the city, the less we like Aschenbach. His decadent story may be depressive, but it iluminates many issues --mostly the ones about love, beauty and obessession. There is a film version of 'Death in Venice' that is quite close to the novella. Both book and movie are very beautiful and high recommended to people who like great literature and cinema.
Rating:
Summary: So beautiful and sad that hurts
Review: Thomas Mann wrote one of the most beautiful novels ever. `Death in Venice' is short but it has more depth that many novels with hundred of pages. By the way, the conciseness is a great value of this little jewel. The most important thing in this narrative is the development of Gustav von Aschenbach, the protagonist. And Mann does succed in doing that. Once he was a famous writer that is now decadent. He goes to Venice, where he expects to have a great time and relax. Little did he know that he would find a great obsession that would bring up the worst in him. Aschenbach's passion and obsession is not the one we usually think of. There is not a sexual attraction to the teenager Tadzio, the protagonist is much more concerned on the beauty and its aesthetic rather than what we would call love. Mann's prose is slow going, but very beautiful what makes the book so worthwhile reading. His descriptions bring to the pages the best of Venice, and the more we appreciate the city, the less we like Aschenbach. His decadent story may be depressive, but it iluminates many issues --mostly the ones about love, beauty and obessession. There is a film version of `Death in Venice' that is quite close to the novella. Both book and movie are very beautiful and high recommended to people who like great literature and cinema.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful human drama of love and death
Review: To Venice comes Gustav von Ashenbach, famous writer. The city is gloomy and sultry, also infected with colera. But he remained, to lose himself in a silent admiration for Tadzio, beautiful polish boy. The figure of Ashenbach is a strange combination of professional rigor and attraction to the irrational. He will die alone on the beach. Far out toward the sea stands the boy, whose look is the vertigo that fascinated him.
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