Death in Venice
Critique • Quotes • Translations • At the movies
First editionOriginal title
Der Tod in Venedig
First publication
1912
Literature form
Novella
Genres
Literary
Writing language
German
Author's country
Germany
Length
Approx. 20,000 words
Notable lines
On a spring afternoon of the year 19—, when our continent lay under such threatening weather for whole months, Gustav Aschenbach, or von Aschenbach as his name read officially after his fiftieth birthday, had left his apartment on the Prinzregenstrasse in Munich, and had gone for a long walk.
— First line, trans. Kenneth Burke
Writers are happiest with an idea which can become all emotion, and an emotion all idea.
Nothing is more unusual and strained than the relationship between people who know each other only with their eyes, who meet daily, even hourly, and yet are compelled, by force of custom or their own caprices, to say no word or make no move of acknowledgment, but to maintain the appearance of an aloof unconcern.
Some minutes passed before anyone hurried to the aid of the man who had collapsed into one corner of his chair. He was brought to his room. And on the same day a respectfully shocked world received the news of his death.
— Last lines
Critique • Quotes • Translations • At the movies
