Anthony Heilbut

One of the more interesting literary biographies that I have read, this work delves into the psychology of the author in an intimate way. The author ties together various moments from Mann's long career tracing how the writer's introversion and self-obsession underwrote his telling commentaries on German society, looping from considerations of definitive late novels like Doctor Faustus back into descriptions of Mann's youth. Heilbut notes that Mann's birth occurred roughly concurrently with Germany's political unification, the legal emancipation of German Jewry, and the popularization of the term "homosexual." Detailed critical readings of Mann's private and public works probe the author's psyche while demonstrating how Mann's literary consciousness served as a stage for the exploration of the license and limits of German, Jewish, and homosexual self-expression. Heilbut describes how the classic novella Death in Venice, for example, celebrates homoerotic longing while depicting a national idol dying amid debased tourism. This and other examples made this an interesting take on Thomas Mann's life.… (altro)