If we have to pick one aspect that might make Buddenbrooks the first important novel of the twentieth century, it could be its moral ambiguity. The story of the Buddenbrook family is told over four generations ending in the latter 1800s, but Thomas Mann's perspective is modern — sympathetic to all but ironic, detached, passing no judgment on the choices made by the members of the family, letting time heal or hurt at its own pace.

Plenty of drama, but no villains. And no inspiring heroes either.

It is well-known that Mann based the tale on his own own well-to-do merchant family. The character thought to be modelled on himself is young Hanno, the artistic son whose death after a short life of not fitting into his family's plans for him to be its saviour from decline finally signals the end of the dynasty.

Each Buddenbrook generation, since the original mercantile founder of the family's wealth, faced increasingly difficult dilemmas of having to choose between personal inclinations—love, art, pleasure—and family obligations. And increasingly the choice of the latter took its toll.

Yet Mann is careful not to make the novel an all-out plea for self-fulfillment. If anything the conflict between the personal and the social is presented as an unfortunate characteristic of human beings, the natural order of things. Even when characters from outside enter the family and wreak small havoc on its status and financial stability, they are depicted not as masterly evil-doers but as weaklings at worst—dangers to be paid off or steered around. The good ship Buddenbrooks sails on toward its inevitable end, determined by the contradictions within itself.