Explore "The Infant Prodigy" by Thomas Mann on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The infant prodigy enters -- the entire hall grows silent.
It grows silent, and then the people begin to clap, because somewhere a born ruler of men and leader of the herd has started the applause. They have as yet heard nothing, but they clap their hands, for a mighty advertising campaign has paved the way for the infant prodigy, and the people are already under a spell, whether they are aware of it or not.