SOURCE: "The Coming of the Stranger God," in The Arrow and the Lyre: A Study of the Role of Love in the Works of Thomas Mann, Martinus Nijhoff, 1955, pp. 1-32.

In the following excerpt, Hirschbach examines Mann's portrayal in Tonio Kröger of the role of the artist in society, particularly focusing on the protagonist's attempt to reconcile nature and the intellect.

Tonio Kröger combines almost all the ideas and trends of the young Mann; it is typical in every respect for both his thinking and technique during the years preceding the First World War. In spite of the many attempts to stamp this story as merely autobiographical the hero is not just Thomas Mann but rather a type, a symbol for many like him, among whom Mann may have counted himself. At the same time he is an ideal to which Mann may have inspired. Nor...