
Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann(Author)
Penguin Classics (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 19. March 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
864 pages
978-0-241-78540-9 (ISBN)
Description
'I bear within me the seed, the rudiments, the possibility of life's capacities and endeavours. Where might I be, if I were not here?'
Buddenbrooks is one of the original, and greatest, of family chronicles: the story of four generations of a wealthy and bourgeois German family as they experience all the anguish and rewards of human life: births, marriages, divorces, deaths, madness, bankruptcy and artistic achievement. Richly realized and profoundly moving, Thomas Mann's first great novel was published when he was only twenty-five, and was one of the two books for which he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929.
John E. Woods' elegant translation is widely acclaimed as the best available English version.
Buddenbrooks is one of the original, and greatest, of family chronicles: the story of four generations of a wealthy and bourgeois German family as they experience all the anguish and rewards of human life: births, marriages, divorces, deaths, madness, bankruptcy and artistic achievement. Richly realized and profoundly moving, Thomas Mann's first great novel was published when he was only twenty-five, and was one of the two books for which he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929.
John E. Woods' elegant translation is widely acclaimed as the best available English version.
Reviews / Votes
Perhaps the first great novel of the 20th century * New York Times * His masterpiece * Los Angeles Times * One of the greatest things a novel can do is to create a world - and this is one of the most richly evoked and inhabited of all -- Michael Frayn * Week * A remarkable achievement.... In Woods's sparkling translation, the reader encounters a work that is closer in style, vocabulary, idiom, and tone to the original. * The New York Times Book Review * Wonderfully fresh and elegant.... Essential reading for anyone who wishes to enter Mann's fictional universe. * Los Angeles Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
500 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-241-78540-9 (9780241785409)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Persons
Thomas Mann (Author)
Thomas Mann (1875-1955) is regarded by many as the greatest German novelist of the 20th century. Mann's first major novel, Buddenbrooks, sold over a million copies in Germany alone, before Hitler banned and burned it. Mann fled Germany and spent the latter part of his life living in Switzerland and America. He wrote many essays as well as novels, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929.
Thomas Mann (1875-1955) is regarded by many as the greatest German novelist of the 20th century. Mann's first major novel, Buddenbrooks, sold over a million copies in Germany alone, before Hitler banned and burned it. Mann fled Germany and spent the latter part of his life living in Switzerland and America. He wrote many essays as well as novels, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929.