Thomas Mann: Profile and Perspectives

By André von Gronicka

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• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: B001V60714
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Random House

Customer Reviews

Enigmas of the artist and his art

Thomas Mann tried to solve the enigmas of the artist and his art. He ascribed special significance to his mother's creole ancestry. He thought his father's personality determined the pattern of his life. German bourgeois culture was paramount. Mann acknowledged a significant amount of identification with the artist figure of DEATH IN VENICE. Contrarily, though, Thomas Mann had the strength to maintain his lofty place. Mann persevered in his work. DR. FAUSTUS was a sort of confession. It was the achievement of new emotional freedom. To Thomas Mann the mark of genius was to discover, adopt, and adapt. He did not consider original invention important. His guiding stars were Nietzsche, Wagner, and Schopenauer. Goethe's harmonious personality influenced Mann. The voice of Schiller had spoken to him in his youth. His intellectual awakening took place in the 1880's. Mann planned a novel on Frederick the Great and never wrote it. While composing DR. FAUSTUS Mann felt close to Dostoevsky. He had admired Hesse's DEMIAN and STEPPENWOLF. As a young writer, Mann showed noteworthy maturity and soberness. He had a highly developed sense of order and responsibility. Mann used solid learning of every kind in his masterpieces. An emphasis on details was his standard practice. To Mann the world of letters was a unity. Mann combined profound emotion with intellectual detachment. He opposed the established German view that psychology and myth were at opposite poles. The author, Mann, constantly balanced reality and symbol. Mann was a genius of the golden mean. He was a supporter of humanism and democracy. A useful chronology and notes appear at the end of this excellent work on Thomas Mann.