Tristan

A study of the human soul at the point of psychological fracture. Vivid sketches of the “unity of time, place, and action.” At last—cold, impeccably talented stories of destinies, “heroes of their time.” Perhaps Mann’s novellas lack the scale of his novels—but they surpass the novels in the clarity and subtlety of their conception—and in his execution…

The relationship between art and life is the main theme of Thomas Mann’s largest and most significant novellas. The novella “Tristan”—a delicate yet sharp tragicomedy about the fate of an artist.