Buddenbrooks

Published in 1901, 'Buddenbrooks' is Thomas Mann's first novel, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. The story chronicles the decline of the Buddenbrook family, a bourgeois family running a wholesale grain business in Lübeck, Germany, over four generations during the 19th century. The novel explores the tension between individual aspirations and familial obligations against the backdrop of societal changes. Notably, it is regarded as the first great novel of the 20th century and draws heavily from Mann's own family history.