Thomas Mann

Unordnung und frühes Leid: Novelle.

Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag, 1930. 126 pages.

Volume, measuring approximately 4.5" x 6.5", is bound in yellow paper spine and boards, with dark brown lettering to spine and front cover. Illustration in green and dark brown appears on front cover. Book is like new, with green-tinted text block edges and ornamental endpapers. Illustrations on cover, endpapers, and title page are based on designs by Karl Walser. Book is preserved in slipcase reproducing endpaper designs.

Short novel written in 1925 chronicles the fortunes of the Cornelius family through the perspective of Abel Cornelius (written in a third-person narrative voice)—a 47-year-old local university professor who once enjoyed a privileged social status that has since sharply declined. The Cornelius family partly reflects Mann's own family. The novel explores the sociological and psychological impact of German hyperinflation.