![]() ![]() The Magic Mountain is a monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, a book that pulses with life in the midst of death. The Magic Mountain is a deliberately slow-paced and episodic novel containing numerous philosophical digressions, but reading it is also an unforgettable experience: it is like ascending to a particular state of mind, lethargic, intoxicating, strange, magnetic and enchanting. In this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Mann uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps-a community devoted exclusively to sickness-as a microcosm for Europe, which in the years before 1914 was already exhibiting the first symptoms of its own terminal irrationality. We can only hope our world will be less broken when we come down from ours.” So much about Hans' setting and identity can make him feel cold and distant, but how he deals with time and uncertainty on his mountain could not be more relatable. The protagonist Hans struggles with time the longer he stays on the titular mountain, narrating the beginning of his story very quickly but taking longer as his life becomes more monotonous. The book deals with some heavy themes - disease, isolation, and societal change - but what stands out today is how it deals with time. I was worried whether this 700-page, German bildungsroman would hold up in 2021, about a century after the novel's pre-war setting. “I read Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain in January while in isolation with my brother. Reading this book reminds me of a teacher that was integral to my growth as both a student and person.” An amazing teacher I had in high school introduced me to Mann, and I’ve been reading ever since. ![]() ![]() “The book that comes to mind in The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. ![]()
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