Blurb: Hoofdpersoon van deze novelle uit 1912 is de schrijver Gustav von Aschenbach, wiens indrukwekkende literaire productie gebaseerd is op een leven van Pruisische discipline en ascese. Hij reist naar Venetië en alles wat hij in zijn leven heeft verdrongen lijkt nu met geweld te voorschijn te komen. Aschenbach wordt verliefd op een mooie jongen en probeert zich er jonger uit te doen zien en wordt steeds overvallen door ongeremde dromen. Tegelijkertijd wordt hij aangestoken door de in Venetië heersende cholera, die hem binnen enkele dagen velt, omdat hij tegen de dood geen innerlijke afweerkrachten meer op kan brengen. Thomas Mann (1975-1955) ontving in 1929 de Nobelprijs voor de literatuur. Henk van Ulsen (1927-2009) heeft op nagenoeg alle Nederlandse podia gestaan. Beroemd zijn zijn vertolkingen van De huisbewaarder, De dood van Ivan Iljitsj en Dagboek van een gek. In 2007 stond hij op de planken met De dood in Venetië. 'Dood in Venetië is na Thomas Mann en Luchino Visconti nu ook van Henk van Ulsen geworden.' - De Volkskrant over het toneelstuk.
Samenv.: Een wat oudere schrijver raakt tijdens een verblijf in Venetië in de ban van de schoonheid van een 14-jarige Poolse jongen.
Samenv.: Integrale weergave van de gelijknamige novelle, voorgelezen door Henk van Ulsen. Deze novelle uit 1913 vertelt in subtiele, vaak zeer geestige taal het tragikomische lot van een wat oudere schrijver die tijdens zijn vakantie in Venetië een levend kunstwerk ontwaart: een 14-jarige Poolse jongen die het evenbeeld is van een jonge Griekse god. De kunstenaar wordt verliefd, probeert een groteske verjongingskuur en volgt hulpeloos en hopeloos de jongen bij diens wandelingen en spelletjes. Wilde dromen kwellen hem, zijn weerstand vermindert en een cholera-epidemie vindt in hem een makkelijk slachtoffer. Hij sterft in een strandstoel, met de blik op de geliefde die in zee staat en hem lijkt te wenken. Vooral sinds de verfilming van Visconti uit 1971 geldt de novelle als een pedofiele klassieker, maar het is een deels tamelijk abstracte parabel over het kunstenaarschap.

I have to start this review with a confession: I did not read this translation of Death in Venice. I didn't even read a printed book version of Death in Venice; rather, I found a translated version of the text online. (I sure hope it was posted legally...) So since I can't say a whole lot about this translation, I will have to limit myself to talking about Mann's story--which, I do hope, is more enthralling in its native German than it is in translation.

The novella's plot concerns Gustav von Aschenbach, a world-famous author who has recently been ennobled and has decided, through a set of unusual circumstances, that he needs to take a break. He decided to vacation in Venice, where he becomes infatuated with a young Polish boy, Tadzio, who is vacationing there with his family. The better part of the tale involves Aschenbach's steadily increasing interest in the young boy, and the lengths that he goes to for this longing.

The real strength of the novella is in the character of Gustav, who is dominant in every scene, despite the work being told in the third-person. He comes off at first as a very snooty type, but the more time we spend with him--and the more unhinged he becomes as a result of his obsession--the more interested we become in him. His depth is revealed slowly and patiently by Mann: we begin by knowing only his reputation, we then get a fine sense of the person beneath the veneer, and are left with a final sentence that is both achingly sad and bring the whole tale full-circle.

Nevertheless, the story does suffer from exceptionally slow pacing at its start, a problem that I hesitate to blame on the long, languorous construction of the original German prose. The first two chapters, as Aschenbach prepares to depart for Venice, crawl along at a snail's pace, providing us with extraordinary insight into Aschenbach's creative faculties and theories of aesthetics, but not giving us enough reason to remain invested in it. The purpose ultimately reveals itself as his obsession with Tadzio becomes more complete (and more artistic, technically), but there feels like too much of a divide between the theory and the practice, and it ends up falling short.

Some may very well give up on the novella before they get very far into it, and I would hardly blame them: I almost did myself. But if you can get past the exposition and reach Venice with Aschenbach, Mann takes hold and steers the story well from there. There's enough mystery and intrigue to keep the reader on his toes--even if the title of the work renders the ending less than a surprise--and there are passages of true beauty throughout. As long as you can get through the slow start, Death in Venice proves itself to be a worthy and enrapturing read.

no sguardo panoramico ad alcune delle opere precedenti la Montagna Incantata ci propone un itinerario ben preciso che, come afferma Asor Rosa, rende possibile il superamento del problematicismo per una pedagogica acquisizione dell’umanesimo.

Ne I Buddenbrook è diffuso un senso di disfacimento, annunciato per sintomi progressivi. È una monumentale storia di quattro generazioni, ma fin dall’inizio si avverte il processo fatale che dissolverà le sane e robuste tradizioni borghesi, per sfociare nel decadente sguardo ambrato di Hanno, ultimo rampollo, chiuso nel suo doloroso ed estenuante tormento musicale

Some brilliant classics never age. Their eternal conflicts remain relevant and their complexity is sufficient to provide a challenge with each reading. Death in Venice is one of those.

In this novella, Mann investigates the battle between the mind and the body, the head and the heart, the noble and the savage. Gustav von Aschenbach, an aging writer, has dedicated his life to intellectual pursuits, living each day on the highest plane of a carefully-controlled artistic and spiritual life. But a sudden desire for the exotic takes him to Venice, where his life of dignity and restraint falls away. Caught by lust in a climate of decadence and disease, he is helpless to resist the lure of hedonism that finally spells his doom. ( )

Published on the eve of World War I, a decade after Buddenbrooks had established Thomas Mann as a literary celebrity, Death in Venice tells the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful but aging writer who follows his wanderlust to Venice in search of spiritual fulfillment that instead leads to his erotic doom. In the decaying city, besieged by an unnamed epidemic, he becomes obsessed with an exquisite Polish boy, Tadzio. 'It is a story of the voluptuousness of doom,' Mann wrote. 'But the problem I had especially in mind was that of the artist's dignity.'