Canal, Venice Shadows Fall
Mann's health was poor when he began writing Death in Venice. He had a tenacity described as "an unflagging industry" bolstering his unusual brilliance.
Mann's health was poor when he began writing Death in Venice. He had a tenacity described as "an unflagging industry" bolstering his unusual brilliance.
Because we are strolling Venice, we must have a picture of St. Marc's! But the Church was not a looming presence in Mann's life. I would say his work was encoded with his homosexuality. Perhaps his writing was to him as Zeus' attendant eagle. With writing, he could fetch up to himself a Ganymede.
Did Mann witness an "undignified" love affair when in Venice in 1911?
Perhaps this couple, warmly bundled, are trysting, in the middle of a week day afternoon.
Thomas Mann wrote Der Tod in Venedig in June and July of 1911 following a visit to Venice in May and June of the same year. Warm spring, a beach chair on the Lido...
So Mann did not visit in bone chilling February. The twisted tree in this untouristed square is waiting, too.
A Death in Venice is a ruinous quest for love amidst the degenerating splendor of the Queen of the Adriatic, Venezia.
