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Buddenbrooks Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Thomas Mann (Author), Peter Noble (Narrator), Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter - translator (Author),
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,315 ratings
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Buddenbrooks was first published in Germany in 1901, when Mann was only twenty-six. It has become a classic of modern literature and was cited as the overarching reason for Mann being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

It is the story of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany facing the advent of modernity; in an uncertain new world, the family’s bonds and traditions begin to disintegrate. As Mann charts the Buddenbrooks’ decline from prosperity to bankruptcy, from moral and psychic soundness to sickly piety, artistic decadence, and madness, he ushers the listener into a world of stunning vitality, pieced together from births and funerals, weddings and divorces, recipes, gossip, and earthy humor.

In its immensity of scope, richness of detail, and fullness of humanity, Buddenbrooks surpasses all other modern family chronicles. With remarkable fidelity to the original German text, this superb translation emphasizes the magnificent scale of Mann’s achievement in this riveting, tragic novel.

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  1. Listening Length
    27 hours and 36 minutes
  2. Author
    Thomas Mann, see all
  3. Narrator
    Peter Noble
  4. Audible release date
    1 Jan. 2023
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    SNR Audio
  7. ASIN
    B0BJF79H5G
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 27 hours and 36 minutes
Author Thomas Mann, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter - translator
Narrator Peter Noble
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.co.uk Release Date 01 January 2023
Publisher SNR Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0BJF79H5G
Best Sellers Rank 46,636 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
1,363 in Family Life Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
1,398 in Classic Literature
2,005 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

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4.2 out of 5 stars
1,315 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book enjoyable and easy to read. They praise the well-written family saga with its autobiographical feel. The characters are well-developed and their frailties and strengths are explored. Readers appreciate the excellent pacing and remarkable writing style. The story provides an intellectual challenge and offers food for thought about life's cycle. However, some customers report missing chapters and a title that does not include the second part. Opinions differ on the readableness of the book, with some finding it easy to read and enjoyable, while others find typos and unreadable sections in the Kindle edition.

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ReadabilityStory qualityCharacter depthPacingEnthrallingReadablenessChapter countLength
20 customers mention ‘Readability’20 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and enjoyable. They describe it as a great summer read, with lively writing style.

"...German history helps, but is not essential to enjoying this absolutely superb novel." Read more

"...Well worth reading, but I doubt if there is much beyond the period detail - and the brilliant prose, which is well served by the translation, and..." Read more

"...As classics go it turned out to be not a difficult read and enjoyable though slightly depressing...." Read more

"...From the very first page, it was a pleasure to read...." Read more

10 customers mention ‘Story quality’10 positive0 negative

Customers find the story engaging and well-written. They describe it as a brilliant autobiography with a monumental description of the decline of a powerful family over several decades.

"...a lot of what has already been said about this book - it is a mesmerising saga of a 19th century North German merchant's family, which definitely..." Read more

"...title it won't be a spoiler to say this is a monumental description of the decline of a powerful family over several decades...." Read more

"...of the family's fortunes and losses, but each has their story unfold with clarity and increasing fascination. However, the translation by John..." Read more

"Thoroughly enjoyed this very readable saga and nothing I can add to more competent reviewers here...." Read more

8 customers mention ‘Character depth’8 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the depth of the characters. They mention there are a wealth of characters over three generations of the family, and they explore the frailties and strengths of the human character.

"...society of nineteenth century Germany and the complexity of the characters themselves...." Read more

"I can't praise this novel highly enough, with its rich cast of characters and astute observations about human nature...." Read more

"...There are a wealth of characters over the three generations of the family's fortunes and losses, but each has their story unfold with clarity and..." Read more

"I loved the characters. They are straight out of the twenty first century. I cannot believe this book was written in 1904...." Read more

7 customers mention ‘Pacing’7 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's pacing excellent. They describe it as a monumental classic, remarkable for its human characters and ability to demonstrate their wills. Readers praise the great set pieces in the landscape room.

"...but Thomas Mann's first novel, published when he was 25, is remarkable for many things and not least of these is the ease with which it can be..." Read more

"...of all these odd people are brilliantly done, and the great set pieces in the landscape room - house warming, Christmas eve, etc - the deathbed scene..." Read more

"...A masterpiece from Thomas Mann." Read more

"...So pleased to find John Wood's translation - excellent!" Read more

6 customers mention ‘Enthralling’6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book engaging and fascinating. They say it provides an intellectual challenge and food for thought about life and society. Readers appreciate the details of ordinary life, like clothes, food, customs, and townscape. The book offers insightful observations about human nature and masterful insights into a period of social change.

