Reviews

The Black Swan by Thomas Mann

readingwoman's review

5.0

An interesting and racey book! Wonderful character treatments and divine prose. Having just finished this novella, I must say that the theme of "mid-life crisis" is relevant for today. Mann has treated the "feminine psyche" as it were, quite well.

asuph's review

4.0

Interesting novella. I read this in bits and pieces for a while, till I just sat down one day, down with cold, with a gloomy, cloudy weather outside, and gulped it down in one go. What I really find remarkable about the book is for its time, it's bold and modern about the subject, and also the way it portrays the inner worlds of the characters is something it shares with another great German writer, my favorite, Hermann Hesse. It does live one somewhat unsatisfied by its briefness, and hence also a somewhat cramped arc of its central story. Still, on the flip side, it's a quick read, and definitely worth the short time it demands of you.

3.5/5, which I couldn't strip down to 3.