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rebcamuse's review against another edition
4.0
It is rare that it takes three months for me to finish a novel, but I have a few theories as to why this was (aside from the rigors of a teaching schedule/adjunct commute).
The novel operates on so many levels it is difficult to read more than a few chapters before you need to stop to digest. Keeping track of the numerous secondary characters is a painstaking, but worthwhile, endeavor. Mann forms his environment with this multitude, presenting a photograph of German bourgeois life in the early 20th century.
The book warrants musicological analysis in its debt to Schoenberg, its continuation of the intimate connection between Faust and music, and its portraiture of Germanic musical existence (for starters). But even outside of musicological inquiry, the book is full of literary paths one can tread should they choose. The relationship between the book's narrator and his forsaken hero, Adrian, dallies in sentiments rarely explored between two male characters. There are some echoes of [a:Herman Hesse|16534359|Herman Hesse|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s [b: Narcissus and Goldmund|5954|Narcissus and Goldmund|Hermann Hesse|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1374680750s/5954.jpg|955995], except that Adrian Leverkühn's encounter with "love" comes with dire consequences.
I'd like to re-read the novel with a focus on the music only, because what resonated for me most loudly was how the book serves as a treatise on the dangers of blind nationalism. The narrator, Zeitblom, frustrates the reader with his various digressions, until you realize they are not digressions at all but allegories. His reflections about wartime Germany telescope into Adrian's own struggles. There were moments that made me stop and put the book down as I was yanked into my own reality:
"...the democracy of the West--however outdate its institutions may prove over time, however obstinately its notion of freedom resists what is new and necessary--is nonetheless essentially on the side of human progress, of the goodwill to perfect society, and is by its very nature capable of renewal, improvement, rejuvenation, of proceeding toward conditions that provide greater justice in life." (358)
I suppose I still believe this...but I note also Zeitblom's comments a couple of pages earlier regarding Germany:
"It is the demand of a regime that does not wish to grasp, that apparently does not understand even now, that it has been condemned, that it must vanish, laden witht eh curse of having made itself intolerable to the world--no, of having made us, Germany, the Reich, let me go farther and say, Germanness, everything German, intolerable to the world." (356)
This is why I read.
Readers who have no musical background will likely find themselves frustrated with some of the lengthy musical explications. I suggest skipping/skimming them. Normally I would never recommend this, but there is so much else to be had from reading this novel that it would be such a disservice to throw the myriad babies out with the musical bathwater. For the musically-inclined reader, however, the plethora of references to composers and pieces is a ready-made listening list and a chance to experience a nation's struggle with both political and aesthetic ideologies.
(Crossposted)
The novel operates on so many levels it is difficult to read more than a few chapters before you need to stop to digest. Keeping track of the numerous secondary characters is a painstaking, but worthwhile, endeavor. Mann forms his environment with this multitude, presenting a photograph of German bourgeois life in the early 20th century.
The book warrants musicological analysis in its debt to Schoenberg, its continuation of the intimate connection between Faust and music, and its portraiture of Germanic musical existence (for starters). But even outside of musicological inquiry, the book is full of literary paths one can tread should they choose. The relationship between the book's narrator and his forsaken hero, Adrian, dallies in sentiments rarely explored between two male characters. There are some echoes of [a:Herman Hesse|16534359|Herman Hesse|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s [b: Narcissus and Goldmund|5954|Narcissus and Goldmund|Hermann Hesse|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1374680750s/5954.jpg|955995], except that Adrian Leverkühn's encounter with "love" comes with dire consequences.
