In the classic novella and film Death in Venice, the aging Gustav von Aschenbach becomes obsessed with the beauty of a boy he sees on the beach, the fourteen-year-old Tadzio. Although the two never speak, a silent relationship grows between them, a relationship which binds the older man inexorably to Venice even as his health fails and the city is beset by cholera.
Decades later middle-aged Tadzio remembers that fateful summer. What went through the boy's mind when he realized what was happening? Did he welcome or resent Aschenbach's gaze? What impact did it have on his adult life? Finally, Tadzio Speaks . . .
Tadzio Speaks . . . (Death in Venice Revisited) guide sections
