Death in Venice

Thomas Mann

I skimmed the impenetrable first 10 pages to see whether there was any sort of story lurking in the remainder. There was. It's the story of an older man's fatal obsession with a teenage boy. The older man is Gustave Aschenbach, a learned and prosperous man, a writer. It's because of his intellectual credentials that Aschenbach can cloak his desire in aesthetic terms. At the start of his passion, when he notices the boy in a hotel lobby while holidaying in Venice, Aschenbach is struck by the boy's perfect form. At first it's an abstract appreciation. By the end of the book Aschenbach is feverishly and slavishly trailing the boy through the streets of Venice.

The older man and the younger man exchange glances but no words, and certainly there is nothing physical between them. There is no menace in Aschenbach's obsession. But there is menace in the city itself. Soon there are rumours of plague and the smell of death in the air. With the plague creeping over him and his mental state fast unravelling it becomes a question of which sickness will destroy Aschenbach first.

There are some interesting themes here. It reminded me of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, though without the need for any device. The spectacle of an older man attempting to recapture his youth is a very much a part of this book. When he docks at Venice, Aschenbach is revolted by just such a fellow passenger, a dandified older fellow in youthful dress who knocks around with the rest of the boat's young crowd. By the end of the book, Aeschenbach himself is paying frequent visits to the hotel barber for hair dye and rouge. It's a pathetic image.

But there are parts of the book which were just too much obscure philosophising. Too much Greek. It's worth reading if you work on the assumption that you can't go too far wrong with a book of just 77 pages. Otherwise skip it.