The Magic Mountain

Mar 10, 2011

Daniel marked it as to-read

"I don't understand," Hans Castorp said. "I don't understand how someone can not be a smoker - why it's like robbing yourself of the best part of life, so to speak, or at least of an absolutely first rate pleasure. I eat, I look forward to it again, in fact I can honestly say that I actually only eat so that I can smoke, although that's an exaggeration of course. But a day without tobacco - that would be absolutely insipid, a dull, totally wasted day. And if some morning I had to ...more

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Nov 29, 2007

Thomas rated it

I just finished Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain, tr. John Woods), and without a doubt it is among the five best works of literature that I have ever read. Covering more than 700 densely-packed pages, it is not for the light of heart, but provides ample reward for the tenacious reader. Published in 1924 and winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929, The Magic Mountain should reside on your shelf next to The Brothers Karamazov, The Persian Letters, The Sorrows of Young Werthe...moreI just finished Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain, tr. John Woods), and without a doubt it is among the five best works of literature that I have ever read. Covering more than 700 densely-packed pages, it is not for the light of heart, but provides ample reward for the tenacious reader. Published in 1924 and winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1929, The Magic Mountain should reside on your shelf next to The Brothers Karamazov, The Persian Letters, The Sorrows of Young Werther, and East of Eden.

Part of why I found this novel so delightful was that I could closely relate to the ordeal of the protagonist, Hans Castorp, who as a young man finds himself unexpectedly confined to a hospital. In his case, he makes a trip to a sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps to visit his cousin. The patients are all receiving treatment for tuberculosis, and since most have been there for quite a long time, he finds himself in a very different culture than the "flatlands" from which he came. Just before leaving, Castorp asks for a physical exam to determine the cause of a fever which was plaguing him during his stay. But to his disappointment, the doctor finds that he has a mild case of tuberculosis himself! Our poor hero will be staying on for much longer than three weeks he had planned, and not as a guest, but as a patient.

One of the most interesting themes in the novel is the treatment of time. Far up in the mountains, completely removed from the normal iterations of daily life, time takes on a different dimension. Each day is strictly regimented to best facilitate the recovery of patients. The residents move from bedroom, to dining hall, to outdoor "rest cure," and back, in an utterly predictable manner. Far from what one might expect, this apparent tedium does not cause time to slow down, but rather speed up, since each day is nearly indiscernible from all others. Thus, Hans Castcorp learns, his original three week stay is hardly worth mentioning: up here, a month is the smallest measurable unit of time.

Besides our hero, there are two other outstanding characters: Settembrini, a boisterous Italian literary humanist, and Naphta, a sharp-tonged communist Jesuit. Castorp takes on the role of student when listening to the rhetorical fireworks of these bombastic speakers. These three men, along with a cast of other patients with tuberculosis, fill hundreds of pages of fascinating narrative and dialog. Put it on your Christmas list now!(less)

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Oct 11, 2009

Lance Greenfield Mitchell rated it

· review of another edition

At the risk of being labelled a Philistine, I declare that this book is one of the most insufferably boring tomes that has ever made it onto my bedside table. I admit that I only struggled my way through the first 170 pages, but that was enough to convince me that I should not waste any more minutes of my precious life wading through any more of this drivel.

I know, I have also been chastised for criticising modern art in the same way. Tracey Emin's "Unmade Bed" and Thomas ...moreAt the risk of being labelled a Philistine, I declare that this book is one of the most insufferably boring tomes that has ever made it onto my bedside table. I admit that I only struggled my way through the first 170 pages, but that was enough to convince me that I should not waste any more minutes of my precious life wading through any more of this drivel.

I know, I have also been chastised for criticising modern art in the same way. Tracey Emin's "Unmade Bed" and Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" will just have to live in the pile of junk that I fail to understand.

I realise that I am in the minority, as most reviewers and professors of literature believe this to be a masterpiece, and probably the best book to come out of Germany in the twentieth century. Then again, Hans Christian Anderson's boy who recognised the nakedness of his Emperor as those around him admired the splendour and wonderful colours of their leader's new clothes, was also in the minority.

Perhaps, then, I shouldn't feel too bad about my opinion of this amazing piece of creative writing. It may also explain why English literature was the only `O' Level that I failed, despite having been a prolific reader all of my life. It just happened that the books that were chosen for my studies for those exams also bored me to tears.

Following some comments on this review, I have added these notes (27/9/09).

I have always been a prolific reader, sometimes having up to five books on the go simultaneously. I read most novels at the rate of 80-100 pages per day. With The Magic Mountain, I found that I had been reading a few pages at a time for well over a month, and had only waded through 170. There is so much description attached to the narrative that all that had happened by this stage was that the main character had arrived at the sanatorium, met his old friend and most of the patients. It had also come to light that he really wasn't there for his own medical benefit. He isn't really ill. Rather that he was there for a bit of a rest, and escape from the drudge of life in Hamburg with his guardian, and to be with his best mate. If the descriptions were interesting, and succeeded in conjuring up a wonderful picture in my mind, I wouldn't feel quite so bad about it.

