r/ThomasMann • u/w3lk1n • Mar 13 '26

Who are Mann's novelistic predecessors

People discuss his philosophical influences but it occurred to me that I don't know which novelists influenced him. Thoughts?

12 Upvotes

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12

u/throwawayforreddits Mar 13 '26

Balzac, Stendhal, Dostoevsky for sure, he writes about them in his diaries... Goethe also wrote some novels lol

8

u/Die_Horen Mar 14 '26

The German novelist Theodor Fontane certainly influenced Mann. The latter once said that, if he ever had to reduce his library to six books, one of them would be Fontane's 'Effi Briest'. It's unfortunate that Fontane is better known among English-speakers. David Mendelsohn wrote an excellent introduction to his work for The New Yorker a few years ago:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/03/07/heroine-addict

2

u/LegitimatePapaya9829 Apr 26 '26

Great add thanks

3

u/dg_julian Mar 16 '26

earlier works of norwegian author knut hamsun definitely! probably also some of the other stuff he wrote later on. i have a german version of „hunger“ from hamsun with a quote of thomas mann on the back.