"...in terms of dealing with religion, provides the reader with a constant intellectual challenge...." Read more

"...The details of ordinary life - clothes, food, customs, townscape, etc - are just astounding...." Read more

"...highly enough, with its rich cast of characters and astute observations about human nature...." Read more

"...and losses, but each has their story unfold with clarity and increasing fascination. However, the translation by John Woods is the one to get,..." Read more

20 customers mention ‘Readableness’12 positive8 negative

Customers have different views on the book's readableness. Some find the writing excellent, particularly the descriptions of the protagonists. The modern translation feels natural for English readers. However, others mention that the Kindle edition is full of typos, errors, and poor editing.

"...remarkable for many things and not least of these is the ease with which it can be read...." Read more

"...n't bother proof-reading the ebook text properly and this edition is littered with errors...." Read more

"...but I doubt if there is much beyond the period detail - and the brilliant prose, which is well served by the translation, and without which it..." Read more

"...As classics go it turned out to be not a difficult read and enjoyable though slightly depressing...." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Chapter count’0 positive3 negative

Customers are unhappy with the chapter count. They mention a missing chapter and that the title doesn't include the second part, The Decline of a Family.

"...The worst mistake is a missing chapter, which is replaced with the text of an earlier one...." Read more

"...The title does not include the second part ('The Decline of a Family'). The ISBN is 9780749386474...." Read more

"...is littered with typos and as someone else has said, book 5 chapters 4 and 5 are missing and have earlier chapters inserted in a jumbled up fashion...." Read more

3 customers mention ‘Length’0 positive3 negative

Customers find the book too long and heavy.

"...I put off reading it for a while because it is long and on the heavy side...." Read more

"...I admired her strength in the face of such adversity. The book is long but very easy to read and very enjoyable." Read more

"I loved this book...very long and weighed a lot, but beautifully paced and well written...a great novel." Read more

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Ms. A. Kendal
    5.0 out of 5 stars Masterly insights into a period of social change.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 October 2001
    Verified Purchase
    Buddenbrooks may look and sound to the prespective reader like a massive challenge, but Thomas Mann's first novel, published when he was 25, is remarkable for many things and not least of these is the ease with which it can be read.
    Opening in 1835, it charts the lives of the Buddenbrooks through some 40 years, following the decline of this successful Hanseatic family. But Mann's magnum opus - it was cited on his 1929 Nobel Prize for Literature - is more than that: what it presents is a detailed and complex social view of a changing Germany, particularly taking in the turbulence of the revolutionary period around 1848 to the years after unification under Bismarck in 1871.
    From a position of social and economic authority, the Buddenbrooks' confidence and power is overtaken by events around them until they are, finally, reduced to an insignificant echo of a former age. Their inability to move with the times, even though they are not incapable of seeing the changes around them, renders them impotent in the face of passing history.
    The only Buddenbrook who survives is Antonie... not because of her flexibility however, but precisely because her childlike petulance and unquestioning faith in the status quo allows her to maintain her arrogant assumptions about the social position of the family and, therefore, her own role within it. And yet this belligerent refusal to move forward is a major factor in the family's decline.
    Buddenbrooks also works so well because of Mann's dispassionate portrayal of his characters and their disappearing world. His gentle irony, particularly in terms of dealing with religion, provides the reader with a constant intellectual challenge. And, while it was first published in 1901, this is a book that never feels dated.
    A little knowledge of 19th century German history helps, but is not essential to enjoying this absolutely superb novel.
    53 people found this helpful
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  • E. Clarke
    4.0 out of 5 stars OK - four stars for the writing, but it is just a saga about rich folk
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2010
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    I agree with a lot of what has already been said about this book - it is a mesmerising saga of a 19th century North German merchant's family, which definitely has the feel of an autobiography (online tourist sites in Lubbeck say it is exactly as described in the book, down to the internal details of the author's family house). It is vivaciously and dazzlingly written (in this translation which I read, the slightly old fashioned, even sometimes unfathomable turns of phrase just make it more believable). The details of ordinary life - clothes, food, customs, townscape, etc - are just astounding. The physically compelling portraits of all these odd people are brilliantly done, and the great set pieces in the landscape room - house warming, Christmas eve, etc - the deathbed scene, etc are just wondrous. Mann is a writer of genius, of that there is no doubt. However, it is just a saga about rich people trying to stay rich, and not always succeeding.There is very little compassion in the story. The workers, even professionals, are patronised, as are poor relations, while the family members, and their wider circle of competing families tend to be eyed with unease or contempt. I am not sure there is any ground for thinking this contempt is based on some sort of pseudosocialist analysis of bourgeois society (or money making of any sort) - it seems be personal to the author, whose isolation I suppose Hanno represents and explains his coldness to everyone else. Perversely, I feel most sorry for Tom, struggling with his own contempt for those around him. But it remains just a brilliantly written saga, without the bite of Dickens or the sweep of Scott. Well worth reading, but I doubt if there is much beyond the period detail - and the brilliant prose, which is well served by the translation, and without which it would deserve 3 stars only.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • hfffoman
    5.0 out of 5 stars A monumental classic
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2014
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    As it's in the title it won't be a spoiler to say this is a monumental description of the decline of a powerful family over several decades. With deceptive subtlety Mann captures both the evolving society of nineteenth century Germany and the complexity of the characters themselves. One reviewer pointed out that we don't particularly like them but for me Mann did better than that - he made me like them and despise them and feel sorry and angry and exasperated with them.

