3.5
The Magic Mountain
ByPublisher Description
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • A monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, The Magic Mountain is an enduring classic.
With this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Thomas Mann rose to the front ranks of the great modern novelists, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. The Magic Mountain takes place in an exclusive tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps–a community devoted to sickness that serves as a fictional microcosm for Europe in the days before the First World War.
To this hermetic and otherworldly realm comes Hans Castorp, an “ordinary young man” who arrives for a short visit and ends up staying for seven years, during which he succumbs both to the lure of eros and to the intoxication of ideas.
With this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Thomas Mann rose to the front ranks of the great modern novelists, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. The Magic Mountain takes place in an exclusive tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps–a community devoted to sickness that serves as a fictional microcosm for Europe in the days before the First World War.
To this hermetic and otherworldly realm comes Hans Castorp, an “ordinary young man” who arrives for a short visit and ends up staying for seven years, during which he succumbs both to the lure of eros and to the intoxication of ideas.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Magic Mountain Reviews
3.5
Riley
Created about 1 month agoShare
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BelievableChange and growDiverse representationLimited character growthMemorableMinor characters stand outMorally ambiguousMultilayeredOriginalRelatableConfusingSlow-pacedAncientAtmosphericBleakEvocative imageryExpansiveHistoricalImmersive world-buildingInnovativePicturesqueRealisticSetting fits the storyUnique locationVivid descriptionsHard to followOriginalTakes getting used toWhimsical toneWittyBigotryChild lossDeathGriefRacismReligious intoleranceWar violence
Nick Miedema
Created about 1 month agoShare
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“700+ pages of tuberculosis-packed musings. Slow read, but beautifully and meditatively slow. Surprisingly funny and heartbreaking when you least expect it. Truly a one-of-a-kind novel for those with the patience (and time) to see it through.”
Karla
Created 2 months agoShare
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Lumn
Created 3 months agoShare
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“It gets one star solely for the part in French”
Kerrence30
Created 3 months agoShare
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“This is such a big book, and every crevice is filled, no detail left untold, perhaps to its detriment. The premise of a man’s observations whilst he stays at a sanatorium is unique, and for that reason I persevered through some of the less interesting parts. I began to think of it as a collection of short stories, as there are so many tales of interactions between different groupings of characters, and deep dives into the lives of each character, everyone is fleshed out. In terms of a central plot it is simply that Hans came to visit and ended up staying for a long time, there’s not much more to it, but the experiences he has whilst there are fascinating. There were times where characters get very philosophical which took some getting used to and with a bit of wider research undertaken, but on further understanding it makes for a very clever and thoughtful read. Some of the topics really reflected the time, including the real pride in military service, the way different nationalities were perceived, general manners, the way women behaved, interest in the occult, and most importantly the attitude towards health, medicine and death. I would say the detail errs of the side of factual, than flowery, inasmuch as was known at the time of writing. Doesn’t beat Buddenbrooks for me, but still a worthwhile epic.”
About Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann (1875–1955) was from Germany. At the age of 25, he published his first novel, Buddenbrooks. In 1924, The Magic Mountain was published, and five years later, Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Following the rise of the Nazis to power, he left Germany for good in 1933 to live in Switzerland and then in California, where he wrote Doctor Faustus (first published in the United States in 1948).
Other books by Thomas Mann
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