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Disorder and Early Sorrow (German: Unordnung und frühes Leid) is a 1925 novella written by Thomas Mann. It follows the fortunes of the Cornelius family through the perspective of Abel Cornelius (written in a third person narrative voice), a 47-year-old history professor at the local university, whose status in society was once ...
- Thomas Mann
- 1925 (periodical), 1926 (book)
- 1925
- Novella
Disorder and Early Sorrow' LATE IN A LONG AND PROFOUNDLY IMPORTANT CAREER, Allen Tate has published a Collected Poems, from the mere idea of which he had heretofore fastidiously recoiled. The Collected Poems takes its place beside his Essays of Four Decades (1968) and his novel The Fathers (reissued this year in a revised
by Meaghan Rubsam. “Disorder and Early Sorrow,” a novella by Thomas Mann, was written in 1925, with characters that were structured after members of Mann’s own family. This short story examines the life of the Cornelius family through the eyes of Abel Cornelius, a professor at the local university, whose once respected position has become ...
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Characters
- Themes
- Style
- Historical Context
- Critical Overview
- Criticism
- Sources
- Further Reading
Thomas Mann was born on June 6, 1875 in Luebeck, Germany, to Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann, a government official and small business owner, and his wife, Julia. He started writing at a young age, and had his first story published when he was fifteen. He married Katja Pringsheim on February 11, 1905, and they eventually had six children. Mann was a de...
“Disorder and Early Sorrow” is a novella that examines the life of Professor Cornelius’s family during one day in post-World War IGermany. The scene opens with a discussion between the members of the family and how they interact. Members of the family are identified by their generation: Ingrid and Bert, both teenagers, are “the big folk”; Professor...
Aladdin
Aladdin is a party guest who is known for his gift-giving and for treating his friends to parties and meals, despite the deteriorating economic situation.
Blue-faced Ann
SeeNursy
Abel Cornelius
Professor Abel Cornelius is the 47-year-old patriarch of the family, and the story is revealed through his perspective. He is a history professor who finds great personal satisfaction in preparing lectures. He is a devoted father to his four children, especially Ellie, whom he calls “Eleonorchen” and “childie.” Contrasted to this is his appraisal of his older son, Bert, who he believes lacks motivation and intellect in comparison to some of Bert’s friends. The Professor dislikes the party but...
Degeneration of Society
Several prominent themes run though Mann’s writing. One is the theme of the degeneration of society and its impact on the people in the society. From his first major work, Buddenbrooks (1901), to his last completed work, Felix Krull (1954), Mann lived in and wrote about a society that was undergoing major changes. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the effects of the Industrial Revolutionwere still being felt all across Europe. People were displaced because of the increasing centraliz...
Art and Artists in Society
A second thematic consideration in Mann’s fiction is the role of art and the artist in society. As the story unfolds, Professor Cornelius expresses his disapproval of many of contemporary art forms and society’s attitudes towards them. He takes issue with the way Herzl comes to the party wearing make-up. The Professor also takes offense at Herzl’s interactions with “the little folk,” when Herzl rolls his eyes up and puts his hand over his mouth and blesses them when he first meets the childre...
Past versus the Present
The Professor’s infatuation with history establishes another of Mann’s themes, the conflict between the past and the present. The Professor says on several occasions that he believes that only the past is worthwhile; the present is not as important. He believes that the past is stable and the present is unstable because it is constantly changing, and he dislikes instability.
Point of View and Setting
In “Disorder and Early Sorrow,” the story is narrated in a limited third-person point of view, in which the events are seen from the vantage point of Professor Cornelius. Because it is a limited point of view, the narration does not relate the unobservable thoughts of the other characters. The Professor is not telling the story, but the narrator does recount what the Professor thinks about the events going on around him. The use of limited third-person narration allows the author to reveal in...
Setting
“Disorder and Early Sorrow” is set in Munich, Germany, in the middle 1920s, after Germany lost World War I and the country was suffering from the chaos and economic insecurity that would soon give rise to the Nazi party. The action takes place specifically in the home of the Cornelius family, which was once securely upper-middle class. Though the Cornelius’s still have servants and modern conveniences like a telephone, their existence is more of a struggle than it used to be. The Professor’s...
