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Reader discussion: Death in Venice
Public reader discussion about Death in Venice in the WeRead Catalog by Thomas Mann.
Death In Venice film
By VelvetBookworm
I know this is supposed to be about Thomas Mann’s stuff, but I wasn’t really sure where else to ask, so I just went ahead and bought Visconti’s film version of “Death in Venice.” I watched it and… oh my gosh!!! It’s seriously gorgeous. Like, super pretty. The only parts that felt a little weird were the moments that make you think “where is Chris Hansen?” (if you’ve seen it, you get it). But for the most part I loved everything else. It feels really artsy, and I like how he kind of shows everything in these wide, panoramic ways so you don’t miss the details. Also it didn’t even feel like a two-hour movie to me—I think I was just so distracted by how beautiful it was.
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann [Literature](1912)
By shelfEnzyme
Honestly, I’m not totally sure how I feel about this one, but it’s definitely intriguing. It’s set right around the start of World War I, and a decade after *Buddenbrooks* made Thomas Mann famous, so you can tell it’s got big reputation behind it. The main guy, Gustav von Aschenbach, is a pretty successful writer but he’s getting older, and he goes wandering to Venice hoping for some kind of spiritual reset… and it turns into this erotic downfall instead.
Venice is all decaying, there’s some epidemic going around (not really named), and he gets completely fixated on this beautiful Polish boy, Tadzio. I saw Mann’s quote about it being basically the “voluptuousness of doom,” and then also that he was thinking a lot about the artist’s dignity. Not sure yet which one hits harder, but it’s stuck with me.
Is it normal that I find Thomas Mann's Death in Venice rather creepy?
By field_simple
I read this a few months ago, and I didn’t really have the best start with Mann either—I struggled through *Doktor Faustus* before and couldn’t finish it because I ran out of time. I did find it interesting, like the way Faustus lines up with Germany/Nazis in the early 20th century and the writing is pretty good, but I kept getting pulled out of it. The pacing felt slow in a very deliberate way, and whenever the book would pause for these long explanations about music or why something matters musically, I just lost interest. I was hoping this one would be better since it’s shorter and people seem to love it more.
In *Death in Venice* (I’m pretty sure the main character is Ashenbach), the setup sounds right up my alley: an older, successful writer, kind of falling apart, goes to Venice and ends up falling for a boy who’s, like, fourteen while he’s staying at a hotel. It gives off that “portrait of an old artist” vibe, like what it means to be a writer when you’re older and weaker and watching youth right in front of you—while you’re slowly getting closer to dying. There’s this nostalgic, almost reflective tone to it, and I was willing to put up with the extra, elaborate prose because the premise was intriguing.
But then I actually got into the story and… it felt really off and honestly kind of creepy. I was under the impression it was about an old man dying and using youth as something to think about emotionally, not about him turning into some kind of sexual obsession. Instead, he basically starts stalking this kid—waiting around by the beach just to watch, staring at him in silence, getting fixated in a really unhealthy way. And he’s not just “sad” or “confused,” he comes off detached from reality except for whatever is in his own head or fantasies. I ended up really disliking him.
I get that with books like *Lolita* (which I haven’t read, but I know the gist), the whole point is that the narrator is clearly a sick weirdo and you’re meant to feel disgust. With this one, though, it feels like you’re supposed to feel sympathy for what happens—while the guy is staring at a teenager—and that’s what makes it so uncomfortable for me. I started having doubts while reading, and after looking into Mann a bit more, it just made things worse for me. It sounds like he was dealing with his own stuff around homosexuality, and that it wasn’t just “high art,” like… it was basically him packaging unhealthy thoughts as something beautiful. And then there’s the whole thing about him being in love with his son when his son was around 13, plus the supposed real-life inspiration for the boy being like a 10-year-old kid—what the hell.
So yeah, if this is the Thomas Mann that people are so crazy about, I don’t really get it. The fact that this book is praised so much kind of makes me uncomfortable, and I don’t know how to reconcile it with the way everyone else talks about it.