I'd like to re-read the novel with a focus on the music only, because what resonated for me most loudly was how the book serves as a treatise on the dangers of blind nationalism. The narrator, Zeitblom, frustrates the reader with his various digressions, until you realize they are not digressions at all but allegories. His reflections about wartime Germany telescope into Adrian's own struggles. There were moments that made me stop and put the book down as I was yanked into my own reality:
"...the democracy of the West--however outdate its institutions may prove over time, however obstinately its notion of freedom resists what is new and necessary--is nonetheless essentially on the side of human progress, of the goodwill to perfect society, and is by its very nature capable of renewal, improvement, rejuvenation, of proceeding toward conditions that provide greater justice in life." (358)
I suppose I still believe this...but I note also Zeitblom's comments a couple of pages earlier regarding Germany:
"It is the demand of a regime that does not wish to grasp, that apparently does not understand even now, that it has been condemned, that it must vanish, laden witht eh curse of having made itself intolerable to the world--no, of having made us, Germany, the Reich, let me go farther and say, Germanness, everything German, intolerable to the world." (356)
This is why I read.
Readers who have no musical background will likely find themselves frustrated with some of the lengthy musical explications. I suggest skipping/skimming them. Normally I would never recommend this, but there is so much else to be had from reading this novel that it would be such a disservice to throw the myriad babies out with the musical bathwater. For the musically-inclined reader, however, the plethora of references to composers and pieces is a ready-made listening list and a chance to experience a nation's struggle with both political and aesthetic ideologies.
(Crossposted)
ericfheiman's review against another edition
5.0
Possibly the densest, most difficult book I've read since Joyce's, "Ulysses," but if you have the mind strength it's worth the slog. Just have a dictionary and Google nearby to lookup all the $100 dollar words and references.
rainbow1218's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
maenad_wordsmith's review against another edition
Another book I read for my U.C. Berkeley TA-ship, not to be confused with Marlowe's Faustus, which I reread for an entirely different TA-ship a couple years ago.
ylvak's review against another edition
4.0
Parallellen mellan pakten med djävulen och de konservativas pakt med högerpopulismen slår hårt år 2019. Att sälja sin själ till djävulen för berömmelsen och konsten, och att sälja sitt land och sina medmänniskor till densamme för fortsatt politisk makt. Men djävulen som ger en konsten fördärvar ens liv, förvränger konsten så att den blir till en plåga. Populisterna med vilkens hjälp man behåller makten ändrar snart definitionen av ordet makt. Av ordet demokrati. Innan man vet ordet av har ens pakt orsakat ens närståendes död. Innan man vet ordet av (fast man visste ordet av, man visste det varenda steg på vägen) känner man den stickande doften från brännungarna och konfronteras av en amerikansk soldat. “… Förklarar dessa borgare, som skenbart hedervärda skötte sina affärer och försökte ingenting veta, trots att vinden blåste stanken av bränt människokött därifrån in i deras näsor - förklara dem medskyldiga till de ny blottade ohyggligheterna som han tvingar dem att vända sina ögon mot”. Att leva sitt liv med en djävulsk migrän som hindrar en från att lämna sitt rum. Att leva sitt liv med stickandet av sina förintade medmänniskor i näsborrarna.
Rekommenderar jag den här boken? Nja. Jag rekommenderar varmt att ha läst den, men att läsa den var rätt jobbigt. Thomas Mann älskar att maximera antalet bisatser som får plats i en enda mening, översättningar från tyska till svenska tenderar att ha (visserligen korrekta) direktöversättningar som man behöver plocka fram en ordbok för, och den är 670 sidor lång. Den är svårläst. Den är ett helt projekt.
Men, Ebba, jag vet ju att du är bra på att läsa. Du har ju till exempel läst bibeln och typ krångliga Uppsaliensiska kommunfullmäktigehandlingar, så du borde klara av denna bok med lätthet. Jag tror nämligen att du håller på att begå ett misstag som kommer kosta ditt parti och vårt land väldigt mycket (för att inte tala om dig själv personligen). Så jag tycker du ska läsa Doktor Faustus. Hälsa Niklas och kidsen! Heja Sirius! Puss!
