Disorder and Early Sorrow

{{Infobox book|

| name = Disorder and Early Sorrow

| title_orig = Unordnung und frühes Leid

| translator =

| image = File:1925 Thomas Mann Unordnng und frühes Leid, Erstdruck.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = First published in Die neue Rundschau

| author = Thomas Mann

| cover_artist =

| country = Germany

| language = German

| series =

| genre = Novella

| publisher = S. Fischer Verlag

| release_date = 1925 (periodical)
1926 (book)

| english_pub_date =

| media_type =

| pages =

| isbn =

| oclc =

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

| external_url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.124817/page/n515/mode/2up

| external_host = Internet Archive

}}

Disorder and Early Sorrow ({{langx|de|Unordnung und frühes Leid}}) is a 1925 novella written by Thomas Mann. It follows the fortunes of the Cornelius family through the perspective of Abel Cornelius (written in a third person narrative voice), a 47-year-old history professor at the local university, whose status in society was once highly respected but has diminished markedly. The Cornelius family is, in part, a reflection of Mann's own family."Professor Abel Cornelius has two pairs of children; Mann had three pairs—Erika and Klaus, Golo and Monika, Elisabeth and Michael—with the two oldest and two youngest very clearly the basis for the children in the story". Searls, Damion, "Introduction" to Mann, Thomas, New Selected Stories, p. xiii. The novella explores the psychological and social impact of the Weimar hyperinflation. It first appeared in 1925 in a Festschrift celebrating Mann's 50th birthday in the publication Neue Rundschau.{{cite book|title=Introduction & Overview of Disorder and Early Sorrow by Thomas Mann|url=http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-disorderearlysorrow/|via=Bookrags|accessdate=28 June 2014}} It first appeared in English in The Dial in two installments in 1926 (October and November). As an individual book, it was published in an English translation by Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter in 1929Mann, Thomas, Early Sorrow: A Story, London: Martin Secker, 1929. Lowe-Porter's translation was also published as "Disorder and Early Sorrow" in Mann, Thomas, [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.124817/page/n15/mode/2up Stories of Three Decades], London: Martin Secker & Warburg, Ltd., 1922. The first American edition of Stories of Three Decades was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1936. and in one by Herman George Scheffauer in 1930.Mann, Thomas, Early Sorrow, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. It was translated in 2023 by Damion Searls as "Chaotic World and Childhood Sorrow".[https://books.google.com/books?id=LIZwEAAAQBAJ&q=new+selected+stories+thomas+mann In Mann, Thomas, New Selected Stories, New York: Liveright Publishing, 2023]; [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/26/books/review/thomas-mann-new-selected-stories.html Review] by Colm Tóibín

Damion Searls views it as "Mann's best story—it was Hemingway's favorite, too, for whatever that's worth. I think it belongs up there with James Joyce's 'The Dead' and anything you want to name by Gallant or Munro or Chekov at the very top of the canon of short fiction, but it is never, to my knowledge, singled out as such."Searls, Damion, "Introduction" to Mann, Thomas, New Selected Stories, p. xiii.