Conrad's under Western Eyes and Mann's Doctor Faustus

Abstract

HE teacher of English who is the narrator of Conrad's Under Western Eyes speculates, in pre-1914 Switzerland, on the fundamental difference between Russians and Western Europeans: I think sometimes that the profound secret of that people consists in this, that they detest life, the irremediable life of the earth as it is, whereas we westerners cherish it with perhaps an equal exaggeration of its sentimental value.' The narrator of Doctor Faustus-Serenus Zeitblom, also a teacher of languages-repeatedly observes, among Germans, the same disdain of ordinary life.2 Each of these novels is ostensibly the factual account, written by an honest and intelligent although rather limited philologist and pedagogue, of the life of a tragic figure who is both angelic and diabolical. The hero of Under Western Eyes, Razumov, is Russia; and the hero of Doctor Faustus, Leverkiihn, is Germany. Doctor Faustus, with its critique of German history and civilization, its brilliant parodies, its elaborate system of leitmotivs, is a more monumental work than Under Western Eyes. Moreover, Mann takes great pains to incorporate most of the thematic material in the various versions of the Faust into his work.3 Nevertheless, Mann's treatment of his subject-the method of narration, the relation of the narrator to both story and author, the characterization, the attribution of value to events and themes-is very much influenced by his reading of Conrad, particularly of Under Western Eyes. Mann had been an admirer and a discriminating critic of Conrad's work for many years when he wrote Doctor Faustus (1943-47). In the preface to the German edition of The Secret Agent,4 he observed that to him the significance of Conrad's career lay in the decision of the Pole to become an Englishman, which led in turn to his becoming an English writer. In Mann's opinion, Conrad's love of the English language was partly motivated by his detestation of the Russian autocracy, of which he had been both a subject and a victim.5 Conrad's passionate