A new translation of the Nobel laureate's famous classic follows the story of successful aging writer Gustave von Aschenbach, whose search for spiritual fulfillment in Venice leads to erotic ruin when he becomes obsessed with an alluring Polish youth, Tadzio. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 20,000 first printing The world-famous masterpiece by Nobel laureate Thomas Mann -- here in a new translation by Michael Henry HeimPublished 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."
