Word Patriots – Fathers and Sons: Wagner, Moore, Mann (part two)

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In the second part of my interview with my father Dr. Frederick William Seinfelt, the author of the 1975 book George Moore: Ireland’s Unconventional Realist and two companion essays: Wagnerian Elements in the Writings of George Moore and Thomas Mann and some American and British Writers, we continue our discussion on Richard Wagner and his influence on world literature, this week focusing primarily on the novels of the German Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann. The compelling presence of Wagner remained with Mann in the writing of all his major works of fiction, from “Buddenbrooks,” and “The Magic Mountain” down through the last ones “Doctor Faustus,” “The Holy Sinner,” and “The Confessions of Felix Krull.” Mann’s great middle work, the one which occupied him steadily from 1926 to 1942, the Biblical tetralogy “Joseph and His Brothers” was perhaps the most Wagnerian of them all, and “Joseph and His Brothers”—the subject of a joint essay by my father and myself “Wagnerian Elements in Thomas Mann’s Joseph Tetralogy” which appears in the appendix of my book “Symphonie Fantastique”, a collection of four novels each concerning a different haunted, obsessed individual presented under the banner of a single cover—is discussed in depth on this week’s show. If you would like to know more about Mark Seinfelt’s work be sure to visit his website: www.markseinfelt.com. See also the Amazon pages for “Joseph and His Brothers” and “Symphonie Fantastique”: http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-His-Brothers-StoriesProvider/dp/1400040019/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304949778&sr=1-1 and http://www.amazon.com/Symphonie-Fantastique-Mark-Seinfelt/dp/1439246009/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304950028&sr=1-2