Rekommenderar jag den här boken? Nja. Jag rekommenderar varmt att ha läst den, men att läsa den var rätt jobbigt. Thomas Mann älskar att maximera antalet bisatser som får plats i en enda mening, översättningar från tyska till svenska tenderar att ha (visserligen korrekta) direktöversättningar som man behöver plocka fram en ordbok för, och den är 670 sidor lång. Den är svårläst. Den är ett helt projekt.
Men, Ebba, jag vet ju att du är bra på att läsa. Du har ju till exempel läst bibeln och typ krångliga Uppsaliensiska kommunfullmäktigehandlingar, så du borde klara av denna bok med lätthet. Jag tror nämligen att du håller på att begå ett misstag som kommer kosta ditt parti och vårt land väldigt mycket (för att inte tala om dig själv personligen). Så jag tycker du ska läsa Doktor Faustus. Hälsa Niklas och kidsen! Heja Sirius! Puss!
batbones's review against another edition
4.0
'that art is stuck fast and grown too difficult and mocks its very self, that all has grown too difficult and God's poor man in his distress no longer knows up from down, that is surely the guilt of the age. But should a man make the Devil his guest in order thereby to go beyond and break through, he indicts his soul and hangs the guilt of the age round his own neck, so that he be damned. For it is said: be sober, be vigilant! But that is not the business of some, and rather than wisely to attend to what is needful on earth, that it might be better, and prudently to act that among men such order be stablished that may again prepare lively soil and honest accommodation for the beautiful work, man would prefer to play the truant and break out into hellish drunkenness, thus giving his soul to it and ending upon the shambles.' (p. 524)
Mann successfully fuses the triumph of the Faustian overreacher and the tragic nature of his downfall with the national spirit of Nazi Germany and the national guilt at the hour of its defeat. A reader less familiar with musical notation such as this reader may find passages describing the musical pieces less instructive and frankly rather boring. They are probably supposed to illustrate the inventive genius of the fictional musician. Still, even without fully understanding the music, it is possible to appreciate the frenzied energies that surround the cast of characters and the atmosphere in the story is set especially when the reader can take cues from the protagonist (the 'friend'), whose thoughts and emotions relay the texture and weight of the more technical passages. The supernatural is downplayed in this modernised rewriting of Faustus, which is a bit disappointing if one was expecting more than that. The literal Devil only occupies a tiny part of the book and is further diminished by a frame narrative; indeed the introduction of the 'friend' and the structure of the recount serves very well to put these elements at arm's length. Instead, the dark forces are expressed in human acts, responses and tragedies - in untimely illness, death and possibly madness. Despite the protagonist's fundamentally Christian worldview, the lack of the supernatural puts the responsibility of conduct firmly on humanity, the battle for morality and goodness is solely enacted in the contemporary world.
The novel takes the reality of horrors committed and injects a note of poignancy from the perspective of the Germans with its dreadful vision of foreign invasion - 'our shattered and devastated cities fall like ripe plums ... they all obey strangers now' . Shameful defeat is compounded with moral shame. The legacy the Third Reich leaves is a stain on national history and tradition, turning pride in German culture and intellectual thought into a burden. 'Our thick-walled torture chamber ... has been burst open, and our ignominy lies naked before the eyes of the world ... to whom these incredible scenes are displayed on all sides now and who report home that the hideousness of what they have seen exceeds anything the human imagination can conceive. ... is it mere hypochondria to tell oneself that all that is German--even German intellect, German thought, the German word--shares in the disgrace of these revelations and is plunged into profundest doubt? Is it morbid contrition to ask oneself the question: How can "Germany" whichever of its forms it may allowed to take in the future, so much as open its mouth again to speak of mankind's concerns?" It is possible and surprising, thus, to feel not only the terrible discovery of the concentration camps and the shock the world felt, but a shred of pity - for a people deceived by evil.
