3 h 37 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the quiet life you build to protect yourself cannot survive the arrival of one person?
In Thomas Mann’s Little Herr Friedemann, Johannes Friedemann finds comfort in music, books and walks. His body sets him apart, and he has made peace with a life without love. Then Gerda von Rinnlingen, the restless wife of the new district commander, arrives in town and unsettles that hard-won calm.
At the theatre, Gerda sits beside Friedemann in the same box, bringing desire uncomfortably close. Around this title story, Mann gathers tales of outsiders who long for love, health, admiration or belonging. In Tobias Mindernickel, a lonely man’s need for kindness becomes tangled with his need for power.
What you’ll discover
- A fragile private peace Enter Friedemann’s world of books and music, where quiet pleasures offer shelter from longing.
- Desire within reach Feel the pressure of a theatre encounter that puts Gerda beside the man she unsettles.
- The hunger for kindness Meet Tobias Mindernickel, whose loneliness draws pity and power into an uneasy knot.
- Sympathy with a sharp edge Discover how Mann watches vulnerable people closely, without flattering them or dismissing their wishes.
- The cost of longing Explore stories where the wish to belong can lift a person up or threaten everything.
Who will love it
Ideal for readers who enjoy moody psychological stories, finely drawn inner lives and the German tradition of artists, outsiders and dreamers. It suits anyone drawn to tales of longing and self-deception.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A contented man builds joy from longing
- A count counts the days to his death
- A friend's weak heart and a single hope
- A stranger in Venice asks about disappointment
- A clown's talent cannot buy a life
- Pity that needs someone else to suffer
Who’s who
- Johannes FriedemannA hunchbacked merchant who lives for music and theater and believes he has learned to live without great passion.
- Gerda von RinnlingenThe restless, boyish wife of the new lieutenant colonel, who stares at people without embarrassment.
- The CountA man in his fortieth year who is certain he will die on the twelfth of October.
- AsuncionThe count's quiet young daughter, whose dark eyes are those of her dead mother.
- Paolo HofmannA sickly painter with a weak heart who holds on to one great hope.
- Ada von SteinThe baron's daughter, who tells the narrator she will marry no one but Paolo.
- The ClownA well-off, bookish narrator who withdraws from society and tries hard to convince himself he is happy.
- Tobias MindernickelA shabby, mocked man in black who buys a dog to have someone to pity and command.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 3 h 37 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Der kleine Herr Friedemann
by Thomas Mann · 1898
A small man who has made peace with life meets a woman who looks at him too closely.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What happens to a man who has built his happiness on never wanting too much? Each tale follows one person whose private longing runs up against the world, from a hunchback in a trading town to a count counting down to his last day.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A contented man builds joy from longing
The title story begins with a fall. A drunken nurse drops baby Johannes Friedemann, and he grows up with a twisted back, a narrow chest and three unmarried sisters who run his mother's house. At sixteen he sees the girl he likes kissing a red-haired boy. He decides then and there that love is not for him.
Friedemann does not collapse. He teaches himself to enjoy small things: his violin, his books, a seat at the city theater, even the sweet ache of unfulfilled wishes. On his thirtieth birthday he sits in the garden pavilion and expects quiet years ahead. Then Lieutenant Colonel von Rinnlingen arrives with his wife Gerda, who smokes, rides and drives her own carriage.
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What is Little Herr Friedemann about?
It is a collection of six novellas by Thomas Mann. Each follows a lonely or sensitive person, such as a hunchback, a painter or a count, whose inner longing clashes with the ordinary world around him.
Which stories are in Little Herr Friedemann?
Most are short and can be read one at a time.
What does the title Little Herr Friedemann mean?
The title names Johannes Friedemann, a small man with a twisted back whom the narrator calls little, and who has made a gentle, quiet life for himself.
The author
Thomas Mann
1875–1955 · German novelist
Thomas Mann was a German novelist born in Lübeck in 1875. He wrote Buddenbrooks (1901), Tonio Kröger (1903), Royal Highness (1909), and Death in Venice (1912). He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. He lived in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, and died in Zürich in 1955.
More by Thomas Mann
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