Tristan

Thomas Mann's Tristan, one of six novellas included in Tristan: Sechs Novellen, was first published in 1903. The story revolves around three characters: Detlev Spinell, an effete writer, his tubercular wife Gabriele, and wealthy but unimaginative German industrialist Anton Klöterjahn. Gabriele, who Anton left behind at an Alpine sanitarium, comes to be the focus of Detlev's excessive devotion. Detlev urges Gabriele to use her long-suppressed skill as a pianist, claiming that Anton's focus on work is killing her creative soul.