First published in Germany in 1901 and translated into English in 1924, Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks" is the story of the decline of a wealthy German family over four generations which takes place in the years 1835 to 1877. Mann began writing the novel, his first, when he was only twenty-two years old and based much of his critically acclaimed work on the story of his own family and their peers. Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929 and the Nobel Committee cited "Buddenbrooks" as the principal reason for the prize. Mann's masterpiece is at its surface a story of commonplace family events, such as births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and personal triumphs and failures. With each successive generation these seemingly mundane occurrences subtly vary and the family's decline happens in bits and pieces until their downfall is all but certain. "Buddenbrooks" is a nuanced and layered study of the effect of modernity on the traditions and institutions taken for granted by aristocratic families such as the Buddenbrooks. Mann's detailed and satisfyingly human novel continues to be read and cherished all over the world.
