Herbert Lehnert & Eva Wessell 
A Companion to the Works of Thomas Mann 

Sixteen new, carefully focused essays on the prose works of one of the great writers of modernity.


Thomas Mann is among the greatest of German prose writers, and was the first German novelist to reach a wide English-speaking readership since Goethe. Novels such as
Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, and
Doktor Faustus attest to his mastery of subtle, distanced irony, while novellas such as
Death in Venice reveal him at the height of his mastery of language. In addition to fresh insights about these best-known works of Mann, this volume treats less-often-discussed works such as
Joseph and His Brothers, Lotte in Weimar, and
Felix Krull, as well as his political writings and essays. Mann himself was a paradox: his role as family-father was both refuge and façade; his love of Germany was matched by his contempt for its having embraced Hitler. While in exile during the Nazi period, he functioned as the prime representative of the ‘good’ Germany in the fight against fascism, and he has often been remembered this way in English-speaking lands. But a new view of Mann is emerging half a century after his death: a view of him as one of the great writers of a modernity understood as extending into our 21st century. This volume provides sixteen essays by American and European specialists. They demonstrate the relevance of his writings for our time, making particular use of the biographical material that is now available.

Contributors: Ehrhard Bahr, Manfred Dierks, Werner Frizen, Clayton Koelb, Helmut Koopmann, Wolfgang Lederer, Hannelore Mundt, Peter Pütz, Jens Rieckmann, Hans Joachim Sandberg, Egon Schwarz, and Hans Vaget.

Herbert Lehnert is Research Professor, and Eva Wessell is lecturer in Humanities, both at the University of California, Irvine.

Table of Content

Thomas Mann’s Beginnings and
Buddenbrooks – Herbert Lehnert

Art and Society in Thomas Mann’s Early Novellas – Ehrhard Bahr

Love in Society: Thomas Mann’s Early Stories – Wolfgang Lederer

‘Death in Venice’ –

‘Mein ‘Friedrich’–das ist was Anderes’: Thomas Mann’s Unwritten Novel about Frederick the Great, King of Prussia – Hans-Joachim Sandberg

Magic and Reflections: Thomas Mann’s
The Magic Mountain and His War Essays – Eva Wessell

Thomas Mann’s Autobiographical Stories – Dr. Helmut Koopmann

Joseph and His Brothers – Peter Puetz

Lotte in Weimar – Werner Frizen

Thomas Mann’s Late Politics – Dr. Manfred Dierks

‘German’ Music and German Catastrophe: A Re-Reading of
Doktor Faustus – Hans Rudolf Vaget

The Gaze of Love, Longing, and Desire in Thomas Mann’s ‘The Transposed Heads’ and ‘The Black Swan’ – Jens Rieckmann

Felix Krull – Egon Schwarz

Female Identities and Autobiographical Impulses in Thomas Mann’s Work – Hannelore Mundt

Betrayed or Not Betrayed: A Testament? – Herbert Lehnert

Thomas Mann’s Comedies – Herbert Lehnert

About the author

HANS RUDOLF VAGET is Professor Emeritus of German Studies at Smith College, MA.