“Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family” is a 1901 novel by Thomas Mann that chronicles the gradual decline of a wealthy north German merchant family over the course of four generations. Through the lens of this family’s struggles to preserve their legacy, Mann portrays the fragility of traditional values in the face of modernization, personal ambition, and inevitable change. Drawing heavily from his own family history, Mann crafts a richly detailed portrait of bourgeois society, exploring themes of wealth, identity, and societal pressures.