The fifty-year-old Gustav Asenbach, a successful writer, travels to Venice for vacation. During a meal at the hotel, he is captivated by an exceptionally beautiful boy. Soon, his days revolve around when he will see him again, ignoring the ominous rumors circulating that a plague is spreading in the city.

"Death in Venice" is a masterpiece story about obsession, the creator's anxiety, and the abyss of the end.

It was adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti, starring Dirk Bogarde as Gustav Asenbach.

Undoubtedly one of the classic titles of modern European literature.
Independent

There are many, many questions that Mann poses in the dense fabric of this novel, and the reader will answer them as they see fit. However, there is also a direct answer from the author. "People do not know why they praise a work of art. Not being experts, they believe that they discover hundreds of merits in it to justify their preference; however, the real reason for their approval is something unexpected, [...] that they sympathize." In Death in Venice, in this short story where everything unfolds in the spirit of a musical composition, with the rhythm accelerating from one phrase to another, we are given at least the opportunity to sympathize with its hero and ultimately to like him despite his inner confusion and unconfessed passions.

(from the preface by Dimitris Stefanakis)

"Why does a person love and appreciate another as long as they do not know them well enough to judge them, and desire is a result of insufficient knowledge about the other."