Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice is the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, a successful, recently-knighted, middle-aged German author who vacations in Venice. There he becomes infatuated with Tadzio, a “lovely” blonde, curly-headed Polish boy of about 14, who is traveling with his parents and four sisters. Gustav never actually meets Tadzio, but he becomes obsessed with him and follows him at a discrete distance around the city. He eventually realizes the sexual nature of his feelings for Tadzio, and hopes/imagines that it might be a mutual attraction.

Gustav stays in an upscale hotel in the Lido, populated with tourists from all over Europe. A short time after Gustav arrives in Venice, he begins to notice that most of the other German hotel guests have left. He sees an article in a German newspaper that there are signs that a serious disease, possibly the Bubonic Plague, has arrived in Venice. The Venetian government denies any problem, the locals seem unperturbed, and the non-German tourists remain oblivious to the danger.

Gustav’s conscience tells him he should alert Tadzio’s family of the danger, but he fears they would then decamp, taking Tadzio with them. In the end, he chooses to keep his secret to himself and continue to engage in his fantasies, observing Tadzio from afar even though doing so exposes himself to the risk of plague. He is compulsively fixated on Tadzio, and he takes pains to look younger, hoping it will help attract Tadzio to him.

The novella concludes abruptly with Gustav sitting in chair on the beach watching Tadzio frolicking in the sea. Their eyes meet and it seems to Gustav that Tadzio, whom he describes as “the pale and lovely Summoner,” smiles at him and beckons. Gustav attempts to rise and follow, but he collapses and dies.

Mann’s writing displays an elegant phraseology and immense vocabulary, evident even in translation from the original German. The story line anticipates many of the tropes occurring in Nabokov’s Lolita, and is generally thought to be about the dangerous extremes of both sensuality and repression. The book has become a well-recognized classic, in spite of the unsavory and rather pathetic nature of the main character. ( )