Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks" (Spoilers)

I just finished this novel (the Woods translation), and found it to be amazing stuff. If you had told me to read this book with no identifiers and asked me to guess what age the author was, I'd say "at least 50 years old," but Mann wrote this in his early-mid 20s.

So, what do you think? Characters you identified with? Prominent themes? Were you sad for the Buddenbrook's decline?