Der Tod in Venedig.: Novelle.

Berlin: S. Fischer,, 1913. Like any lover, he desired to please; suffered agonies at the thought of failure First trade edition, first printing, one of only 1,000 copies only, of Mann's celebrated Venetian novella. Widely recognized as "one of the undisputed classics of contemporary European literature" and a "paradigmatic master-text of homosexual eroticism" (Adair, p. 14 and 93), Der Tod in Venedig is rooted in the author's personal experience. The inspiration came to Mann during a vacation in Venice in the summer of 1911. While staying at the Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido, the author was captivated by the beauty of a 10-year-old Polish boy, W adys aw (W adzio) Moes, and then used him as the model for the protagonist Tadzio. Begun in July 1911, the work took a year to complete. Mann later admitted: "Nothing is invented in Death in Venice. The 'pilgrim' at the North, the dreary Pola boat, the grey-haired rake, the sinister gondolier, Tadzio and his family, the journey interrupted 14 by a mistake about the luggage, the cholera, the upright derk at the travel bureau, the rascally ballad singer, all that and anything else you like, they were all there. I had only to arrange them when they showed at once and in the oddest way their capacity as elements of composition" (ibid, p. 14-5). A signed limited edition of 60 copies was published in the same year. The story originally appeared in 1912, in two numbers of the journal Neue Rundschau, and subsequently in a private edition of 100 unsigned copies. Provenance: attractively designed bookplate of Dr. Kurt Krüger-Herbot (1884-1929), a German public prosecutor, engraved by Ernst Richter. Octavo. Original marbled paper boards, japon strip, blue paper label, white silk book marker. A fine copy. Gilbert Adair, The Real Tadzio. Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice' and the Boy who Inspired It, 2001.