Buddenbrooks: A Tale of Family Decline

Allen EllenzweigAllen Ellenzweig: BUDDENBROOKS is the first of Mann's novels. Published in 1900 when he was only 25, it launched him in German literature with its brilliantly detailed picture of a wealthy merchant family's triumphs and decline over several generations. This new translation is wonderfully readable, capturing the easy, intimate voice of the narrator as he presents a large cast of characters, including family members with various eccentricities, high status townsfolk, and a few beloved household servants. A long read, but a very enjoyable page-turner, and a picture of the haute bourgeoisie in Germany from the mid to the late 19th Century--people so humanely and humorously depicted that we feel they might be our neighbors.

United States on Aug 12, 2023

Mr. S. Coury: This book describe the fate of four generations of a family of merchants in north Germany. I enjoyed the modern translation, which feels natural for a English reader. If you can I also recommend to listen to the audiobook. It brings the story to life.

United Kingdom on Jul 16, 2023

Aran Joseph Canes: I’ve been reading a lot of socialist realism this year and while there’s no such thing as German realism, that term would describe Buddenbrooks to a tee.

Stretching over four generations, it’s a saga of a bourgeoisie family’s ascent and decline in mid to late nineteenth century Germany. It’s actually still beloved in its home country for bringing that era in northern Germany to life.

It’s an epic—stretching some seven hundred thirty one pages in this English translation. And while there are themes—art versus business, egotism versus self-sacrifice—it’s really more of an incredibly realistic account than an exercise in ideas.

While it’s a classic and needs no recommendation, I, for one, got caught up in the saga and imagine many other
bookstagrammers would as well. Not a must read, but as a path into another time and another culture it’s well worth the effort. Recommended to those with like interests.

United States on Jul 12, 2023

Diana Crane: Such an amazing family saga, a real feeling of loss when the last page was read!
A masterpiece from Thomas Mann.

United Kingdom on Feb 15, 2023

Segovia: Thoroughly enjoyed this very readable saga and nothing I can add to more competent reviewers here. Except the slightly annoying issue I had with Budenbrooks was how Gerda, Antoni's sister in law, was completely irrelevant to the story. Given her previous association and her unique / capable character she was most noted for her complete absence.
I bought this version on Daily cheapo offer else I'd be kicking up more fuss about poor Kindle editing

United Kingdom on Nov 08, 2022

Felix the cat: I loved the characters. They are straight out of the twenty first century. I cannot believe this book was written in 1904. Thomas Mann speaks to us today. Tony Buddenbrook was my favourite character. I admired her strength in the face of such adversity. The book is long but very easy to read and very enjoyable.

United Kingdom on Nov 04, 2022

P. Lindsay falvey: Mann was a great author, which shines through some clumsy renderings in English. Occasional typos are forgivable but paragraph repetitions are annoying. I thought I was downloading the Woods' translation, and had 2020 restrictions not closed off some purchase options, I would have abandoned this translation for Wood's. I learned afterwards that the preferred version is not available on kindle or any e-version.
My star rating is for Mann - if it was for the overall product purchased, the score might be **. Neverthless, an involved reader can enjoy the text despite these drawbacks. Mann's treatment of characters is very convincing and even though the outcome of the story is known, he can engage the reader with emotive descriptions. Of the three Mann books I have read, I rank Joseph and His Brothers first, then The Magic Mountain.

Australia on Sep 26, 2020

Roger Brunyate: If you are going to reread a classic, go for the Everyman edition if you can. Go for the beautiful printing, fine paper, and comfortable feel in the hand, even when the novel is as long as this one (722 pages). Go for the informative introductions and historical material. And in this case, go for the lively new translation.

I was 19 when I first read BUDDENBROOKS, the family saga that brought Mann to fame in 1901, at the age of 26. I remember enjoying it then, though I can't recall quite why. Now, almost six decades later, I know exactly why: it may well be the last example of the grand 19th-century novel, filled with well-delineated characters, emotional struggles, fine set pieces, and -- a surprise for me -- flashes of wit. But significantly, it is a nineteenth-century novel that pokes its nose into the twentieth. Mann is already experimenting with devices that will become part of the new narrative, such as seasoning a third-person description of a character with first- or second-person glimpses of his inner thoughts, or (as in his brilliant penultimate chapter) setting up the readers for a certain conclusion, but letting them decide what that conclusion must be,...

United States on Oct 03, 2017

Jiang Xueqin: As a German novel, throughout its over seven hundred pages, "Buddenbrooks" struggles with its own identity. Is it a social satire, poking fun at the rituals, customs, and thoughts of a provincial merchant family who fancy themselves aristocrats? Or is it a tragic family saga, a once well-respected and well-regarded house that inevitably declined as it fought to maintain the status quo in a world of change, a family rent asunder by its antiquated loyalty to the idea of family. It is both, reflecting the ambivalent attitude of the author to his own family history, from which "Buddenbrooks" is mostly based.

In this novel, the beginning of the familial decline can be traced to a particular point. Pretty and shallow and vain Tony Buddenbrook, the eldest daughter of a prosperous merchant family, is being courted by a seemingly successful merchant. Tony absolutely detests this merchant, but her family think it a perfect match. Tony's father is a bit weary of Tony's vanity and flightiness, and he thinks combining the Buddenbrook prestige to the merchant's wealth will only augment the family brand, and he in the most vocal terms available to a distant father in his dealings with his...

United States on Mar 04, 2013