Finished: Buddenbrooks (Mann). Oh, what a sad but good book! I may have a new addition to my favorite books, and it's been awhile since I added one of those! Buddenbrooks is the story of four generations of an upper crust German family. Starting in 1835, it tells the tale of the how the grandfather, Johann Buddenbrook, a well-to-do merchant who owns the family company, Johann Buddenbrook, is surrounded by his son, Jean and Jean's young family, Thomas, 9, Antoinette, 8, and young Christian, 7. Each of the children has certain expectations put upon them. Their father, Jean, first of all, takes over the company and inherits the position of Consul in the northern German town when his father dies. The company is doing well and the entire family has moved into a huge mansion as the story opens. Once patriarch Johann passes on and Jean takes over, the business continues to thrive, but all the children are raised to know their duties. Thomas, the oldest son, must follow in his father's footsteps and run the family business. Christian, who is flighty, and a bit of a hypochondriac, is not expected to live up to anything, and so he doesn't. Tony, as Antoinette is called, is expected to marry a man that will bring more income to the family. Despite the fact that she falls in love with a person of lower status, Tony does what's required of her and marries a man who actually ends up swindling the family! He snows Jean and his wife, Elisabeth, with his flattery, so much so that they relentlessly push Tony to marry him...despite him being much older and despite the fact that she can see right through his fakeness! He has enlisted people in the town where he lives to attest to Jean, when he does a background check, that he has a stable business and plenty of money. Sure enough, only four years, and one young daughter later, her husband who borrowed all his money and status off of the name of his future father-in-law, is near bankruptcy. He has assured his creditors that Jean Buddenbrook will pay off his debts. Instead, though, in one of his most tender moments, Jean Buddenbrook asks his daughter her opinion! He asks if she's truly happy or if she would rather come home with her young daughter. There is grounds for divorce due to the fraud. Even though it is a disgrace to her name, so she thinks, Tony wants to go home so a divorce is granted. By now, a fourth child has been added to the Buddenbrook siblings...young Clara.

As time goes on, the four Buddenbrook children grow up and you can begin to see the decline of the wealth and the family name and prosperity. Just in small bits at first, but it happens. First of all, Jean Buddenbrook passes away relatively young, so Thomas is only in his late teens when he is thrust into control of the family business. Along with another man who has been a minor partner of the firm, he does manage to bring youth and vitality to the company and run it just fine. The thing is...the company becomes his life! He is also awarded the title of Consul, and actually moves farther than his father did in the political scene when he becomes a senator. In his most profitable years, he marries a young musical talent, Gerda, and they build a magnificent new house. This becomes the beginning of the end. Thomas regrets how much money he puts into the house, but appearance is everything to keep the company going so Thomas always spends money on the best clothes, etc., and still hosts grand parties for clients, friends, and all. Meanwhile, he and Gerda have only one young son to carry on the Buddenbrook name and hopefully take over the company some day.

Christian, the second brother, has become a worthless, complaining, partier, who sponges money off everyone and even cashes in part of his inheritance that will come once his mother dies. He's a wild story teller, and though he tries working at the company, it only lasts for two weeks before his wanderlust gets the best of him. He's the weakest and most selfish member of the family and can't even stay in the room when his mother is dying to be with her. He thinks only of himself and how it is affecting him. He amounts to nothing, truly, and by the end of the book is in a sanatorium for crazy people.

Tony, with the mark of a divorce against her, longs to marry again and reclaim her good name. More than anything, she wants to improve the Buddenbrook reputation by marrying and erasing the other bad experience. Of course, she does marry again, with the approval of her brother Tom, but again...the man is a no good. Despite having his own company, he takes the dowry of Tony (a much smaller one this time) and declares right after their marriage that he is retiring and they will live off of what they have! This will, of course, make Tony have to work her fingers to the bone while he goes out and drinks every night with the men. So, Tom goes to fetch Tony and she's got another divorce under her belt. Feeling guilty, at least this husband sends the dowry money back. Tony's entire story is basically one dramatic sob story after another, yet she does remain one of the strongest characters in the book. Her own daughter, Erika, marries an insurance man who commits fraud in his own company and is sent to prison. Not before Erika has her own daughter, baby Elisabeth.

