The Buddenbrooks, by Thomas Mann

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Uh hello, my name is Matthew and yesterday I finished reading the Budenbrooks. I always pronounced it the Budenbrooks. I had some uh constructive criticism on the pronunciation and so I think it's pronounced uh the Budenbrooks by Thomas Man. And this is a new translation by Mike Mitchell. And it's interesting uh when I think about uh just the pronunciation of the name.

[00:00:29]Is it Budenbrooks? Is it Budenbrooks?

[00:00:32]Uh it's ironic because uh voices is such a predominant feature in this book. What what I mean by that is dialects and accents and um all the varied regions of Germany that pronounce things uh differently. And uh Mike Mitchell had a really interesting choice. um a a translator's decision that I think uh I I I felt like it worked really well, which was to um uh use the the the same kind of varied dialect that you would find in England with uh like a London accent and then uh an accent that you might have in the north or south of uh England. uh characters that have a cochnney accent and then one notable character who is from Bavaria who is speaking German uh with such a thick accent that it's nearly incomprehensible to the characters. and Mike Mitchell makes the decision to use a really strong Scottish accent.

[00:01:56]And uh amusingly and helpfully, there's an appendix that translates the strong Scottish Scottish uh back into a normal English because it is uh so difficult um at least for me as an English speaker and it worked really really well. Um the Ben Brooks uh is a masterpiece. Th this novel really has so many levels of genius and talent on display.

[00:02:38]Uh it it is a family novel. So it has a subtitle which uh is actually on this one on the cover page. This is the translation by John E. Woods. I read this like 20 years ago and I I liked it.

[00:02:54]But the decline of a family and so the Budenbrooks is is a novel of not not just a family in a static sense, but uh a family as a legacy moving throughout history. And this starts in the uh kind of earlyish 19th century and then moves through the middle of the century. And we have um generations of a family.

[00:03:34]So, um, men that have children and then they're they're old men and the children are now older and now they're taking over the business and the and the grandfather dies and they're having children. I think there might be six or seven generations uh that that we go through in this book.

[00:03:56]Um, I might be wrong about that, but it's not one or two. a a long uh span of time is contained um in this novel. And so one of the aspects that I find just so incredibly impressive, you might hear um the neighbors cutting the grass, uh is just the fact that it is a family novel.

[00:04:25]It is a society novel. It's a political novel. It's a philosophical novel. It's a romantic novel. It's a tragic novel.

[00:04:38]And it is Thomas Man's in my opinion when I think about the long novels that he's written. Um this is the most traditional and approachable novel. Uh it reads uh very much like a Victorian uh 20th century classic novel. Uh the writing style uh very much reminds me of Flobear in the sense that it is there's the neighbor uh it is exacting and efficient. So this translation is about 600 pages and it's like a 1,200 page novel squeezed into 600 pages. Um, it is dense in the in the in the way that so many elements are conveyed on the page with as little amount of extra stuff that needs to be added in.

[00:05:55]his ability to um create a character, create a scene um in a few short strokes. It's it's still a long novel, don't get me wrong.

[00:06:08]Almost reminds me of the efficiency and talent that Masant has in in that way of just conveying a lived experience in in a few lines.

[00:06:25]It's also u in my opinion Thomas man's uh funniest novel uh when I think about his big his big books to give you just one example there's an uncle there's a character there's an uncle uh in the book that dies of the hiccups which I just think is fabulous and I said a family novel society novel romantic tragic, all all that stuff.

[00:06:56]It's good and great. And what I find almost amusing is there are so many moments in the book where I can think about um how there's just of all these different threads that are going on. If you select each, if you select an individual thread, you could think of a dozen novels that completely revolve around one um narrative line, and this book is weaving them all together. So um u a a man is um um proposes to one of the daughters and the daughter doesn't want to marry him and it instantly reminds me of um Clarissa which I had recently read where that little plot point turns into 1600 pages and that that that's the entirety of the book and And here uh even when that is the focus, there's other things going on. And there's a really great moment when uh Tony, the the daughter that I'm talking about, who's one of my favorite characters in the book, she's u bold and confident and opinionated and uh she she gives uh she she's not shy with her opinion.

