Name: The Magic Mountain
SKU: 58530407
Price: 516.00 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Thomas Mann
ISBN: 9781963956146

Type

Physical Book

Author

Thomas Mann

Translated by

Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter

Publisher

Classic Wisdom Reprint

Language

English

Pages

638

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

22.9x15.2x3.3 cm

Weight

0.84 kg.

ISBN13

9781963956146

Synopsis "The Magic Mountain"

The Magic Mountain contains many contrasts and parallels with the earlier novel. Gustav von Aschenbach, an established author, is matched to a young, callow engineer at the start of a regular career. The erotic allure of the beautiful Polish boy Tadzio corresponds to the Asiatic-flabby ("asiatisch-schlaff") Russian Madame Chauchat. The setting was shifted both geographically and symbolically. The lowlands of the Italian coastlands are contrasted to an alpine resort famed for its health-giving properties.Mann describes the subjective experience of serious illness and the gradual process of medical institutionalization. He also alludes to the irrational forces within the human psyche, at a time when Freudian psychoanalysis was becoming a prominent type of treatment. These themes relate to the development of Castorp's character over the period covered by the novel. In his discussion of the work, written in English and published in The Atlantic in January 1953, Mann states that "what [Hans] came to understand is that one must go through the deep experience of sickness and death to arrive at a higher sanity and health...".Mann acknowledged his debt to the skeptical insights of Friedrich Nietzsche concerning modern humanity, and he drew from these in creating conversations between the characters. Throughout the book, the author employs the discussions among Settembrini, Naphta, and the medical staff to introduce the young Castorp to a wide spectrum of competing ideologies about responses to the Age of Enlightenment. However, whereas the classical Bildungsroman would conclude by Castorp's having become a mature member of society, with his worldview and greater self-knowledge, The Magic Mountain ends with Castorp's becoming an anonymous conscript, one of millions, under fire on some battlefield of World War I.

Thomas Mann

(Author)

View Author's Page

Thomas Mann (Lübeck, June 6, 1875 – Zurich, August 12, 1955) was a prominent German writer, novelist, essayist, and social critic, considered one of the great exponents of 20th century literature and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. His work is characterized by a deep analysis of bourgeois life, the psychology of the artist, and the spiritual crisis of modern Europe, drawing inspiration from philosophical and literary currents such as those of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer.

Mann gained international fame with his first novel, Buddenbrooks (1901), a family saga that portrays the decline of a merchant family over four generations, a work for which he received the Nobel. Other key titles in his production include The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg, 1924), an allegory about European society before World War I; Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig, 1912), considered one of his most influential novellas; and Doctor Faustus (1947), which examines German culture in the context of the rise of Nazism.

Thomas Mann's work is renowned for its symbolic richness, irony, psychological depth, and masterful exploration of the dilemmas of European culture, influencing generations of writers and readers around the world.

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