Thomas Mann's first major novel is the story of four generations of the Buddenbrooks, a wealthy family in northern Germany: Johann, the patriarch, a member of the local merchant nobility; the Consul, who maintains the appearance of the family's prosperity; Thomas and Christian, who preside over the collapse of the family firm; and Hanno, the weak, dreamy, ineffectual artist, why symbolizes the family's extinction through overrefinement. With its brilliant accretion of the domestic details of middle-class life