The fifty-year-old Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful writer, travels to Venice for vacation. During a meal at the hotel, he is drawn to an exceptionally beautiful boy. Soon, his days begin to revolve around when he might see him again, ignoring the ominous rumors circulating that a plague is spreading through the city.
Death in Venice is a masterful story about obsession, the anguish of the creator, and the abyss of endings. It was adapted for film by Luchino Visconti with Dirk Bogarde in the role of Gustav von Aschenbach. Undoubtedly one of the classic titles of modern European literature.
Many, many questions are raised by Mann in the dense weave of this novella, and the reader will answer as they see fit. However, there is also a direct answer from the author: “People do not know why they praise an artwork. Lacking expertise, they believe they discover hundreds of merits in it to justify their preference; however, the real reason for their approval is something unexpected, […] that they empathize.”
In Death in Venice, in this brief story where everything unfolds in the spirit of a musical composition, with the rhythm accelerating from one phrase to another, we are at least given the chance to empathize with its hero and ultimately to sympathize with him despite his inner turmoil and unacknowledged passions.
From the foreword of Dimitris Stefanakis: “Why does a person love and value another as long as they do not know them well enough to judge them, and desire is a result of incomplete knowledge of the other?”
