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Audiobook edition · 25 h 26 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the family fortune you inherit becomes the life you cannot escape?
In Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, four generations of grain merchants build their lives around a house, a firm and a respected name. The story opens in 1835, at a dinner in the family’s new home. Births, weddings and business deals mark the passing years, while the rules that give one generation confidence begin to weigh on the next.
Tony Buddenbrook believes fiercely in family honor, even when duty presses against love. Her brother Thomas takes charge of the firm and works to maintain a flawless public face. Christian longs to escape the counting house, while Thomas’s musical son Hanno faces his father’s hopes. Around them, rivals rise and old habits become harder to defend.
What you’ll discover
- A house full of hope Enter a family celebration where pride, comfort and expectation gather around the dinner table.
- The price of duty Follow Tony as the needs of the firm shape her choices in marriage.
- Success behind closed doors Watch Thomas struggle to keep private strain from disturbing his polished public life.
- Brothers pulled apart Meet Christian, whose restless humor and love of theatre clash with the demands of business.
- Music against expectation Discover Hanno’s sensitive nature in a household that looks to him for its future.
Who will love it
Readers who love family sagas, vivid dinners and characters as familiar as relatives, especially those drawn to how money and obligation shape a household over years.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Prosperity already contains small divisions
- Family harmony yields to money
- Faith and trade share a history
- The children inherit different duties
- Tony discovers a wish beyond duty
- A respectable marriage hides financial deceit
- Public success conceals private weakness
- Sensitivity grows beyond the business world
- The family name carries a cost
Who’s who
- Johann Buddenbrook the elderThe powdered, jovial head of the family and grain firm, who trusts business and good living and teases the pious.
- Consul Johann BuddenbrookHis devout, dreamy son, partner in the firm, who keeps a family journal and weighs every feeling against the family's interests.
- Antonie, called TonyThe Consul's proud, spirited daughter, who wants to uphold the family name and hopes to advance its fortunes through marriage.
- Thomas BuddenbrookHer elder brother, a careful, ambitious merchant who wants to raise the firm higher and keep every weakness hidden.
- Christian BuddenbrookThe younger brother, a gifted mimic who loves the theater, avoids work and spends his life watching his own ailments.
- Gerda ArnoldsenThomas's red-haired bride from Amsterdam, a cool, reserved violinist who lives for music.
- HannoThomas and Gerda's only son, a delicate, musical boy who dreads school and his father's plans for him.
- Bendix GrünlichThe smiling Hamburg agent with golden side whiskers who woos Tony and wants her dowry.
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Buddenbrooks in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Buddenbrooks
by Thomas Mann · 1901
At a 1835 housewarming feast, a merchant family toasts its future while a sealed letter waits in the Consul's pocket.
Challenging10–20 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What does a family do when a dinner party is also a show of its success? On an October afternoon in 1835, old Johann Buddenbrook and his son the Consul celebrate their new house on Meng Street.
Buddenbrooks at a glance
- Reading time
- About 16 h 30 min13 h 5 min fast, 19 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 235,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1901by Thomas Mann
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A housewarming dinner shows the family at its height
The story opens in the yellow and white landscape room of the new house. Old Johann Buddenbrook, powdered and pigtailed, holds his granddaughter Tony on his knee. Eight-year-old Tony races through the catechism, and he laughs and asks her what she charges for a sack of wheat. His son the Consul gently scolds him for mocking what is sacred.
Mann spends pages on rooms, clothes and food, and the detail does real work. The wallpaper shows shepherds under golden sunsets. Everything says money, comfort and good taste.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1901
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Mann, Thomas. Buddenbrooks. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/buddenbrooks.
Mann, T. (2026). Buddenbrooks. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/buddenbrooks (Original work published 1901)
Mann, Thomas. Buddenbrooks. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/buddenbrooks.
@book{mann2026buddenbrooks,
author = {Mann, Thomas},
title = {Buddenbrooks},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/buddenbrooks},
note = {First published 1901}
}
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What is Buddenbrooks about?
It follows a wealthy merchant family in a northern German trading city through four generations. Marriages, money, religion and health shape each choice, and the family slowly loses its practical strength while it gains finer feeling.
Is Buddenbrooks based on a true story?
It is a novel, but Thomas Mann drew on his own merchant family and his hometown. He published it in 1901, and it covers roughly the years from 1835 to the 1870s.
Who are Tony and Thomas Buddenbrook?
Tony is the proud, talkative daughter of the Consul, who tries to serve the family name through marriage. Thomas is her elder brother, who takes charge of the firm and works hard to keep up its standing.
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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