12 h 3 minAudiobook7 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 everyone knows how a prince should behave, but no one knows the person beneath the ceremony?
In Thomas Mann’s Royal Highness, Klaus Heinrich lives on display in a small German grand duchy. He learns when to enter, what to say, and when to leave. His elder brother, Grand Duke Albrecht, is in poor health, and their state is short of money. Duty leaves little room for a private self.
Then Samuel Spoelmann, a wealthy American, arrives with his daughter Imma. Clever and independent, she views the court with curiosity rather than awe. Her presence brings a different gaze into Klaus Heinrich’s carefully ordered world. With gentle irony and real feeling, Mann explores loneliness, public roles, and the first signs of love.
What you’ll discover
- Behind the royal display Step inside old castles and court ceremonies, where every gesture belongs to a public role.
- A prince seeking understanding Meet Klaus Heinrich, whose royal position sets him apart from the people around him.
- An outsider without awe Discover Imma Spoelmann, whose independent eye offers a fresh view of the court.
- A teacher who sees Listen as Raoul Überbein speaks plainly to a prince whose loneliness he understands.
- A gently ironic fairy tale Enjoy a narrator who smiles at this ceremonial world without losing care for its people.
Who will love it
For readers who love quiet, witty stories about duty, loneliness and the first signs of love, and anyone drawn to fairy-tale courts, gentle irony and the contrast between royal ceremony and personal feeling.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A small court that lives on show
- A prince born marked and set apart
- Duty as a craft and a burden
- A teacher who sees the loneliness
- A rich outsider and his clever daughter
- Irony, fairy tale and the meaning of the title
Who’s who
- Klaus HeinrichA prince of a small grand duchy, trained to perform his duty in public, who longs without knowing it to be understood as a person.
- AlbrechtThe Grand Duke and Klaus Heinrich's elder brother, a ruler in delicate health who carries out his office with a heavy sense of obligation.
- Imma SpoelmannThe clever, independent daughter of a rich American, who looks at the court with curiosity rather than awe.
- Samuel SpoelmannA wealthy self-made man from America whose arrival stirs hope in a state short of money.
- Raoul ÜberbeinA hard, honest teacher of humble origins who speaks to the prince plainly and understands the loneliness of his position.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 12 h 3 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 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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Altesse royale
by Thomas Mann · 1909
A prince trained to live on display meets an American outsider's daughter who sees beyond the court's ceremony.
Challenging10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Royal Highness is a novel by Thomas Mann, published in 1909 under the German title Königliche Hoheit. Mann wrote it after his first great success, Buddenbrooks, and around the time of his own marriage.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A small court that lives on show
The novel is set in a fictional grand duchy in Germany. It is a small state with a court, a capital, old castles and a long tradition of ceremony. Mann treats it with affection and a smile. The country is not powerful, and its treasury is in trouble. Yet its rulers must still act as if everything depends on them.
The Grand Duke is Albrecht, a man in delicate health who carries out his public role with a heavy sense of obligation. Around him stand ministers, officers and servants, all trained in correct behavior. Every gesture has a meaning, and every appearance is planned. The people expect to see their rulers perform, and they are rarely disappointed.
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What is Royal Highness by Thomas Mann about?
It is about Klaus Heinrich, a prince in a small fictional German grand duchy, whose life is ruled by ceremony and duty. The novel asks what such a life costs and what happens when an outsider enters his world.
Who is Klaus Heinrich in Royal Highness?
He is the younger brother of Grand Duke Albrecht and the central figure of the novel. He is a graceful, disciplined prince who hides a weaker left hand and has learned to live as a public figure.
Is Royal Highness a true story?
No. It is fiction, published in 1909, and the grand duchy is invented. Mann drew on the life of German courts and on his own time, but the characters and the state are imagined.
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.
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