[00:08:32]Uh ultimately she has a tragic uh she has a tough life. Uh but uh there's a scene early on in the book where the Budden Brook family at this point is successful. They are um fairly wellto-d do. Uh they're still economical. It's really interesting to hear um how they're still concerned with their budget and they don't want to be as a family frivolous, but they do have luxuries. They have servants and uh fine dining and um a garden and a patio and a drawing room and uh all the things that are uh displays of wealth. And uh a young gentleman arrives on the scene and he is very uh buttoned up and very proper uh and he's come on business and he wants to uh introduce himself to the Budenbrooks and the father of the family or rather the the Peter Familas of the family is quite impressed with his etiquette and uh how he carries himself and uh his eleution, the way that he uh speaks very properly and politely and he compliments the people around the table and uh the young girl Tony is watching him and she's not buying it. She thinks he's full of it and he's just saying the things that um the father Thomas I believe uh wants to hear and he makes his presence um he makes his presence and kind of gets himself u thorned into the family. He's showing up uh multiple times a week.

[00:10:43]He's there for lunches and dinners and parties and uh Tony really early on the second interaction that they have privately u effectively tells him I I think you're full of it and I don't like you. He turns around and goes to the father and asks for permission to propose to the young girl uh Tony.

[00:11:09]And the interaction between Tony and the father I thought was so well done and responsible.

[00:11:22]Um very adult.

[00:11:26]What I mean is uh he he looks into uh this person, his name is like Gerlock or something. I'm terrible with names.

[00:11:37]uh he looks into his background uh the business that he says that he's operating and from all the information that he can gather um this person is a really good um suitor for his daughter. Um he's he's young, wealthy, has a business, not terribly wealthy, but a growing business, and he could provide a life for his daughter uh that would um be commensurate to the lifestyle that she is already used to.

[00:12:20]And he he just explains this to his daughter.

[00:12:25]He doesn't demand anything from her.

[00:12:28]Tells her to take your time and think about it. This is a good option for you instead of um so many books where the daughter is held hostage in her bedroom and until she gives the answer that the family wants. When I think about Richardson for example, um ultimately she does marry this man and he in fact does turn out to be uh a shyer and a fraud and it's early on in the book so I don't think it's a terrible uh spoiler but um in fact he did not only marry her for money but was able to kind of cook the books fraudulently uh in order to give the father the appearance that he had money and he was taking a loans out that he couldn't um make good on with this idea that uh he he's basically using his father-in-law's um wealth as u collateral to buy money to borrow money from and it blows up in his face. Um he has all of these outstanding loans. He can't pay them.

[00:13:54]He says to um his wife Tony um we we need to reach out to your father. Um or he he doesn't reach out to his daughter, but he reaches out directly to the father. And he has a conversation with his uh daughter like did you do you love this man?

[00:14:13]and they have a back and forth, but eventually she says, "No, I I hate him." And I I loathe him more than I did when I first met him.

[00:14:26]And he he just goes to the person, they they look over the um the books and he says, "No, I'm I'm not giving you a loan. um you're you're going to go through bankruptcy and I'm taking my daughter back and she's going to have she's going to divorce you.

[00:14:48]And that that's one through line, one plot that's going on with many many other plots uh throughout the book. Some of the things that I love uh for one is how lived the book feels.

[00:15:06]So, uh, they're reading the paper.

[00:15:08]They're concerned about, uh, current events. They they have a a family business that they're running and they are working. Um, they they they go to work each day. Uh, they wake up, they have meals. Uh we we get descriptions of what's what breakfast is like lunch, dinner, tea, the other activities, smoking cigarettes and cigars and having uh drinks and socializing.

[00:15:41]Uh there's so many books, if you think of a romance where uh you'll have some narrative uh convenience that they're all land owners or they're all fabulously wealthy and you just have a bunch of idol people um doing whatever they're doing. This book there's a lot of stuff happening, but they they are working. They have hobbies. I absolutely love the fact that um so many of these characters read books and one of the things that frustrates me so much when I'm uh reading anything is when it's mentioned that a character is reading a book and then we don't get to know what book. in this book so many times and in the Budenbrooks um a character we'll be reading uh Walter Scott or um Hoffman or Gerta Schilling uh many many other um book books are are mentioned and they have kind of like literary discussions with different characters that are reading different books. I absolutely love that.

[00:16:59]Um there's great scenes with the the business uh the the the merchant business that the Budenbrooks are operating. the tension between uh there's one generation where there's two brothers um one is a socializer and kind of shows up and makes appearances and um is often getting to work late and sipping his Kgnac in the morning and going to the club effectively the bar uh having a very long lunch break sometimes not coming back at all and there is a real tension between these two brothers um that feels natural.

[00:17:50]um Thomas and Christian and there's a moment um well there's several heated discussions but there's a moment where Thomas kind of blows up on him and says like you were at the bar last night and you said something really inappropriate that directly affects the reputation of our business and uh wants him to leave the company and instead of just having some kind of cartoonish argument Um he settles down, his temper cools. Um they have a reflective conversation about uh the importance of being honest and upfront and trying to move forward in a way that is um protective and responsible for the family. Uh I I absolutely love how many moments throughout this book. Uh there are examples of tenderness and compassion and um trying to hold things uh together. uh characters that um care about each other and through action uh show that they care about one another. There's obviously other tensions going on in the book, but um it's not uh completely like adversarial and um not throughout the whole book. I mean, most of it is these people trying to have good lives.

