Buddenbrooks

Buddenbrooks is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in 1901.

Set in the city of Lübeck, it follows a merchant dynasty across several generations, charting a multigenerational saga of prosperity and decline as the family’s wealth and social standing gradually erode under the pressures of change.

Mann examines the conflict between duty and personal desire, the weight of bourgeois respectability, and the tension between commerce and artistic sensibility, revealing how private hopes buckle beneath public expectations.

With cool irony and meticulous detail, the novel builds a sweeping portrait of a class in transition. Celebrated as Mann’s breakthrough, it has long been recognized as a landmark study of social change and familial legacy, illuminating how values shift as one generation yields to the next.

"Frau Consul Buddenbrook shot a glance at her husband and came to the rescue of her little daughter. She sat with her mother-in-law on a straight white-enamelled sofa with yellow cushions and a gilded lion’s head at the top. The Consul was in his easy-chair beside her, and the child perched on her grandfather’s knee in the window."

This edition of the novel Buddenbrooks uses the English translation by H. T. Lowe-Porter.