Buddenbrooks, first published in Germany in 1901, when Mann was only twenty-six, has become a classic of modern literature.

It is the story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany facing the advent of modernity; in an uncertain new world, the family's bonds and traditions begin to disintegrate. As Mann charts the Buddenbrooks' decline from prosperity to bankruptcy, from moral and psychic soundness to sickly piety, artistic decadence, and madness, he ushers the reader into a world of stunning vitality, pieced together from births and funerals, weddings and divorces, recipes, gossip, and earthy humor.

In its immensity of scope, richness of detail, and fullness of humanity, buddenbrooks surpasses all other modern family chronicles. With remarkable fidelity to the original German text, this superb translation emphasizes the magnificent scale of Mann's achievement in this riveting, tragic novel. With an introduction by T. J. Reed, and translated by John E. Woods.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
John E. Woods is the distinguished translator of many books — most notably Arno Schmidt's Evening Edged in Gold, for which he won both the American Book Award for translation and the PEN Translation Prize; Patrick Süskind's Perfume, for which he again won the PEN Translation Prize in 1987; Mr. Suskind's The Pigeon and Mr. Summer's Story; Doris Dörrie's Love, Pain, and the Whole Damn Thing and What Do You Want from Me?; and Libuse Monikova's The Façade. Mr. Woods lives in San Diego and is currently at work on a translation of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain.
ABOUT THE INTRODUCER
T.J. Reed is Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Previous publications include Thomas Mann: The Uses of Tradition and The Classical Centre: Goethe and Weimar 1775-1832.