Last-Minute Expiring Recommendation: Death in Venice (1971)
By Cynanche2004
I’m kind of stuck between two ways to read Luchino Visconti’s “Death in Venice” (I haven’t read Thomas Mann, so I’m going in totally blind there).
One take is that Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) is just an older guy trying to claw his way back to feeling young and pretty again, and that comes through the whole Tadzio (Björn Andrésen) thing—like he’s this delicate porcelain-doll image. That version feels… optimistic, and honestly a little naive.
The other way, though, is that Aschenbach’s feelings aren’t normal and they slide into something much more unsettling and obsessive. And no matter how “perfect” Tadzio looks, he’s still clearly a kid. He looks like one, moves like one, and there’s literally a governess hovering and keeping watch like it’s babysitting 24/7.
Also, there’s that epidemic going through Venice in the background, which is hard not to think about when you’re dealing with everything going on in the world (Covid-era brain makes that connection whether you want it or not).
By the end, Bogarde is basically wearing hair dye, makeup, and desperation—trying so hard to undo time that he ends up looking really grotesque, like some weird mash-up of Gomez Addams energy and that Paul Bearer look. Meanwhile Tadzio stays untouched and natural.
So yeah, I can’t exactly say I’d recommend it “blindly.” It’s long, slow, and weird, but it is undeniably pretty. The dialogue is barely there—almost none at all, and the little bit that exists feels kind of pretentious and artsy. And the subtitles only tell you what language is being spoken (at least for Italian/Polish), not what they’re actually saying.
I’m probably going to watch “The Most Beautiful Boy in the World” next. It’s on the same channel and not expiring yet. I only found out about it earlier because I like showbiz docs, but that documentary is basically the whole reason I ended up watching “Death in Venice” in the first place.
ELI5-Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice?"
By deepmaple9
I read this a while back, so sorry if I’m a little fuzzy, but this is how it landed for me.
It feels packed with references and allusions. The biggest one to me is Nietzsche—like, you can really see the influence from The Birth of Tragedy and his other stuff. (And yeah, Nietzsche comes off as this really “ill” kind of philosopher.)
A lot of Mann’s writing seems to circle around the whole tragic artist thing—how art requires discipline, and also this kind of sick, isolated mindset. In that way, the artists feel kind of Apollonian to me. They’re removed from normal life, watching society more than actually being part of it, like they just don’t belong. And it makes sense in the context that all of these artists are “sick,” and it basically sets them up for a downfall, usually ending in something brutal and final.
On top of that, there are Greek myth vibes too, especially with Tadzio. At that point, Aschenbach gets totally pulled toward the Dionysian side—the sensual, wild stuff. And it starts to feel like Eros and Thanatos (love and death) are tangled together so much you can’t tell them apart.
(Also, Tonio Kröger is another Mann work that really digs into similar ideas.)
Opinions on Thomas Mann?
By Crimson_Goose
I’m thinking of grabbing *Der Zauberberg*. Does anyone have thoughts on it—like is it worth reading, and what’s your take on him and his writing?
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By ChapterDelta96
Ben Roberts—I’m not totally sure I’m feeling it, but that name keeps sticking with me.
Anything that's under 200 pages
By Curious-Prologue26
I’ve been mostly reading stuff around 400–500 pages, so I’m in the mood for something shorter.
Honestly, anything works as long as it’s not romance and it’s not from the last few years. Also, please not Murderbot Diaries.
Books set in Venice?
By honestdelta4
I came across The Floating Book and it looks really interesting (it’s definitely on my shortlist): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1907692.The_Floating_Book
That said, I’m still looking—if anyone has other suggestions, I’d love to hear them.
Book recommendations: Homosexuality in literature
By paperback_drifts
Hey everyone! 😊
I’m getting ready for a presentation in upper school about homosexuality in literature. I was thinking of comparing two books, but honestly, if I can find one that has enough to dig into, that’s totally fine too.
I’ve found a bunch of titles that seem really interesting, but I just don’t have the time or budget to read them all. Right now I’ve already ordered Thomas Mann’s *Death in Venice* (also because it fits my German class), but from what I’ve seen so far, the whole homosexuality aspect feels more symbolic/indirect there.
