Thomas Mann an Charles Jackson

Geht ausführlich auf J.’s neuen Roman ›The fall of valour‹, ein, der mutig die Schwierigkeiten, Verwirrungen und Ängste des Ehe- und Sexuallebens behandelt, »...never denying the knowledge we have attained of the so-called perversions and aberrations in this sphere, namely above all the homosexual component, a phenomenon which, as Goethe says, is *in* nature, although it seems to be directed against nature«. Interessiert sich besonders für das Verhältnis zwischen Professor Johnny und dem jungen Marine-Kapitän, da solch ein Verhältnis eine gewisse Rolle spiele in seinem neuen Roman. »Those involved are a lonely artist, a figure somewhat like Nietzsche whose clinical fate he also shares, – and a young man of impish traits to whom *every* human relationship becomes a flirt, and who courts this loneliness for so long and with such boundless and uninhibitable confidence until he overcomes and seduces it. However, he does not then grab the poker, but is very proud of his conquest. It is the other man who takes deadly revenge for his defeat.«