Tobias Mindernickel by Thomas Mann — Read

One of the streets which run rather steeply from Quay Alley up to the centre of the city is called the Grey Way. About the middle of this street, on the right hand as you come from the river, stands a house labelled No. 47, a narrow drab-coloured structure, in no way distinguished from its neighbours. There is a small shop on the ground-floor, in which one can buy rubber overshoes and cod-liver oil. On entering the hallway, which gives upon a courtyard in which cats are prowling about, one sees a narrow and worn wooden staircase, saturated with the inexpressible musty smells of poverty, leading to the upper stories. A carpenter lives on the left side of the first story, a midwife on the right. The second story harbours a cobbler on the left, and on the right a lady who begins to sing loudly as soon as steps are heard on the staircase. The flat on the third story to the left is empty; the one to the right is occupied by a man by the name of Mindernickel, who also bears the name of Tobias. There is a story about this man which must be told, because it is full of riddles, and shameful beyond belief.

The externals of Mindernickel are remarkable, odd, and ridiculous. For instance, one sees him when he takes a walk, supporting his lean figure on a cane as he proceeds along the street, always clothed in black, from head to foot. He wears an old-fashioned, bell-topped, rough tall hat, a tight-fitting frock-coat shiny with age, and equally shabby trousers, which are frayed out at the bottom and far too short, so that one sees the gores of his gaiters. It must, however, be said that these clothes of his are brushed in the most scrupulous manner. His lean neck appears the longer because it lifts itself from a low folding collar. His grey hair is combed back smoothly over the temples, and the broad brim of the tall hat shades a pale, smooth-shaven face with sunken cheeks, with inflamed eyes, which are seldom raised from the ground, and two deep furrows which run sorrowfully from the nostrils to the down-drawn corners of the mouth.