Do you have any suggestions for other “classic” books—or even just one—that would have enough material to analyze the theme? If it happens to contrast well with *Death in Venice*, that’d be a bonus.
Thanks a lot!
Emptiness after reading- is it a good thing?
By MoonSong
After finishing most books I usually end up feeling something—sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad—but at least there’s some kind of takeaway or moral by the end. This week that completely didn’t happen after I read Thomas Mann’s *Death in Venice*.
It was honestly pretty easy to get through. It’s under 100 pages and the story just moves along, so I finished it in a day. But the second I was done, I felt weirdly confused. I felt emotion while I was reading, but afterwards it was like… nothing landed. And I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to think. Was Aschenbach’s obsession with Tadzio meant to be “good”? I know he dies (kind of metaphorically), but Mann doesn’t really spell out that he’s condemning it the whole way through.
Tadzio almost feels like the ideal artist-muse thing, especially with the Greek references. But then there’s the problem that Tadzio is a fourteen-year-old boy and Aschenbach is an adult. I can’t shake how uncomfortable that is, especially because Aschenbach basically calls it love and talks about it like that whole mania idea from ancient Greece. The ending doesn’t make it clearer either—he lies and covers up what’s happening in Venice so he can stay close to Tadzio.
Now I’m just sitting here thinking if Tadzio is supposed to be something like the disease in a physical form, like deadly stuff hidden under beautiful imagery? I don’t even know. My thoughts about this book have been bothering me for days, so I figured I’d throw them out there and see what other people think.
Death in Venice
By moose_reef
Not sure I get it—can you explain what you mean there, man?
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann… What an absolutely amazing work!
By Moss-Shelf
About two weeks ago I went down a bit of a rabbit hole (pun not really intended) and was looking up stuff on the stinkhorn mushroom on Wikipedia. I noticed it referenced *The Magic Mountain* by Thomas Mann, and I honestly had no idea what the book was or even who Thomas Mann was. I’m not really a fiction reader, so I thought, “Okay, but why not just grab it and see?” I ended up buying it and started reading… and I’m really glad I did. I’m only around 150 pages in, but now I’m kind of hooked. Every time I crack it open, I feel like I’m instantly pulled into that whole Berghof sanatorium world. It’s honestly one of the best things I’ve run into lately. What do you all think about *The Magic Mountain*?
Just finished ”The Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann
By hiddenDeer60
I’ve gone through a bunch of the usual “classics” over the years (Iliad, Bible, Dickens, all that), and I genuinely think this one is the best—no competition, not even close. The characters are just unreal. They’re so compelling that you end up caring about basically all of them. The plot is super slow at first (I mean, like the first 200 pages), then it starts picking up steam, and by the last 300 pages it gets really fast and intense. I’m pretty sure Mann built it that way on purpose, to make you feel time passing while he’s thinking about it in the story.
The big themes are time, love, and death, but it’s way more than that too. It’s set right up to World War I in Europe, so you can kind of feel the whole disaster hanging over everything.
Also, this isn’t something you can really “summarize.” There’s just no good way to do it—just read it. I’ve read a lot, and this one’s in its own category.
I don’t cry at novels that often. Like, I only cried once before (at the end of *Parade’s End*), but *The Magic Mountain* had me crying three separate times. It’s so beautiful. I can’t even explain it. Seriously—stop what you’re doing and pick it up.
A psychoanalytic reading of Thomas Mann's novella "Death in Venice"
By Bookworm_Cougar
This book really nails something weird and intense that I can’t fully wrap my head around: that mix of pleasure and emptiness that seems to sit right at the core of being a person.
Gustave Aschenbach basically lives through both. Like, his whole life is shaped by this push toward the edge of things—he’s not just “alive,” he’s kind of driven to keep repeating whatever his drive is, and he even treats his vocation like the main reason to keep going. He’s spent years writing seriously, giving up comfort and even his health, all for the work. And somehow that suffering turns into the thing that makes him famous, which is messed up but also feels like it fits what the story is doing. His whole deal as an author ends up looking like this kind of “I’m empty but I’m doing it anyway” version of devotion.
