Buddenbrooks. Verfall einer Familie

Author

Thomas Mann

Hiermit begannen schöne Sommerwochen für Tony Buddenbrook, kurzweiligere und angenehmere, als sie jemals in Travemünde erlebt hatte. […]

Buddenbrooks. En families forfald

Translated by Niels Brunse

Hermed begyndte nogle dejlige sommeruger for Tony Buddenbrook, behageligere og morsommere, end hun nogen sinde før havde oplevet i Travemünde. [...]

Gyldendal

Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family

Translated by John E. Woods

And so began Tony Buddenbrook’s summer vacation – a few lovely weeks more pleasant and amusing than she had ever spent in Travemünde. [...]

Buddenbrookid. Ühe perekonna langus

Translated by Jaan Kangilaski

Nõnda algasid Tooni Buddenbrookil kaunid suvenädalad, lõbusamad ja meeldivamad, mis ta iial veetnud Travemündes. [...]

Buddenbrookit. Erään suvun rappio

Translated by Ilona Nykyri

Tästä alkoivat Tony Buddenbrookin kauniit kesäviikot, rattoisimmat ja miellyttävimmät hänen koskaan Travemündessä viettämänsä. [...]

Búddenbrooks. Hnignunarsaga kaupmannsættar

Translated by Þorbjörg Bjarnar Friðriksdó́ttir

Nú hófst fögur sumartíđ fyrir Toný Búddenbrook, skemmtilegri og ljúfari en nokkru sinni fyrr í Travemünde. [...]

Budenbroki. Kādas dzimtas sairums

Translated by Lizete Skalbe, Kārlis Štrāls, Zelma Kroder

Sākās jaukas un gaišas vasaras dienas, interesantākas un patīkamākas, kāadas Tonija Budenbroka Trāvemindējebkad bija piedzīvojusi. [...]

Budenbrokai

Translated by J. Vaznelis

Taip prasidėjo Antonijai Budenbrok gražiosios vasaros savaitės, greičiau prabėgusios ir malonesnės už visas bet kada anksčiau praleistas Travemiundėje. [...]

Buddenbrooks. En families forfall

Translated by Per Paulsen

Og nå begynte noen herlige sommeruker for Tony, hyggeligere og morsommere enn hun før hadde opplevd i Travemünde. [...]

Buddenbrookowie

Translated by Ewa Librowiczowa

Dla Toni rozpoczęly się piękne dni letnie, weselsze i milsze od wszystkich, jakie kiedykolwiek spędziła w Travemünde. [...]

Будденбро́ки. История гибели одного семейства

Translated by Natalia Man

Так начались для Тони Будденброк эти летние дни, счастливые и быстролетные, каких она еще не знавала в Травемюнде. [...]

Buddenbrooks. En familjs förfall

Translated by Ulrika Wallenström

Härmed började för Tony Buddenbrook sköna sommarveckor, nöjsammare och angenämare än hon någonsin hade upplevt i Travemünde. [...]

Albert Bonniers Stockholm

Country in which the text is set

Germany
Featured locations

Lübeck

Travemünde

Möwenstein (Mövenstein)
Impact

The novel portrays the fate of a patrician family in Lübeck between 1835 and 1877. Over four generations the family’s “decline” accelerates as the men become increasingly alienated from their inherited profession as merchants due to their increasing refinement and attraction to the life of the mind (music, philosophy). Their lifespan decreases from generation to generation. Along with her brothers Thomas and Christian, Tony Buddenbrooks belongs to the third generation and ultimately proves the most vital and hardy of the siblings. But she too is forced to make sacrifices. Shortly after coming of age she faces pressure from her family to marry a man she does not love, Bendix Grünlich, who is presented almost as a caricature of a businessman. However, Tony is permitted a brief hiatus in Travemünde, where she finds true love for only time in her life, a relationship she subsequently sacrifices for the “firm.”

When writing about himself, Thomas Mann frequently refers to Buddenbrooks, his most popular novel and the one that saw his breakthrough as an author. The texts Bilse und ich (1906) and Lübeck als Geistige Lebensform (1926) are essential reading for any interpretation of Buddenbrooks. In both these texts Mann argues against an overly ‘realistic,’ autobiographic interpretation of the novel and particularly against seeing the work as somehow “peeking” into Lübeck society. In his portrayal of student-fraternity (Burschenschaft) member Morten Schwarzkopf, Mann seems to have drawn on the work of esteemed Danish literary critic Georg Brandes: Die Hauptströmungen der Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts (Danish 1871 ff, German 1897, see vol.6: Das Junge Deutschland)

Nobel Prize 1929 “in particular for [...] Buddenbrooks [...] as a classic work of modern times“, by 1930 the number of copies published had crossed the one-million mark.

Hans Peter Neureuter
Balticness

On a symbolic level the Baltic Sea—like love—comes to represent Tony’s experience of the infinite, the sea becomes the experience of the endless abyss.
Bibliographic information

Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks. Verfall einer Familie. Novel. Edited and revised by Eckhard Heftrich in cooperation with Stephan Stachorski and Herbert Lehnert. Große kommentierte Frankfurter Ausgabe. Werke – Briefe – Tagebücher, vol. 1.1, p.145-158 (part 3, chapters 8-9); Kommentarband 1.2; Frankfurt am Main 2002.

Translations

Language	Year	Translator
Danish	1903	L. Stange
Danish	1953	Johannes Wulff
Danish	2002	Niels Brunse
English	1935	Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter
English	1994	John E. Woods
Estonian	1936	Jaan Kangilaski
Finnish	1925	Siiri Siegberg
Finnish	2010	Ilona Nykyri
Icelandic	1999	Þorbjörg Bjarnar Friðriksdó́ttir
Latvian	1929	Lizete Skalbe, Kārlis Štrāls, Zelma Kroder
Lithuanian	1930	K. Karnauskas
Lithuanian	1968	J. Vaznelis
Norwegian	1952	Margrethe Kjær
Norwegian	2005	Per Paulsen
Polish	1931	Ewa Librowiczowa
Polish	1971	Ewa Librowiczowa, rev. by Jan Bokiewicz, Wojciech Freudenreich
Russian	1935	V. A. Zorgenfreja
Russian	1953	Natalia Man
Swedish	1904	Walborg Hedberg
Swedish	1930	Alfred Wingren
Swedish	1934	Curt Munthe
Swedish	1952	Walborg Hedberg, rev. by Irma Nordvang
Swedish	1975	Walborg Hedberg, rev. by Nils Holmberg
Swedish	2005	Ulrika Wallenström

Year of first publication

1901
Place of first publication

Berlin