SOURCE: "Narcissus," in Thomas Mann: An Introduction to His Fiction, Peter Owen Ltd., 1952, pp. 52-63.

An American educator and critic, Hatfield is the author of numerous books on German literature and has served as editor of the Germanic Review. In the following excerpt, he discusses theme, structure, and style in Tonio Kröger.

Tonlo Kroger is Mann's most lyrical story. As a direct apologia, it is warmer in tone than the earlier stories. Mann is closer to autobiography here than ever before, and sympathy with Tonio, and a pity approaching self-pity, are not restrained.

Tonio Kröger is a writer of great talents, though he finds production a slow, unrelenting torment. But it is primarily the basic condition of his existence from which he suffers: he is doubly isolated. He has escaped from the world of his paternal tradition, but he is no more at home among the...