Thomas Mann: Aschenbach’s Dream from “Death in Venice”
“Death in Venice” is a novella written in 1911 by the German writer Thomas Mann. It tells of a famous writer, Gustave von Aschenbach, who at the beginning of the story feels inspired to leave his home city of Munich for some weeks of vacation abroad. Aschenbach is, like most of us, a divided and contradictory figure. He has both a strong need for social and personal order and an artistic drive toward a more passionate, spontaneous existence. He is able to channel these tensions and resolve these conflicts through his writing, but this process often leaves him drained and in need of quiet relaxation and recuperation. Such is the case when the story opens: “What he needed,” the narrator tells us, “was a break, an interim existence, a means of passing time, other air and a new stock of blood, to make the summer tolerable and productive.”
Aschenbach heads down to the Mediterranean coast for rest and recuperation while his summer home in the countryside is readied for his arrival. He has decided to reside on the Istrian coast in the town of Pula (or Pola), which at this time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now located in Croatia).
Ashenbach, however, does not take to Pula – he finds the people coarse and provincial, the weather bad, and the landscape not soothing. After some contemplation about what do to, he decides to relocate his vacation to Venice.
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