- portrays the downfall of a wealthy mercantile family, the Buddenbrooks, over four generations
"Death in Venice"
- Gustav von Aschenbach, a novelist, travels to Venice where he becomes obsessed by the androgynous beauty of an adolescent boy named Tadzio
- although an epidemic of Asiatic cholera breaks out, Aschenbach doesn't leave because of Tadzio who becomes a symbol of faded youth and of attractions Aschenbach never made reality
- his entire existence begins to revolve around this young boy, and the novel ends on Lido beach where Aschenbach is watching Tadzio play with his friends
- The boy wanders out to sea but turns and finally shares eye contact with the old man, and von Aschenbach dies
Magic Mountain
- Hans Castorp visits his cousin Joachim Ziemben in a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps before WWI
- his departure is repeatedly delayed by his failing health and he remains there for 7 years
- he meets humanist and encylopedist Lodovico Settembrini, the totalitarianist Leo Naphta, the hedonist Heer Peeperkorn and his romantic interest Madame Chauchat
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