The acclaimed author Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice, where he will meet a teenage angel himself, Tadzio, who lives with his family in the same hotel. Aschenbach becomes obsessed with him. Love? Desire? A longing for the unattainable, for the ideal, the perfect, Platonic beauty that Tadzio seems to embody, in whose face and form Aschenbach feels his personal struggle for the Beautiful is justified?

At the same time, an undefined epidemic hovers over the wet, warm Venice, which the Authorities spray with disinfectant. Aschenbach refuses to leave the sick city, wanting only to gaze upon this angel of beauty until the end. Reflective yet full of passion, this novella by Thomas Mann has entered the realm of legend for its vivid portrayal of unfulfilled erotic desire, the desperate search for beauty in life, and the powerful fusion of plot and inner experience.

With writing that at times carries the intensity of a religious vision, Death in Venice is yet another profound study of decay and the eternal, silent embrace of life and death. This edition includes an essay by Hermann Kurzke on the timeless significance of the work, as well as two texts concerning the famous film adaptation by Luchino Visconti and its connection to Gustav Mahler, both as a composer and as a personal friend of the author, the first by translator Maria Topali and the second by series editor Ilias Maglinis.