Thomas Mann, the greatest German novelist of the 20th century
The tension and harmony between the civil and artistic worlds, and the process of spiritual growth
A representative selection of short stories encompassing the entire creative world of a representative German literary author.

“Do not curse this love.
It is a good and productive love.
Donggyeong
It's in there.
And again, a touch of gloomy jealousy, a little bit of contempt, and a complete
“There is a high degree of pure, heavenly bliss in it.”

Thomas Mann's short stories in this book are products of the long magnetic field between the pious bourgeois world and the sensual, artistic world.
Thomas Mann was always torn between these two worlds, unable to love either one as his own.
“I stand between two worlds.
So, I can't settle down in any world.
As a result, it is a bit difficult to bear.
“You artists call me a citizen, and the citizens feel the urge to arrest me.” In these words of Tonio Kröger, Thomas Mann’s ideal image of the artist in the early days is clearly revealed, which is not the image of the “arrogant and cold-hearted artist who adventures on the paths of beauty and despises ‘humanity,’” but the image of the artist who preserves “a citizen’s love for the human, the living, the everyday.”
─ Ahn Sam-hwan, from “Commentary on the Work”

But that's precisely why his posture was so confident! Truly, anyone who could walk like him would have to be foolish.
Only then can you receive love from others.
Because it looks lovely.
He could quite literally understand Inge, that cute blonde Inge, looking at Mr. Knack.
But what girl has ever looked at herself like that?
--- p.27

Lizaveta! Emotions, warm, heartfelt emotions, are always trite and useless.
The artistic is merely the restlessness and cool ecstasy of our degenerate, artistic nervous system.
In order to play with and play with the human, to be able to express the human effectively and stylishly, or even to attempt to do so, we artists ourselves must become something extrahuman, something inhuman, we ourselves must find ourselves in a strangely distant and unrelated relationship to the human.

The very fact that one possesses a talent for form, for form and for expression already presupposes such a cold and demanding relationship to the human, a certain impoverishment and devastation of humanity.
Anyway, one thing is certain: healthy and powerful emotions are not fun.
When an artist becomes human and begins to feel, he is finished.
--- p.45

I admire the arrogant and cold-hearted who despise [humanity] while adventuring on the great and devilish path of beauty.
But I don't envy them.
For if there is anything that can make a writer a true poet, it is this civic love of what is human, what is alive, what is everyday.
--- p.107

Tonio loved his passionate, dark-haired mother, who was very good at playing the piano and mandolin.
And he was glad that she wasn't bothered by the questionable opinions her son was receiving from people.
But on the other hand, he felt that his father's anger was much more majestic and admirable.
And even though he was scolded, he fundamentally sympathized with his father's attitude, and felt that his mother's cheerful indifference was a bit indulgent.
Sometimes he would find himself lost in thoughts like this:
- I am satisfied with the way I am now. I do not want to change myself, nor can I change myself.
He lives loosely, is stubborn, and usually thinks about things that no one else thinks about.
At the very least, it would be right for me to be severely scolded and punished for this.
What good is it to just shower someone with kisses or muddle through with music?
We are still decent people, not wandering gypsies riding green carts.
Consul Kroger's family, the Kroger clan.

--- From the text