This triptych of stories represents some of the finest work by the great German master, Thomas Mann. From a classic early account of artistic formation, suffused with deep melancholy, to works that explore the complex social fractures of his time, this volume showcase the range of Mann's genius and his matchless understanding of character. In sparkling new translations by Lesley Chamberlain, these tales take us from a tense party in Weimar Berlin to a disturbing magician's performance in an Italian seaside town, probing the consolations and limitations of art with wit and profound irony.

"The greatest German novelist of the 20th century" - Spectator

"A master magician of German - and world - literature in the 20th century" - Telegraph

"Mann is Germany's outstanding modern classic... With his famous irony, he was up there with Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Freud, holding together the modern world with a love of art and imagination to compensate for the emptiness left by social and religious collapse" - Independent

"Probably the greatest of modern German novelists" - New York Times

"A supremely gifted storyteller... a solemn trickster who is never altogether earnest about anything" - New Yorker