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Reading Thomas Mann in German | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| dglass48 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5786 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: German, Italian, French | Message 1 of 13 29 January 2011 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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A question for German natives -- I've long enjoyed the works of Thomas Mann in translation, but now have tackled some of the short stories in their original. My question: how does his writing style strike a native speaker? The closest approximation I can think of in English literature would be Henry James. The style is dense in the English translations of HT Lowe-Porter. He word-paints with a broad palette. For me the challenge is mainly vocabulary. But how would his work strike the average literate adult reading him for the first time? (leaving aside the literary, mythological, historical allusions, which of course present their own set of difficulties) Edited by dglass48 on 29 January 2011 at 3:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5310 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes  Speaks: German*, English | Message 2 of 13 29 January 2011 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | ||
If it makes you feel any better, many of his books aren't exactly easy reading for native speakers either. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dglass48 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5786 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: German, Italian, French | Message 3 of 13 30 January 2011 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Doitsujin -- Thank you for your response. It is as I supposed -- quite a steep climb up in difficulty from reading, say, Hesse, but certainly worthwhile, so I'll trudge on upward. Mann's works have given me much enjoyment over the years.
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| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5546 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 4 of 13 30 January 2011 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not a native German speaker, but I did try recklessly to jump straight from Hesse to Mann last year. Haha...talk about being lost...I felt like a guy who just learnt to strap on some boots in the middle of a Roller Derby! :)
I'm glad to learn from members like Doitsujin that Mann can also prove a little challenging for native speakers from time to time. I'd love to be able to effortlessly glide through one of his stories in the original on my bookshelf, but I'm still trying to get to the sublime stage where I'll be able to climb that magical mountain. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Meelämmchen Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5073 days ago 214 posts - 249 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 13 30 January 2011 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it is a prejudice that Thomas Mann is hard to read. Very long sentences, Perioden, are only hard to read if they are written in a bad style, the so called spaghetti style. The main problem for non native speakers will be vocabulary.
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| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6655 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 6 of 13 01 February 2011 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read several book by Thomas Mann and I don't think they are particularly hard to read, neither is the style overly dense. I agree with Meelämmchen that vocabulary will be the biggest obstacles for a non-native (and sometimes also for native) speakers: Mann uses a very rich and varied vocabulary and some of the expressions are rare or may seem antiquated to today's readers. Knowing French makes it somewhat easier, since he sometimes uses French loanwords, which have become less common in recent years.
Just skimming through the of pages "Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull", here's a list of examples for such terms: Fauteuil (today: Sessel) Billett (Eintrittskarte) Diner (Abendessen) Entendu (Einverständnis) Double (Doppelter, for a drink) Ennui (Langeweile) Edited by Marc Frisch on 01 February 2011 at 11:23pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4818 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 7 of 13 17 September 2011 at 4:51am | IP Logged | ||
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In terms of difficulty (for native or non-native readers) how do people think he compares
with Fontane? Thank you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4818 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 8 of 13 17 September 2011 at 4:54am | IP Logged | ||
I think a good edition of such books would contain explanations in footnotes, endnotes, or the like. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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