Magically beautiful and profoundly sad. I'm stunned, even though I don't know what I else I could have expected from Mann. He always has that knack of playing on my emotions so skillfully, that he can bring up completely contrasting images and moods in the space of a few pages.
I'd have loved for this to be a longer story, I feel the desire to learn a lot more about the characters, and yet Mann's prose is so potent, that enough is said in the novella as it is.
The first Mann I dared read completely in German, I was confident to do it because it was short, and the language was as understandable as expected. His work is even more powerful when read in the original language.
The subtle nuances that he uses when describing his characters are, as always captivating, and seem larger than life - creations of the realm of art as puffy as clouds, but at the same time as substantial as the powerful emotions they are absorbed in. Every sentence a character utters, every motion is an artistic miniature, a tiny vignette, pretty and complete, something to put in a frame and display in a wealthy salon, and this is precisely why I love Mann. I doubt I would have been able to tell this was one of his earliest published works.
I look forward to reading as much as I can of his further work in German.
Thus endeth my first Goodreads review. ( )