Symbolism
Symbolism is the literary technique by which an author uses an item, issue, or situation in a story to represent something quite different. In this story, the Professor’s bifocals are symbolic of his dualistic view of the world about him. He sees the past as “true” and the present as “repugnant.” They also represent his twofold life, as a member of the family and as one who withdraws from the family into his study. Additionally these symbolize his twofold manner of regarding his children. He...
Germany of the Post War Period
“Disorder and Early Sorrow” was first published in 1925, midway between the end of World War I and the beginning of the Great Depression. This was a time of high hopes and expectations for better life to come in both Europe and the United States, especially for those who had suffered the incredible ravages of the war. But there were still many reminders of the war throughout Europe, and in Germany in particular. The physical devastation of many buildings, the social dislocation of refugees fl...
Compare & Contrast
1. 1924: To curb inflation, Germany issues a new Reichmark. Each new Reichmark is worth one billion of the old marks, which are withdrawn from circulation. 1997:Germany of the 1990s has one of the strongest economic systems in the Western world. Even after absorbing the former country of East Germany, it is a leader among all European nations. But this has not come without some difficulties. The industrial output of the eastern parts of the country was far below that of the western section. 2...
“Disorder and Early Sorrow” is often overlooked in the discussions of Mann’s literary output. After its first publication in 1925, it was reissued in 1934 with “Marion the Magician” and then in 1936 in the collection Stories of Three Decades. It has been included in several short story anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (1...
Carl Mowery
Mowery has a doctorate in rhetoric/composition and literature from Southern Illinois University. He has taught at SIU and Murray State University. In the following essay he examines the theme of the search for personal identity in “Disorder and Early Sorrow.” During the tumultuous years following World War I, most of the nations of Europe struggled to rebuild the homes, businesses, and towns destroyed by the fighting. Individuals also struggled to rebuild their personal lives and identities....
What Do I Read Next?
1. A Man and his Dog(1919) by Mann. This is an autobiographical story about life in Munich. This story, a “depiction of idyllic domesticity,” forms a kind of triptych with “Disorder and Early Sorrow” and “Song of the Child,” according to Henry Hatfield. 2. Tonio Krogerby Mann (1925). This is one of Mann’s best known short stories. It is about the development of a young artist; many critics believe it is Mann’s personal statement about art and artists. 3. Mein Kampf,1925-27, by Adolf Hitler. T...
Sidney Bolkosky
In the following essay, Bolkosky discusses “Disorder and Early Sorrow” as not only the story of a “Xaver stands out among the characters in this tale because of his individuality, self-assurance, and personal strengths.” family, but also as an illustration of “national disorder and sorrow, the confusion of generations.” . . . . “Disorder and Early Sorrow” is a “realistic” description of a day in the life of an upper middle-class family in the Munich of 1924. It has, however, deeper significan...
Bolkosky, Sidney. “Thomas Mann’s ‘Disorder and Early Sorrow’: The Writer as Social Critic,” in Contemporary Literature,Vol. XXII, No. 2, Spring 1981, pp. 218-33. Court, Franklin E. “Deception and the Parody of Externals’ in Thomas Mann’s ‘Disorder and Early Sorrow’,” in Studies in Short Fiction,Vol. XII, No. 2, Spring 1975, pp. 186-89. Cowley, Malc...
Critical Essays on Thomas Mann,edited by Inta Ezergailis, G. K. Hall, 1988, 270 p. Heilbut, Anthony. Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature, University of CaliforniaPress, 1997, 638 p. Prater, Donald A. Thomas Mann: A Life, Oxford UniversityPress, 1995, 554 p. “Thomas Mann,” in Short Story Criticism,Volume 5, edited by Thomas Votteler, Gale, 1990, pp. 30...
Dive deep into Thomas Mann's Disorder and Early Sorrow with extended analysis, commentary, and discussion
Disorder and Early Sorrow. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2015. PETER A. COCLANIS. Article. Metrics. Get access. Cite. Rights & Permissions. Extract. In history's house there are many mansions, space aplenty for good work of all types.
THOMAS MANN'S "DISORDER AND EARLY SORROW": THE WRITER AS SOCIAL CRITIC Sidney Bolkosky When social critics accuse Thomas Mann and his characters of inde-cisiveness, irresolution, aloofness, detachment, passive observation and amorality, they couple social reproaches with literary criticism
