“The great dining-room was closed and mysterious, and there were
marzipan and gingerbread to eat — and in the streets, Christmas had already
come. Snow fell, the weather was frosty, and on the sharp clear air were borne
the notes of the barrel-organ, for the Italians, with their velvet jackets and
their black moustaches, had arrived for the Christmas feast. The shop-windows
were gay with toys and goodies; the booths for the Christmas fair had been
erected in the market-place; and wherever you went you breathed in the fresh,
spicy odour of the Christmas trees set out for sale.”—German novelist and Nobel
Literature laureate Thomas Mann (1875-1955),
Buddenbrooks (1901),
translated by H. T. Lowe-Porter (1924
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