Royal Highness

Mann, Thomas, 1875-1955Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 675K words
Chapters: 68

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Royal Highness by Thomas MannAuthor: Mann, Thomas, 1875-1955,Language: English, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: May 3, 2011

Editor's review

Royal Highness is an early novel by Thomas Mann set in a fictional small principality, telling of a prince caught between court etiquette and personal desire. With delicate irony Mann depicts the elaborate rituals of aristocratic life and the psychology of his characters; the prose is restrained and quietly satirical, a gentle mockery of the courtly world and an observation of how an individual seeks a self within the constraints of rank. As a public-domain ebook it serves as an accessible introduction to Mann's early style and to the satirical tradition in German literature. Read it slowly, attending to the narrator's elaboration of court ceremony and to the undertones of the dialogue; readers already familiar with Mann's later work can trace the evolution of his themes and technique.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in German literature and European aristocratic settings
Literature lovers curious about Thomas Mann's early style
Readers who enjoy irony and finely drawn psychological portraiture
Those who need a public-domain English electronic text for study or research

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and strong conflict
Readers with no interest in courtly etiquette
Beginners whose English reading ability cannot yet handle long literary sentences

Reading tips

Begin with the opening depiction of the principality and its court to establish the characters' relationships before entering the plot.
Note the narrator's ironic tone and mark sentences that carry the satire.
Supplement the reading with background on Mann's life and the state of European aristocracy in the late nineteenth century.
After each chapter, briefly retell the characters' situations to follow the development of the psychological portrayal.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this the original English edition, and how difficult is it to read?

This is a public-domain English ebook released by Project Gutenberg. Mann's sentences are long and his irony understated, so it suits readers with some grounding in literary English; beginners may wish to use notes or a parallel translation.

Can I read this without having read other works by Thomas Mann?

Yes. It is one of Mann's earlier long works, its plot relatively concentrated, and it does not depend on prior knowledge of his other books. Reading his later works afterward in fact makes the changes in theme and technique easier to see.

Is this book suitable for classroom discussion?

Yes. The tension between court etiquette and personal desire, and the narrator's satirical stance, are both open to discussion; it can serve as supplementary reading in courses on German or European literature, provided the teacher supplies background.

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About the author

Mann, Thomas, 1875-1955 Author

Thomas Mann (Mann, Thomas, 1875–1955) was a major novelist in the history of German-language literature, with nine of his works held in this collection. The novel Buddenbrooks: Verfall einer Familie traces the rise and decline of several generations of a family to portray the spiritual changes of the bourgeois world, while Der Tod in Venedig delicately depicts an artist's predicament before beauty and desire. Such shorter works as Tonio Kröger, Tristan, and Der kleine Herr Friedemann revolve largely around the tension between art and life, order and passion. Königliche Hoheit, Gladius Dei, and Schwere Stunde likewise reflect his sustained attention to the inner world of the individual. Public information is limited; his writing is grounded in realist narration, infused with symbolism and irony, precise in language and carefully structured, and has had a profound influence on the development of the twentieth-century German novel.