Six Early Stories

When they think of the stories of the great German writer Thomas Mann, most American readers will recall Stories of Three Decades, translated in 1936; however, that edition purposely excluded several early tales of Mann which the translator found "tentative and awkward efforts." As noted translator and editor of this volume Burton Pike notes, however, "Times and interests change; in 1936 Thomas Mann, in exile from Nazi Germany, was celebrated as a leading spokesman for the threatened...
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When they think of the stories of the great German writer Thomas Mann, most American readers will recall Stories of Three Decades, translated in 1936; however, that edition purposely excluded several early tales of Mann which the translator found "tentative and awkward efforts." As noted translator and editor of this volume Burton Pike notes, however, "Times and interests change; in 1936 Thomas Mann, in exile from Nazi Germany, was celebrated as a leading spokesman for the threatened humanistic values of Western Civilization." His early development seemed unimportant within that context, but such a judgment now seems arbitrary and wrong. Indeed the six stories of this volume are all quite wonderful examples of this genre, and even more revelatory with regard to Mann's themes and styles. Experimenting with a complex, multi-layered narrative, Mann explored new approaches to the psychologies of his characters with a "strong, fresh voice of a major talent." "These early stories, ably translated by Peter Constantine and edited by Burton Pike, are well worth reading. They are also a welcome addition to the body of Mann's work in English. But they are something more. They remind us of what has been lost in the dissolution and passing of modernism. The boldness, daring and risk-taking in both formal, technical matters and in explicit, thematic explorations remain as admirable today as they were a century ago."-Steven Marcus, New York Times Book Review