Death In Venice And Other Stories

A magnificent city is touched by disease. An ageing writer is blinded by desire. Thomas Mann's haunting collection gathers seven stories of desire, repression and self-deception. Ageing writer Gustav von Aschenbach is on holiday in Venice when he notices a fellow guest in the foyer of his hotel: an exceptionally beautiful boy staying there with his family. Admiration gives way to obsession as Aschenbach's days begin to revolve around seeing the boy. Meanwhile, ominous signs point to disease spreading through the magnificent but decaying city. Blinded by his fixation, Aschenbach fails to recognise the danger around him. In these seven stories, Mann returns again and again to the private life beneath the public self. The result is a collection of European classics marked by elegance, moral tension and haunting psychological depth. A classic collection of literary stories, Death in Venice And Other Stories is ideal for readers drawn to European classics, psychological fiction and haunting studies of beauty, obsession and moral disintegration. (Cover may vary)

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) is widely regarded as the greatest German novelist of the twentieth century. His first novel, Buddenbrooks, was a huge success and led to a Nobel Prize in Literature. However, when the Nazis came to power, his works were blacklisted and burned and Mann was stripped of his citizenship. He spent the latter part of his life in exile in the United States and Switzerland. His other major novels include The Magic Mountain, Doctor Faustus and Joseph and His Brothers.