Transcriber's Notes:
Every effort has been made to replicate this textas faithfully as possible, including inconsistencies in spelling,hyphenation, and ellipsis usage.
Some corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made.They are marked likethis in the text. The original text appears when hovering the cursorover the marked text. A list of amendments isat the end of the text.
Translated from the German of
THOMAS MANN
by A. Cecil Curtis
GROSSET & DUNLAP
Publishers
by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf
COPYRIGHT, 1909, S. FISCHER, VERLAG
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
| Prelude | vii |
| CHAPTER I | |
| The Constriction | 1 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| The Country | 25 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| Hinnerke the Shoemaker | 37 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Doctor Ueberbein | 64 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| Albrecht II | 110 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| The Lofty Calling | 146 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| Imma | 168 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| The Fulfilment | 265 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| The Rose-Bush | 328 |
The scene is the Albrechtstrasse, the main artery of thecapital, which runs from Albrechtsplatz and the Old Schlossto the barracks of the Fusiliers of the Guard. The time isnoon on an ordinary week-day; the season of the year doesnot matter. The weather is fair to moderate. It is notraining, but the sky is not clear; it is a uniform light grey,uninteresting and sombre, and the street lies in a dull andsober light which robs it of all mystery, all individuality.There is a moderate amount of traffic, without much noiseand crowd, corresponding to the not over-busy characterof the town. Tram-cars glide past, a cab or two rolls by,along the pavement stroll a few residents, colourless folk,passers-by, the public—“people.”
Two officers, their hands in the slanting pockets o