Mann successfully fuses the triumph of the Faustian overreacher and the tragic nature of his downfall with the national spirit of Nazi Germany and the national guilt at the hour of its defeat. A reader less familiar with musical notation such as this reader may find passages describing the musical pieces less instructive and frankly rather boring. They are probably supposed to illustrate the inventive genius of the fictional musician. Still, even without fully understanding the music, it is possible to appreciate the frenzied energies that surround the cast of characters and the atmosphere in the story is set especially when the reader can take cues from the protagonist (the 'friend'), whose thoughts and emotions relay the texture and weight of the more technical passages. The supernatural is downplayed in this modernised rewriting of Faustus, which is a bit disappointing if one was expecting more than that. The literal Devil only occupies a tiny part of the book and is further diminished by a frame narrative; indeed the introduction of the 'friend' and the structure of the recount serves very well to put these elements at arm's length. Instead, the dark forces are expressed in human acts, responses and tragedies - in untimely illness, death and possibly madness. Despite the protagonist's fundamentally Christian worldview, the lack of the supernatural puts the responsibility of conduct firmly on humanity, the battle for morality and goodness is solely enacted in the contemporary world.
The novel takes the reality of horrors committed and injects a note of poignancy from the perspective of the Germans with its dreadful vision of foreign invasion - 'our shattered and devastated cities fall like ripe plums ... they all obey strangers now' . Shameful defeat is compounded with moral shame. The legacy the Third Reich leaves is a stain on national history and tradition, turning pride in German culture and intellectual thought into a burden. 'Our thick-walled torture chamber ... has been burst open, and our ignominy lies naked before the eyes of the world ... to whom these incredible scenes are displayed on all sides now and who report home that the hideousness of what they have seen exceeds anything the human imagination can conceive. ... is it mere hypochondria to tell oneself that all that is German--even German intellect, German thought, the German word--shares in the disgrace of these revelations and is plunged into profundest doubt? Is it morbid contrition to ask oneself the question: How can "Germany" whichever of its forms it may allowed to take in the future, so much as open its mouth again to speak of mankind's concerns?" It is possible and surprising, thus, to feel not only the terrible discovery of the concentration camps and the shock the world felt, but a shred of pity - for a people deceived by evil.
vudemn's review against another edition
4.0
S obzirom da sam odabrao da čitam Manovo delo, znao sam da se moram spremiti za masažu moždanih vijuga, potpunu posvećenost čitanju i ogromno strpljenje.
Jednostavno, da nisam Jedan od Onih Koji Pročitaju Sve do Kraja, verovatno i ne bih završio ovu knjigu, ali na kraju se moja upornost isplati.
Ako uporedim ovu knjigu sa drugim Manovim, mogu reći da je najteža za čitanje.
Ako uporedim ovu knjigu sa ostalim knjigama koje sam do sad pročitao, mogu reći da je najteža za čitanje. Simple as that.
Inače, ono što ovoj knjizi daje težinu nije samo Manova želja da svakoj rečeneci da težinu, već multižanrovsko mešanje, uz dosta filozofije, muzike i religije, gde se veći broj dijaloga svodi na rasprave koje nigde ne vode, nešto slično kao onima u našim kafanama, samo na mnogo dubljem nivou... ali na kraju se sve svodi na isto.
Glavni lik, Adrijan Leverkin je gotovo tipičan heroj- mora proći kroz sito i rešeto, u ranoj mladosti je već prepoznat kao 'čovek koji će ostaviti trag', i onaj koji na kraju strada- ali ono što ga razdvaja od običnog arhetipa junaka je upravo to što ne postoji viši cilj u njegovom aktu stradanja kao što se to kod ostalih vidi(za narod ili za uzvišenost)... on strada zbog sopstvenih hirova i poroka.
Alegorično, to se isto može reći i za samu Nemačku, što je i glavna poenta priče, s tim što je Man poredio uspon i pad kompozitora sa svojom otadžbinom(iako se nalazio u inostranstvu dok je pisao ovo delo). Pored tog poređenja imamo i mnogobrojna druga, koja se odnose na glavnog junaka- ono sa Ničeom(sifilisna bolest koja utiče na psihu čoveka), pa onda poređenje sa Šenbergom, kompozitorom( maestralnost u stvaranju, plus dvanaesto-tonske kompozicije koje se pripisuju Leverkinu).
