Buddenbrooks; The Decline of a Family by Thomas Mann.
March 28, 2015.
Buddenbrooks is a voluminous; partially autobiographically novel that describes the relentless decline of a family living in the North German town of Lubeck between 1834 and 1877. At first sight, the ideas developed into this novel seem a little outdated and the style of the book that of an extreme pessimistic cultural realism. But it describes also the family as a social institution, which is for most people still defining their lives.
Part One
Johan Buddenbrook II (whose father started the family business in 1768) and his French wife Antoinette are in 1835 moving in their new house annex offices and celebrate that event by inviting their friends and family to a dinner party.
The book describes their world in detail; the clothes they’re wearing, the kind of food that was served, the interior decoration of the house where three generations live under one roof and the daily routines of all its occupants.
We get introduced to the third a and fourth generations; his sons Gotthold out of a first marriage with Josephine, who died in Gotthold’s birth giving and his half-brother Consul Johan Buddenbrook III and his children Antony (eight years old and also called Tony) and her brothers Thomas (10 y/o) and Christian (7 y/o). They discuss French politics; Napoleon’s demise and the politics and the rule of the French monarchy under King Louis Philippe. Gottlieb is not invited because he acted against his father’s wishes by marrying under his stand with a shopkeeper’s daughter and his father blamed him also for the dead of his first wife.
Meanwhile the consul and his father discuss a letter that the first one got from his half-brother Gotthold, asking for his fair share of the inheritance and the consul advises his father not to lose any capital on Gottlieb.
March 29, 2015.
Part two
In 1838 the consul and his wife Elisabeth (née Kröger) get another daughter Clara and sent their daughter Tony to visit her wealthy maternal grandparents. There she snubs the rude advances of a certain Hermann Hagenström. Three years later Johan Buddenbrook and his wife Antoinette die and the heritage dispute with Gotthold is resolved through a cash settlement.
The consul takes over the family business but runs it rather more as an accountant (constantly worrying about his cash flow position) than as an entrepreneur. He sent his daughter Tony to a boarding school where she befriended Armgard von Schilling descending form an aristocrat family from Mecklenburg and Gerda Arnoldsen, a violin playing girl from Amsterdam and Eva Ewers.
March 30, 2015.
Part three and four.
A commercial agent courts Tony’s parents in order to win her hand while she had a love affair with a poor medical student during summer holidays at a resort town at the seaside. Bendix (Benedict) Grünlich was a commercial agent who claimed he had a thriving business and threatened to commit suicide if Tony didn’t marry him.
Although she had instinctive objections and was even repulsed by him, she dumps her poor suitor and married reluctantly with Bendix in 1845 because her father pressured her. Afterwards she went to live with him around Hamburg. Her brother Thomas also broke up with his secret girlfriend Anna because she was only a salesgirl.
After Tony was married with Bendix for a couple of years, the consul learned that he only married his daughter for her dowry to pay off his debts and that he wanted the consul to pay off more of his debts. There was no love into the marriage and Bendix was exposed as a swindler. Tony and her daughter Erika escaped from his house. The consul who had a guilty conscience for having her forced into the marriage takes them back in.
In 1848 there was a popular uprising in Lubeck, but a paternalistic speech by the Consul defused the revolutionary mood although the stress caused the consul of suffering a stroke and he died, leaving the direction of the family business to Thomas.
Tony divorced Bendix in 1850. That year Lebrecht’s widow died and left a fortune. The consul’s widow, Elisabeth, grew into a religious zealot and her brother Justus disowned his younger son Jakob in favor of his oldest son Justus. The consul’s oldest son Christian went to Chili.
March 31, 2015.
Part five.
The half-brother of the consul, Gotthold, died. Christian returned from Chili and became a womanizer who preferred to spend his heritage by traveling, visiting bars and theaters. Thomas married Gerda Arnoldsen, his sister’s friend from Amsterdam and managed the firm diligently although not with the same passion and drive as his father.
While Tony was visiting a friend in Munchen, she made the acquaintance with a hop merchant Alois Permenader. Her sister Clara married Sievert Tiburtius and Thomas and Gerda got a son they named Johan (Hanni) who had from birth on a weak constitution.
The Maharajagar 