Then he takes this long break and goes to an island resort near Venice, and of course everything falls apart when he fixes on Tadzio. It’s not just a passing attraction—he ends up extending his stay, barely acting like he’d even notice the cholera situation in the city, and just watches this kid obsessively. A lot of people label it as some kind of predatory sexual thing, which honestly is where my head goes too at first, but the book seems to push back and make it more like an unreturned, nonsexual obsession. Like admiration that turns into something painful and destabilizing. He’s stuck in this daily routine of watching, and it starts messing with his whole normal life. He’s tormented by guilt and fear and how other people would judge him, but he still can’t stop because it’s the only way he feels “alive” in that moment.
And I’m still not sure I fully agree with how it all gets justified, especially ending with the fact that he dies from the plague, but the ending makes it feel almost like he goes out happy—like he’s finally looking at something beyond himself, something almost comforting, even while everything is ending.
Hiii, me and some of my friends are starting a classics book club, but we’re relegating ourselves to relatively short ones (under 400 pages) and I’m looking for some recommendations (nothing after 1920)
By Quill_Ink7868
For reference, here’s the order of books we’ve got planned right now: *A Lost Lady* (Cather), *Passing* (Larsen), *The Touchstone* (Wharton), *Daisy Miller* (James), *Thérèse Raquin* (Zola), *Summer* (Wharton), and *Bonjour Tristesse* (Sagan).
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
By amber-fish
I’ve seen his name pop up in a bunch of other books, so I kept wondering why everyone kept bringing him up, and I finally bought a few of his and this was the first one I read.
So far it’s been really good—basically it’s a kid stuck in a hospital, with all these strange characters, and everything is just snow and cold. What I liked is it doesn’t feel like you’re trapped somewhere you hate the whole time. The setting descriptions make it seem like there’s still stuff to find there, even when you think there isn’t. And each character kind of brings something different, then you get this back-and-forth between them. It reminded me of Victor Hugo, but with a bit of G.K. Chesterton vibe mixed in. I’m not sure if it’ll stay my favorite, but it’s definitely up there, and it’s one of the few I’ve read where the ending actually feels right. The writing is also honestly impressive—I can’t stop thinking about it.
If anyone else has read it, I’d love to hear what you thought.
「death in venezia」
By WildHeron1980
So I’m assuming the whole thing is basically “Death in Venice” by Thomas Mann, but with a weird twist: it shows up like the book, except every page is blank—like it just takes the shape of whatever text the target sees.
And then there’s this Ghaccio copypasta thing. It can trigger whenever anyone thinks, says, or writes the word “Venice,” and it’s supposedly on all the time, anywhere. Even if someone plans to do it, it’ll still happen. The only way to stop it is saying “Venezia” instead of “Venice,” which feels kinda silly, but whatever.
Not sure what the stats are really supposed to mean here, but I guess destructive power is e, range a, durability a, and speed is n/a.
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (translated by Michael Henry Heim)
By hardcoverStorm
He was just sitting there in his coat with a book in his lap, kind of settling in as the hours went by without him really noticing. The rain stopped and the awning was down, so you could finally see the whole horizon. There was this huge, dead-looking stretch of sea under this gray, cloudy sky. Still, out in all that empty space it’s like your sense of time just goes weird—you can’t really tell what’s going on, and everything feels way too big to measure. He kept drifting off, thinking in pieces about weird, shadowy figures from earlier—like that older dandy and the guy with the beard who was down below—talking and moving around in his head like bits of a dream. Then he fell asleep.
This book destroyed me
By glimmer_ocean49
I just finished *Call Me By Your Name* and I feel like I got knocked sideways. For real, I didn’t know what to do with myself after it—like I wanted to text all my exes, quit my job, and just run off somewhere. I was suddenly craving all these crazy, reckless decisions. The book really did something to me. I can’t remember the last time I was this messed up by something I read. After a few days I’m finally calming down and feeling more normal, but the first stretch was rough. I kept thinking how badly I wanted to be young again and fall in love the way they did. And part of me was sad that I’ll probably never feel that intensely about someone again. But now I’m realizing I kind of had an intense thing going with the book itself, which is wild. I’m actually more into reading again because of it. Like, it genuinely changed me.