At the end of his life, realizing that he probly has one more book in him, instead of writing a grave book about the long night of the solar or indeed, the naces, he writes a comic novel called felix cruell. And so at the end of thislikeness, this comedy appears, which was commercially very successful. So th there are many elements in him, one as the waity figure, the other as the ironic figure. But also, he could write comedy. I meant there are momnes in the mddle of the magic mountain. We you think, setan briene, must stop talking. Dont do. He does go on
The prize-winning author Colm Tóibín recreates the life and work of one of Germany’s most famous and acclaimed writers Thomas Mann. The Magician is a deeply intimate portrait of a private man, revealing both his suppressed homosexuality and complex family ties, and of a public writer who sought to explicate the soul of Germany in the 20th century.
When Hitler came to power Thomas Mann fled his homeland and went into exile in America, and in Switzerland, never to return to live in the country that inspired his creativity. Karen Leeder, Professor of Modern German Literature at Oxford, considers how German writers have become embroiled in the major events of history, and the impact on their writing. She has translated the lectures of the poet Durs Grünbein, For the Dying Calves, to be published in November.
Mann’s novel Buddenbrooks, which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature, is the story of the decline of a wealthy bourgeois merchant family. As a family saga it’s been likened to Jesse Armstrong’s 21st century creation, Succession. As the television drama reaches its third series Armstrong explains why the back-stabbing, power-grabbing antics of a superrich, dysfunctional family has so caught the public imagination.
Producer: Katy Hickman