Buddenbrooks

Great

I've no idea why it has taken me so long to get to Thomas Mann, but shame on me for not reading anything of his before. Well, that said, I did read some of the short stories ages ago, but this is the first novel.Like all doorstep-sized books, it's a bit daunting to start with but within a chapter or two of the saga of the Buddenbrook family, I was totally captivated and enthralled by the story.There are a wealth of characters over the three generations of the family's fortunes and losses, but each has their story unfold with clarity and increasing fascination. However, the translation by John Woods is the one to get, so learn from my mistake. I bought the Woods' translation but left the book on the train with only the last two Parts to read and the only other translation was the Lowe-Porter version, which is not particularly readable.A great book, a wonderful read and, for me, the first of Mann's books for me now, to gradually make my way through others.

I can't praise this novel highly enough, with its rich cast of characters and astute observations about human nature. From the very first page, it was a pleasure to read.Sadly, the publisher didn't bother proof-reading the ebook text properly and this edition is littered with errors. The worst mistake is a missing chapter, which is replaced with the text of an earlier one. An Amazon reviewer pointed this out several years ago, but Vintage haven't done anything about it, which is shameful.Thankfully, the mistakes don't completely ruin the overall pleasure of reading this masterpiece, but I do wish that I'd bought the print version.

Thomas Mann's first novel is the languid, elegant and dispassionate story of a nineteenth century, north German, middle class family in decline that acts as a metaphor for the contemporary fading of Enlightened, rational, bourgeois Germany and its supersession by the modern nationalist and militarist state.'Buddenbrooks' is, therefore, not only a study of a liberal society in its later stages, but also a presentment of horrors to come, as the nation of Sturm und Drang and romanticism, of trade and mercantilism, and of Kantian moral autonomy and Schopenhauerian will to live gives way to the statist and corporatist conformity of the Wilhelmine empire, that will, after the cataclysm of the concomitant Great War, reach its apogee in the collectivist dystopia of Nazism. As such, Mann's superb narrative, here in a competent if slightly Americanised translation, is a literary warning of what happens when a society loses sight of its shared morality and customs in favour of the pursuit of greed, social status, and the superficiality of the new in culturally and historically unanchored thought and practice.To see nineteenth century Hanseatic Germany through the eyes of the Buddenbrooks is to be rewarded with a glimpse into a society whose loss was disastrous for the European continent, and to come to understand how cultural and social change can be as much morbid as progressive if that which is putatively gained is less than that which is lost by those observant enough to notice.

The edition pictured is the original English translation by H.T. Lowe-Porter, not the newer translation by John Woods. The title does not include the second part ('The Decline of a Family'). The ISBN is 9780749386474. I was hoping for the Woods translation, as I had already purchased the Lowe-Porter one, but now that I am totally engrossed and half-way through, I guess I'll have to forego the newer translation. I am surprised by how much I'm enjoying this book! The writing is excellent, particularly the descriptions of the protagonists, right down to their clothing and the state of their teeth ('Sievert Tiburtius was a small, narrow man with a large head and a thin, long, blond beard parted in the middle, so that he sometimes put the ends back over his shoulders.'). A great summer read!

It really pisses me off that publishers can get away with such poor proof reading and still charge normal prices for epub books. This edition is littered with typos and as someone else has said, book 5 chapters 4 and 5 are missing and have earlier chapters inserted in a jumbled up fashion. I would expect more from Vintage.A real shame as this is a fabulous read, or would be.