Youngest daughter Clara marries an older clergyman and moves away. She doesn't have any children and dies tragically of tuberculosis of the brain at a young age. Meanwhile, Thomas and Gerda's young son is born, but with great difficulty for mother and child. He will be their only child and he is named after his grandfather, Johann. All of the family's and the company's hopes ride on this poor, sickly young child. Johann is very sensitive and musically inclined and shy and not all all what his father expects from a son. He is nearly terrorized at the thought of taking over the company, which his father starts bothering him about from a young age. He's not athletic and not particularly smart, and is really only moved by playing music.

As all these personal dramas are unfolding, Johann Buddenbrook, the company, is on the decline. A few different wars and stock drops and bankruptcies by other companies have greatly affected the company worth. When Jean's widow, Elisabeth, the family matriarch, finally passes away, Thomas decides that the huge mansion that has been in the family since the children were young must be sold. Unfortunately it is sold to their family nemesis, which breaks Tony's heart. Also, Elisabeth had promised Clara on her own deathbed that when she herself passed away, that Clara's widower would inherit Clara's Buddenbrook inheritance, i.e., one-fourth of the family inheritance. Under tremendous stress, Thomas Buddenbrook has his own health crisis and dies suddenly! Gerda is then forced to sell their own huge mansion and buy a smaller house. Having seen that his son would never be willing or able to take over the family company, Thomas just earlier in the year had written a will and stipulated that upon his death, Johann Buddenbrook, the company, would be dissolved and sold off. :-(

By now, Tony and her daughter and granddaughter live in a small home on their own. Christian is still in the sanatorium. And, Gerda and young Johann live in their modest home. Johann is now fifteen and still very sickly, very timid, very non-studious, often bullied, and very fearful of school since he never studies. He spends all his time composing his own music and going to the occasional theater production when his mother will take him. One of the last chapters goes through a day in the life of Johann, and shows, basically, how uncertain and unhappy he is. He doesn't know what he wants to "be", despite being guided and asked by his guardian, his late father's good friend. Then, sadly, Mann suddenly writes a chapter detailing how typhoid fever affects the body...and all its debilitating symptoms. There's always a crisis point that is reached, and the strong-willed people can live through it (sometimes) and those of a lesser, weaker will cannot. He uses these pages to introduce us to the grim reality that young Johann has typhoid fever. :-( In a heartbreaking paragraph, which I will include below, young Johann succumbs to the illness. In the end, Gerda and Tony lament the end of his life and that Gerda is going to move back to her father's home in Amsterdam. The end.

There is, of course, and as usual, so much more to the 700+ page story than I can put into words in a blog. Mann goes into such character depth and emotion. You truly live each event that happens with each member of the family as it happens. Though it was the decline of the family and there was no happy ending, I still really loved this book! I'm not sure there IS a book out there on my "to read" list with a happy ending, but I'm pressing on!

Now, the heartbreaking passage of young Johann's passing:

Typhoid runs the following course:  
    As he lies in remote, feverish dreams, lost in their heat, the patient is called back to life by an unmistakable, cheering voice. That clear, fresh voice reaches his spirit wandering along strange, hot paths and leads it back to cooling shade and peace. The patient listens to that bright, cheering voice, hears its slightly derisive admonishment to turn back, to return to the regions from which it calls, to places that the patient has left so far behind and has already forgotten. And then, if there wells up within him something like a sense of duties neglected, a sense of shame, of renewed energy, of courage, joy, and love, a feeling that he still belongs to that curious, colorful, and brutal hubbub that he has left behind--then, however far he may have strayed down that strange, hot path, he will turn back and live. But if he hears the voice of life and shies from it, fearful and reticent, if the memories awakened by its lusty challenge only make him shake his head and stretch out his hand to ward them off, if he flees farther down the path that opens before him now as a route of escape--no, it is clear, he will die.