    I put off reading it for a while because it is long and on the heavy side. As classics go it turned out to be not a difficult read and enjoyable though slightly depressing.

    Someone made an interesting observation that everything feels like contingency, nothing is inevitable. I agree to an extent. I kept wondering how things could go so badly wrong - there was no reason for it. Surely they had resource to prevent disaster? But eventually I saw a bigger picture. It was inevitable. It was in the characters and the fragility of their position which they understood far worse than they thought. The strokes of luck they suffered from were not unusual in those days. If it hadn't been one thing it would have been another. The decline was almost unbelievable but all the more fascinating because in the end it was totally believable.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Captain Pike
    3.0 out of 5 stars Five stars for the novel, one for the publisher
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 February 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I can't praise this novel highly enough, with its rich cast of characters and astute observations about human nature. From the very first page, it was a pleasure to read.

    Sadly, the publisher didn't bother proof-reading the ebook text properly and this edition is littered with errors. The worst mistake is a missing chapter, which is replaced with the text of an earlier one. An Amazon reviewer pointed this out several years ago, but Vintage haven't done anything about it, which is shameful.

    Thankfully, the mistakes don't completely ruin the overall pleasure of reading this masterpiece, but I do wish that I'd bought the print version.
    16 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Everton Gomede
    5.0 out of 5 stars Mann's Magnum Opus: Buddenbrooks Weaves a Timeless Tale of Family, Fortune, and Fate
    Reviewed in Canada on 11 November 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family is a literary gem that seamlessly weaves together the tapestry of a family's rise and fall. Thomas Mann's masterful storytelling and keen observations breathe life into each character, immersing readers in the ebb and flow of fortunes. The novel's exploration of societal shifts and the intricate dynamics within the Buddenbrook family is both poignant and thought-provoking. With elegant prose and a nuanced portrayal of human nature, Mann paints a vivid portrait of a bygone era. A timeless classic that resonates with readers, offering a compelling glimpse into the complexities of life and the inexorable passage of time.
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  • Cadeau
    5.0 out of 5 stars Buddenbrooks
    Reviewed in Germany on 15 June 2024
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    Schnelle Lieferung, top Zustand
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  • Alice B.
    1.0 out of 5 stars terrible translation
    Reviewed in France on 1 May 2024
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    Unreadable
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  • Avinash
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great
    Reviewed in India on 5 January 2020
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    Great
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  • Roger Brunyate
    5.0 out of 5 stars Rereading a Classic
    Reviewed in the United States on 3 October 2017
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    If you are going to reread a classic, go for the Everyman edition if you can. Go for the beautiful printing, fine paper, and comfortable feel in the hand, even when the novel is as long as this one (722 pages). Go for the informative introductions and historical material. And in this case, go for the lively new translation.

    I was 19 when I first read BUDDENBROOKS, the family saga that brought Mann to fame in 1901, at the age of 26. I remember enjoying it then, though I can't recall quite why. Now, almost six decades later, I know exactly why: it may well be the last example of the grand 19th-century novel, filled with well-delineated characters, emotional struggles, fine set pieces, and -- a surprise for me -- flashes of wit. But significantly, it is a nineteenth-century novel that pokes its nose into the twentieth. Mann is already experimenting with devices that will become part of the new narrative, such as seasoning a third-person description of a character with first- or second-person glimpses of his inner thoughts, or (as in his brilliant penultimate chapter) setting up the readers for a certain conclusion, but letting them decide what that conclusion must be, confirming it only in a later chapter. And of course THE DECLINE OF A FAMILY, which is the book's subtitle, is brought about in part by its inability to cope with the methods of a new era.

    It has always struck me as strange that Mann dared to send his first novel out into the world with that subtitle, almost like Eugene O'Neill calling a play LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. But despite the implication, BUDDENBROOKS is not at all depressing. This is because the let-down is gentle and never absolute; others in the book endure bankruptcy, disgrace, and even imprisonment, but the Buddenbrooks merely fade into a nostalgic memory. But it is also because of the characters, who remain in the reader's heart even after the supporting structure has collapsed. You could say that the book has three parts: the opening third, which shines with the beauty and spirit of the young heroine, Tony Buddenbrook (Antonie); the middle portion, centered around Tony's brother Tom, head of the family grain firm and a state senator; and the last 150, which focus increasingly on Tom's son Hanno, a sensitive musician who disappoints his father but emerges as the most sympathetic character of all.

