Sydney Gay Men of Letters

We’ll be meeting at 7:00pm on Thursday, October 9, at our usual venue: upstairs at the Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, Sydney.

For this session, we’ll be reading two short works by Thomas Mann: Death in Venice (1912) and Tonio Kröger (1903).

Death in Venice is a novella of around 70 pages, exploring themes of beauty, obsession, and decay. Gustav is an aging writer who becomes infatuated with a young boy while vacationing in Venice - as a cholera epidemic spreads throughout the city. Thomas Mann, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, uses the story to examine the conflict between (rational) restraint and (irrational) desire. It remains one of the most celebrated works of 20th-century German literature.

Tonio Kröger, by the same author, is about 60 pages long. In the jargon, it is not an explicitly 'gay novel' but has a 'queer subtext.' It is the story of Tonio, the son of artists, who struggles with being an outsider.

Hard copies of both stories are available from The Bookshop, 207 Oxford St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010.

Both stories can be found in 'Death in Venice and Other Stories' in Penguin Classics.

Contact me on dalemills (at) cantab.net for a free pdf or Kindle compatible version of the Penguin Classic edition.

People start arriving at about 6.00pm to eat and/or drink before the meeting. New people are very welcome to attend early. The formal meeting starts at 7.00pm and the usual format is that we talk about the reading in a fairly focused manner for about 45 mins to an hour, and then close the meeting. Almost everyone stays back to talk more about the book or anything else!

The Shakespeare Hotel is a lively pub in Sydney’s inner east, but its semi-private rooms upstairs are ideal for thoughtful discussion. We’ll be meeting in the Two Tables Room—look for a sign or ask at the bar. Please note that access involves walking up two short flights of stairs.

The venue is a 10-minute walk from Central Station, directly opposite the Surry Hills Light Rail stop, and local parking is generally reasonable.

Metting at the usual place, The Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, at 7.00pm on Thursday November 13, we will be discussing Alan Hollinghurst’s The Swimming-Pool Library.

London 1983. A public toilet. William Beckwith rescues Lord Nantwitch, after the old man has collapsed. The event leads William into recording the Lord's memoirs. The memoirs show a hidden history of homosexuality, love, loss and prejudice - from the 1930s to the pre-AIDS gay world.

The Swimming-Pool Library is about 350 pages long. Hard copies are available from The Bookshop, 207 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst and soft copies from Amazon. Contact dalemills (at) cantab.net for a free pdf or Kindle-compatible file.

The Shakespeare Hotel is a busy inner-city pub, but we meet in a semi-private room upstairs, conducive for discussion. Many of us arrive around 6.00pm for drinks or food, and the meeting starts at 7.00pm. The format is that we have a focused discussion on the book till about 8.00pm, and then the meeting formally closes. Almost everyone stays back to chat about the book or anything else.

The Shakespeare is a 10 min walk from Central train station, almost opposite Surrey Hills Light Rail and local parking is reasonable. Access to the room requires walking up two small flights of stairs.