[00:19:31]Um I will say uh oh I did want to mention uh Paramander or Paramander the uh the Bavarian uh absolutely fabulous. he he shows up and in this translation there's this really thick u Scottish accent that is used to uh convey his uh very thick German accent and he's there to uh propose to uh Tony again her second marriage and uh he does so after a week or so and she has a conversation with her father and she decides he's not he's not attractive to uh Tony, but he does seem to have a good heart and he's always been kind and he he doesn't have that um shallowess and dipl uh duplicity that um she found in Gerlock, I think it was his name. and she consents and they're a wealthy family and she has a dowy. I don't I've never really understood how dowies work, but um uh she gets a dowy of 50,000 um dollars, German dollars.

[00:21:00]And to the shock of Tony, when they they get married, they're they're in Bavaria or wherever they are, and he has like his own business. He's a he's a brewer.

[00:21:11]He brews beer and drinks.

[00:21:14]Immediately he turns around and goes, "Well, I'm going to retire. I don't want to slave away now that we have these $50,000. I'm just going to be uh retired and enjoy the rest of my life." It's a shock to Tony thinking so that there's never going to be um like industriousness or good uh good fortunes of fate and good deals and kind of that aspirational idea of growing in society. This guy just wants to sit on this $50,000 and drink beer all day and it blows up. There's other scenes that uh are are very extreme. Um, and I I won't go into more detail uh the political aspects of the novel that are um surrounding and influencing uh the narrative uh throughout the book.

[00:22:11]Um it's quite impressive uh in in the sense that the book that uh the characters rather this family um really feel like they're living in a real world world where um there's political discussion and there's u rebellions and uh riots and um mobs and group crowds u demanding uh diplomacy and democracy and a new form of government. And uh reading this now in hindsight is so chilling because Thomas man while he was writing this book just had no idea what uh the 20th century in Germany was going to look like. And this book has so many moments that are like these beacons of hope of um the the the history throughout the world uh with rebellions and revolutions that kind of inch towards progress.

[00:23:24]And um it's sort of a a meta u reaction that I h that I have to to reading this because it it is so chilling. Um and ultimately we're we're watching a family falling apart and it is tragic. Um I think those are going to be most of my thoughts on uh the Brooks. I didn't want to spoil too much. If I gave one kind of little plot line, um the the the all of the characters in this book are so uh fabulous. The the mother and cousins and outside characters that we meet and other business partners.

[00:24:10]Um, I love how understandable it is because there are like dozens and dozens of characters and there's it's big family and people are getting married and they're having children and there's in-laws and and at least as you're reading it, you can really place everyone in the room and understand the family dynamics or the business associations or uh social uh relations and how they're all uh connected. I found it to be uh very very clear. Uh I do want to say so this book has has a really interesting choice in the way that it describes dialect what I I I felt was uh quite effective. Um then John E. Woods. It's been two decades since I've read it, but um Johnny Woods is a very much competent, talented, reliable translator of at least Thomas Man in my experience.

[00:25:19]Um, the last thing I'll say is, um, one, I I wish in in my fantasy world, uh, Thomas Mann would have been cranking these things out like Anthony Trrollop or Bolzac and, um, I could just have a whole summer of flapping through these enjoyable, uh, stories.

[00:25:39]I I I said that, um, the Ben Brooks was probably his most approachable novel.

[00:25:46]It's also um an outlier uh for things to come. When we think about um modernism with the works of Magic Mountain, Dr. Fstus so um it's approachable, not necessarily representative from my experience.

[00:26:12]So, um, the the Budenbrooks, the Budenbrooks, uh, whatever you please, if I'm getting it wrong anyway, please let me know. But thank you for watching. Please let me know if you've read it or anything else by Thomas Mann. Uh, I think for the big books, the only thing left for me to finish is Joseph and his brothers, but I've made a book I made a video on, uh, I made a video series on the Magic Mountain, uh, Felix Croll, the Confessions of Felix Croll, Confidence Man, uh, Dr. Foustice.

[00:26:50]So, I'm going to have to get to um, Joseph and his brothers one of these days. I don't know if I'm pronouncing Joseph correctly. Uh, Mr. Beverage, if you want to let me know. Uh, but thank you for watching. Please leave a comment if you would like. Uh, thank you and take care. Bye.