History Literature / Buddenbrooks

* BigEater: Klothilde

* GratuitousFrench: This was common in the German higher classes at this time. Besides, there is also GratuitousEnglish, GratuitousSpanish, [[AltumVidetur Gratuitous Latin]] and Gratuitous [[UsefulNotes/GermanDialects Platt]].

* TeachersPet: Herr Mantelsack has several of them, and prefers them in a very {{egregious}} way. And changes them on a whim. Noone dares to protest however, because noone wants to miss on his chance.

* Gerda Buddenbrook née Arnoldsen, who becomes Thomas' wife. Daughter of a great Dutch merchant, who's also a great violinist. Very beautiful, very rich and musically talented. A big fan of Creator/RichardWagner. Not so much into business, and also influences her son in this way, to Thomas' chagrin. Has a relationship with the also musically talented lieutenant Rene von Trotha, with whom she can relate better than with her husband. (It's hard to describe — calling him a lover wouldn't really explain it. Soul mate would be more accurate.) She leaves the city after her husband and son have died, as if "her work was done".

* GratuitousFrench: This was common in the German higher classes at this time. Besides, there is also GratuitousEnglish, GratuitousSpanish, [[AltumVidetur Gratuitous Latin]] and Gratuitous [[GermanDialects Platt]].

* SternTeacher to SadistTeacher: Most of Hanno's, especially the very {{Prussia}}n director Wulicke, whom Hanno and Kai nickname "the good {{God}}" (he is much like the Old Testament God — don't provoke his wrath). Many of these are also pretty eccentric.

* RefugeInAudacity: After bowing to some teachers of the lower classes (and no, even in ImperialGermany students didn't have to do that - hmm, case of StealthInsult?), Kai greets a pretty old and decrepit teacher: "Good morning, you corpse!" And then looks elsewhere as if nothing had happened.

* CainAndAbel: Thomas and Christian. Thomas is the strict businessman (although sometimes, it becomes too much for him), Christian a playboy and a neurotic. At one point, Thomas threatens Christian to put him under tutelage. Thomas also tells him, "I became what I am because I didn't want to become like you!"

* GermanDialects: Mostly the northern ones, but also Bavarian (Permaneder) and West Prussian (Ida Jungmann, the nanny)
* GermanEducationSystem: The school chapter is said to be the best prosa text ever written about Wilhelmine schools.

* ImperialGermany: The later parts of the novel are set in this time.

* InsultBackfire: Grünlich criticizes Tony for wasting money. She admits he's right, but acts like there's nothing she can do - "it runs in my mother's side of the family". Yes, she identifies so much with her family that she defends her flaws. (There's a serious background: Grünlich was practically broke when he asked for her hand; now her GenreSavvy father asked around for Grünlich's financial situation, but since his creditors also knew that Grünlich needed the dowry to pay his debts, they didn't want to tell the truth either.)

* Johann Buddenbrook sr. Didn't found the family business, but made it big (during the wars against NapoleonBonaparte, but [[BackStory that happens before the novel starts]]). An enlightened man who likes to play the flute. Father of Gotthold and Johann jr.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Originally, the editor wanted to cut the book to half its length. Mann resisted successfully.

* WriteWhatYouKnow
* WriteWhoYouKnow: All the characters are based on Thomas Mann's family members. His uncle who supposedly was like Christian wasn't too happy about it. Also note the relationship between Thomas and Christian in the novel, and Thomas Mann's with his RealLife brother Heinrich...

''Buddenbrooks'' is the most famous novel by [[DichterAndDenker German author Thomas Mann]]. Published in 1901, Mann received the Nobel Prize in Literature for it in 1929. [[WriteWhoYouKnow Based on the experiences of his own family]] (not the only one of his works which did this), it tells about the downfall of a merchant family in the northern German city of Lübeck (the city's name is never stated, but clearly implied). It's set during the years 1835 to 1877. A good example of a RomanAClef.

* GratuitousFrench: This was common in the German higher classes at this time. Besides, there is also GratuitousEnglish, GratuitousSpanish, GratuitousLatin and Gratuitous [[GermanDialects Platt]].

* OneSteveLimit: Averted, see the character list.

''Buddenbrooks'' is the most famous novel by [[DichterAndDenker German author Thomas Mann]]. [[WriteWhoYouKnow Based on the experiences of his own family]] (not the only one of his works which did this), it tells about the downfall of a merchant family in the northern German city of Lübeck (the city's name is never stated, but clearly implied). A good example of a RomanAClef.

* DeathByChildbirth

* ItGotWorse: Probably the main theme of the novel. When Johann sr dies and leaves a strong and successful business to his large family, everything starts to go downhill with nothing of either remaining two generations later.

* {{Doorstopper}

* HoYay: Between Hanno and Kai. Author Thomas Mann (who was a closeted gay) [[WordOfGod stated]] that the two boys stood for different aspects of his own personality. It's a safe bet that nowadays the subtext would turn soon into text.

* ValuesDissonance: Nowadays divorces are considered differently, but at this time, they were a cause for big shame. Especially if a woman had two in a row.

* DeadpanSnarker: Hanno and Kai, who "nickname" their teachers not "the spider" or "the cockatoo" as their classmates do, but rather [[SarcasmMode "Herr X"]]. Also, Hanno's geography teacher, who's a big fan of satirist Heinrich Heine, tries to be this.

* HoYay: Between Hanno and Kai. Author Thomas Mann (who was a closeted gay) [[WordOfGod stated]] that the two boys stood for different aspects of his own personality.

* MeaningfulName: The worker Grobleben -- his name means 'Roughlife'. Also Kistenmaker, lit. "box-maker". Now a coffin is a kind of box, and he is responsible for wasting quite some of the family's wealth.

* Gerda Buddenbrook née Arnoldsen, who becomes Thomas' wife. Daughter of a great Dutch merchant, who's also a great violinist. Very beautiful, very rich and musically talented. A big fan of RichardWagner. Not so much into business, and also influences her son in this way, to Thomas' chagrin. Has a relationship with the also musically talented lieutenant Rene von Trotha, with whom she can relate better than with her husband. (It's hard to describe — calling him a lover wouldn't really explain it. Soul mate would be more accurate.) She leaves the city after her husband and son have died, as if "her work was done".

* DownerEnding: The firm is dissolved, and more importantly, Hanno dies. In the last chapter Tony, the Misses Buddenbrook, and Sesemi Weichbrodt discuss whether or not there is such a thing as God, or even hope. Depending on how you interpret this conversation, it can make the ending more bittersweet or an even bigger downer.

* {{Doorstopper}}

* ''{{Ivanhoe}}'': Kai is a fan of the novel. So much that he reads it in class.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Many of the teachers, who have peculiar ways of talking and such. Also, some other characters.

* MeaningfulName: The worker Grobleben -- his name means 'Roughlife'.

* {{Narm}}: The Protestants are at church service and sing one song (not existing in RealLife), which is this. In German, it starts with "Ich bin ein echtes Rabenaas / ein rechter Sündenkrüppel" (last word meaning "sinning cripple" or "crippled sinner").
** Not once but twice the worker Grobleben almost spoils a festivity, when he's supposed to congratulate Thomas Buddenbrook and somehow manages to get the topic on the fact that "some are rich, some are poor, the one will get a polished coffin and the other one only an old box, but we all have to become moldiness..."