Pored toga mnogobrojni sporedni likovi nose tuđe osobine koje stvaraju dodatne aluzije, i to je između ostalog jedna od Manovih genijalnosti.
Mislim da ovaj roman treba čitati tokom slušanja Šenbergovih kompozicija da bi se osetila prava "Naricaljka doktora Faustusa", jer je to jedna od Manovih namera, a maestralnost ovog dela se prepoznaje već u prvim redovima. Iako ispričana iz perspektive Leverkinovog prijatelja, filologa Cajtbluma(koji umnogome podseća na samog pisca) ova priča pruža odličnu alegoriju uspona i pada Nemačke kroz njenu genijalnost i ludilo, bolest i uzvišenost, sve prikazano delom nemačkog kompozitora Adrijana Leverkina, koga smrt nije zatekla odmah nakon pada... već tamo negde, desetak godina kasnije, dugo nakon što je od njega ostala samo ljuštura.
Jednostavno, da nisam Jedan od Onih Koji Pročitaju Sve do Kraja, verovatno i ne bih završio ovu knjigu, ali na kraju se moja upornost isplati.
Ako uporedim ovu knjigu sa drugim Manovim, mogu reći da je najteža za čitanje.
Ako uporedim ovu knjigu sa ostalim knjigama koje sam do sad pročitao, mogu reći da je najteža za čitanje. Simple as that.
Inače, ono što ovoj knjizi daje težinu nije samo Manova želja da svakoj rečeneci da težinu, već multižanrovsko mešanje, uz dosta filozofije, muzike i religije, gde se veći broj dijaloga svodi na rasprave koje nigde ne vode, nešto slično kao onima u našim kafanama, samo na mnogo dubljem nivou... ali na kraju se sve svodi na isto.
Glavni lik, Adrijan Leverkin je gotovo tipičan heroj- mora proći kroz sito i rešeto, u ranoj mladosti je već prepoznat kao 'čovek koji će ostaviti trag', i onaj koji na kraju strada- ali ono što ga razdvaja od običnog arhetipa junaka je upravo to što ne postoji viši cilj u njegovom aktu stradanja kao što se to kod ostalih vidi(za narod ili za uzvišenost)... on strada zbog sopstvenih hirova i poroka.
Alegorično, to se isto može reći i za samu Nemačku, što je i glavna poenta priče, s tim što je Man poredio uspon i pad kompozitora sa svojom otadžbinom(iako se nalazio u inostranstvu dok je pisao ovo delo). Pored tog poređenja imamo i mnogobrojna druga, koja se odnose na glavnog junaka- ono sa Ničeom(sifilisna bolest koja utiče na psihu čoveka), pa onda poređenje sa Šenbergom, kompozitorom( maestralnost u stvaranju, plus dvanaesto-tonske kompozicije koje se pripisuju Leverkinu).
Pored toga mnogobrojni sporedni likovi nose tuđe osobine koje stvaraju dodatne aluzije, i to je između ostalog jedna od Manovih genijalnosti.
Mislim da ovaj roman treba čitati tokom slušanja Šenbergovih kompozicija da bi se osetila prava "Naricaljka doktora Faustusa", jer je to jedna od Manovih namera, a maestralnost ovog dela se prepoznaje već u prvim redovima. Iako ispričana iz perspektive Leverkinovog prijatelja, filologa Cajtbluma(koji umnogome podseća na samog pisca) ova priča pruža odličnu alegoriju uspona i pada Nemačke kroz njenu genijalnost i ludilo, bolest i uzvišenost, sve prikazano delom nemačkog kompozitora Adrijana Leverkina, koga smrt nije zatekla odmah nakon pada... već tamo negde, desetak godina kasnije, dugo nakon što je od njega ostala samo ljuštura.
vetlehove's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0