Death In Venice

George developed a nasty cold in Venice, which led him to describe it as "a pestilential city." It can have that appearance, especially when the fog is thick and the rain heavy, as it has been. George went on to recall Tomas Mann's "Death In Venice," where the protagonist, exhausted, yet with one great work still in him, comes to Venice and falls in love with a beautiful boy. Smitten, he lingers as the seasonal fever advances and all sensible tourists flee. He finishes the book (it is implied) and dies, looking at the boy, who is standing ankle-deep in the water at the beach. (At least that's George's memory of the book.)

I (George) wrote a conference paper about it, picking up on the dense, perhaps incomprehensible Apollonian / Dionysian themes and relating them to Neitsche's Birth of Tragedy". Of that paper, you could say I was in over my head.