This extraordinary novel is the story of the decline of a middle-class 19th-century German family that was apparently modeled on Mann's own family. Its strengths for me were the meticulously observed details of 19th-century life and the brilliant, often satirical, characterization that is sometimes reminiscent of Dickens. There are constituent themes e.g., the conflict between the lives of businessmen and artists, and extensive supporting imagery e.g., dental decay paralleling the financial and moral decay of the family.

Mann was born in 1875 and this novel's storyline ends in 1877, but the novel's Wikipedia article says that he did careful research with family members to capture the details of earlier 19th-century Lübeck - the author's hometown. When the novel first appeared there was apparently considerable criticism of it as a roman à clef about the people of Lübeck (see www.luebeck-kunterbunt.de/TOP100/Buddenbrooks-Klarnamenverzeichnis.htm). Mann responded:

I forgive [small-town (more or less, I think-MLM)] lawyers and old maids if they are unable to appreciate a work of art in isolation from civil relationships. I despise the artist who is incapable of this masculine objectivity ... It is not the gift of invention - it is the gift of inspiration that makes the poet....