    What was new to me this time was the translation by John E. Woods, in place of the old standard version by H. T. Lowe-Porter. I no longer have a copy to compare, but it strikes me that Woods is lighter, less in awe of his subject. Here is his description of Tony as a teenager:

    She was really very pretty, little Tony Buddenbrooks was. Flowing
    from beneath her straw hat was a thick head of blond hair, curly
    of course, and turning darker with each passing year; and the
    slightly protruding upper lip gave a saucy look to her fresh little
    face with its lively grey blue eyes, a sauciness repeated in her
    small, graceful body. There was self-assurance in the spring of her
    thin legs in their snow-white stockings. A great many people knew
    her, and they would greet Consul Buddenbrook's little daughter as
    she stepped through the garden gate onto the chestnut-lined lane.

    Woods is also perfect in capturing the unctuous tone of Herr Grünlich, Tony's first serious suitor, buttering up the parents in order to secure the daughter; he reminds me of the slimy Rev. Collins in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Here his is boasting of his knowledge of her grandmother's family:

    "I have the honor of a slight acquaintance with the family.
    Excellent people, one and all, such heart, such intellect. Ahem.
    Indeed, it would be a better world if all families had such
    qualities. One finds in that family such faith, such charity,
    such sincere piety, in short, the very ideal of true Christianity;
    and yet all of it is united with a cosmopolitan refinement and
    brilliant elegance that I personally find quite charming, Madame
    Buddenbrook."

    I was less certain when he characterizes a much later suitor, the Bavarian, Herr Permaneder:

    "Munich ain't no town for business. Forks want their peace 'n' a
    mugga beer. And y' certainly wouldn't read no telegram while
    you're eatin', sure as hell wouldn't. You got another kinda
    gittup 'n' go this way, damn if y' don't. Thanks heaps. I'll
    have 'nother glass."

    Permaneder may come from the other end of Germany, but I'm not sure that the American translocation entirely works -- but then again, I've not read the German. On the other hand, his entrance into the novel at around page 300 immediately raises the question of his social status and the Buddenbrooks' as well. Up to now, we have seen them as one of the most prominent families in the city (Lubeck, though not so mentioned). They have money, they have influence, they seem to have taste. It is only now that we see that their status as merchants is entirely a function of their success; they have certainly no pretensions to birth, or much to education; Tom Buddenbrook did not even complete high school. They may not be parvenus like Permaneder -- but when, in the middle section, things begin to go wrong, they lack the deep roots to sustain them.

    Tom marries well, however, a cultured aristocrat from Holland who owns a Stradivarius that she plays beautifully. She passes her musical genes to their only son, Johann, known as Hanno. Mann dedicates these later parts (there are 11 in all) to his brother Heinrich, also an author, and to a friend who was both a painter and musician. For the first time, I began to see the Buddenbrook saga as autobiographical, with himself as the sensitive and utterly non-commercial Hanno. And here Mann offers some of the most evocative writing about music I have ever read in fiction. There is a long passage of several pages late in the book, which serves as a spiritual road map to the travels of Hanno's psyche. But I want to end with an earlier passage, because it combines rhapsodic writing with a very precise explanation of what Hanno in doing, in a semi-improvised Wagnerian sonata he performs with his mother:

    And now came the ending, Hanno's beloved finale, which was to
    add the final simple, sublime touch to the whole composition.
    Wrapped in the sparkling, bubbling runs of the violin, which
    rang out with gentle, bell-like purity, he struck the E-minor
    chord tremolo pianissimo. It grew, broadened, swelled slowly,
    very slowly, and once it was at forte, Hanno sounded the
    dissonant C sharp that would lead back to the original key;
    and while the Stradivarius surged and dashed sonorously around
    the same C sharp, he used all his strength to crescendo the
    dissonance to fortissimo. He refused to resolve the chord,
    withheld it from himself and his audience. What would resolution
    be like, this ravishing and liberating submersion into B major?
    Incomparable joy, the delight of sweet rapture. Peace, bliss,
    heaven itself. Not yet, not yet -- one moment more of delay,
    of unbearable tension that would make the release all the more
    precious. He wanted one last taste of this insistent, urgent
    longing, of this craving that filled his whole being, of this
    cramped and strained exertion of will, which at the same time
    refused all fulfillment and release -- he knew that happiness
    lasts only a moment.
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