Novella Literary Fiction Beauty Obsession Decadence The artist and society Death
Death in Venice is a novella written by Thomas Mann and first published in 1912.
A renowned German author, exhausted by routine, travels to Venice in search of renewal. There, amid sunlit beaches and fading palazzi, he experiences an overwhelming fixation on youthful beauty that unsettles the disciplined order of his life.
As oppressive heat descends and rumors of sickness spread, the city’s charm darkens. Ignoring warnings, he remains, surrendering to the lure of decadence and the fear of decay. Vain attempts to recapture youth follow, and self-control gives way to obsession in a place that feels both dreamlike and diseased.
Mann blends psychological realism with classical allusion to craft a meditation on art, desire, and mortality. The result is a haunting portrait of how idealized beauty can erode judgment and draw a life toward irrevocable loss.
"On a spring afternoon of the year 19—, when our continent lay under such threatening weather for whole months, Gustav Aschenbach, or von Aschenbach as his name read officially after his fiftieth birthday, had left his apartment on the Prinzregentenstrasse in Munich and had gone for a long walk."
This edition of the novel Death in Venice uses the English translation by Kenneth Burke.
#338 in Literary fiction (this month)
#29 in Novella (this month)
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Copyright info
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading Death in Venice in PDF or ePub.
Mann compresses obsession into a lucid parable about beauty, decay, and the artist’s hunger to feel alive again. Venice shimmers as stage and mirror: a city of masks, heat, and rumor where aesthetic rapture blurs into illness and denial. The novella’s power is restraint; it names very little and lets mood, myth, and atmosphere do the work.
In an age of curated images, parasocial longing, and health anxiety, this tale asks where admiration ends and self-erasure begins. It is a manual on aesthetic temptation, public appearances, and the stories we tell to excuse desire.
Attraction, vanity, and self-myth stripped bare.
Venice reflects inner weather and denial.
Mythic motifs without heavy explanation.
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Irony myth and psychology in disciplined prose; family art and conscience under pressure.
We have 3 books by Thomas Mann in the AliceAndBooks library