Encouraged by some of the other reviews, I revisited the book, and read the passage describing Hans's adventure in the snow, as that was said to be the best part of the book. I remained unimpressed.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if my German language were up to the standard required to read the original, but I doubt it. I am not alone in my disillusionment. Several of my friends and family, some of them professors and schoolteachers, share my views, and I have yet to meet anyone who has survived to reach the end. It is obvious that there are many who have read, re-read, and thoroughly enjoyed The Magic Mountain. I am happy for them and I rejoice that the world is full of variety, particularly of taste. Wouldn't life be dull without that?! (less)

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May 04, 2008

Jim rated it

Recommends it for: Those interested in the philosophy of illness and early 20th-century European history.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It took me more than ten years to finally finish this book, and my completion of it was aided by this second english translation, by John E. Woods. Previously the book was available in only one english translation, by H.T. Lowe-Porter, who was Thomas Mann's "official" translator. Hers is the version I started reading back in the 80s, maybe 1985. But the big roadblock here is that when one reaches the important climactic chapter at the book's center, "Walpurgis-Night," the ...moreIt took me more than ten years to finally finish this book, and my completion of it was aided by this second english translation, by John E. Woods. Previously the book was available in only one english translation, by H.T. Lowe-Porter, who was Thomas Mann's "official" translator. Hers is the version I started reading back in the 80s, maybe 1985. But the big roadblock here is that when one reaches the important climactic chapter at the book's center, "Walpurgis-Night," the energy-charged conversation between Hans Castorp and an important character of the book's first half is, in this translation, entirely in French. Ten pages of conversation in French. For a non-French speaker, this was hugely frustrating. I searched all over in vain for an English translation of this section. Eventually I asked a French-speaking friend of mine to tackle a translation. He did, and his immersion in the book led him to read it himself. I did not get into the book again for years, but when I did. . .I could not find my friend's translation! No matter, said he, his French was so much better now than it had been, and so he tackled the job again. I finally tackled the book a third time, starting again from the beginning. When I got the the pivotal chapter in question I used my friend's translation. Somewhere in there, and it must have been 1996, I discovered this NEW english translation by John E. Woods, so I incorporated it in my reading of the book. While H.T. Lowe-Porter's translation of the book's voluminous amount of slang and vernacular speech strikes the modern American reader as off-putting and sometimes confusing, Woods handles the dialogue really well for this day and age. . .and he renders that critical breakthrough conversation in english!! But Lowe-Porter gets the subtleties of the book's long, often philosophical sentences much better. An ideal would be a combination of the two translators, and that, essentially is how I finished The Magic Mountain more than ten years after beginning it!(less)

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Mar 01, 2009

Malini Sridharan rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: josie

Shelves: bestever

This was so much richer the second time around-- I think I just did not have enough background knowledge and stamina for this freshman year of college. This is definitely a "novel of ideas," ideas about illness, science, philosophy, religion, social action... I think that what makes this novel successful is the presence of Hans Castorp, a protagonist who acts as a stand in for the reader, trying on and eventually attempting to reconcile the extreme ideologies that populate the landscap...more

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Oct 01, 2007

Yelena Malcolm rated it

Recommends it for: Masochists

I could only pick one year for when I read this book, but the truth is that I started it in 1991 and read 100 pages every year until I finished the damn thing in 1998.

This book was horrific. There was no point, no enjoyment, no anything save for a harrowing description, 900 pages in length, of some sad sack in a tuberculosis sanitarium. The only reason I even finished the book was that I refused to let it defeat me.

It wasn't until a friend I respect above all others urge...more

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Nov 18, 2009

Крис rated it

In my opinion, Thomas Mann was a genius and one of the most brilliant writers of the twentieth century. I originally read most of his works through the H. T. Lowe-Porter translations, which, though elegant and literary in their own right, took several liberties with Mann's ideas, subtleties, and humor. I have been grabbing up the newer translations by John E. Woods which, in my opinion, are superior to Lowe-Porter's in virtually every aspect. If you are planning to tackle this, probably the best...moreIn my opinion, Thomas Mann was a genius and one of the most brilliant writers of the twentieth century. I originally read most of his works through the H. T. Lowe-Porter translations, which, though elegant and literary in their own right, took several liberties with Mann's ideas, subtleties, and humor. I have been grabbing up the newer translations by John E. Woods which, in my opinion, are superior to Lowe-Porter's in virtually every aspect. If you are planning to tackle this, probably the best known of Mann's novels, I strongly recommend getting the Woods translation. Bless H. T. for introducing the English-speaking world to the great German, but her time has passed.

The Magic Mountain tells the story of Hans Castorp, an unassuming young man from Hamburg who arrives at the remote Swiss resort of Berghof, nestled in the Alps, where his cousin Joachim Ziemssen is recovering from consumption. Hans, initially planning to stay for only three weeks, is very quickly drawn into the cloistered, secular, routinized and navel-gazing world of the clinic, and towards the idiosyncratic and stimulating residents he encounters during his stay. Despite a rigid determination to quit the bewitching resort after his three weeks are over, Hans - convinced he is a sick man and needs to recuperate, and electrified by the intellectual and sexual stimulation he has experienced - winds up counting his time at the Berghof in years, not weeks.

What Mann was detailing in The Magic Mountain was the sickness, as he perceived it, that was at the core of Europe's malaise; in particular, the way the humane-but-hidebound bourgeoisie was stricken with an enervating fascination with ideas and class rituals, the infinite over the precise, the pursuit of comforts and absorptions and debates dangerously remote from the actual workings of the world and the black clouds gathering across the continent as the twentieth century dawned. Hans is assailed by the secular humanist Settembrini and the Jesuit authoritarian Naphta, who struggle via point and counter-point for the young man's seesawing soul. His sickly cousin dreams only of finally becoming healthy enough to rejoin his regiment in the army and faithfully and loyally serve his country, even as the lovely and mysterious Madame Chauchat seductively initiates Hans into the romantic games the resort's libidinous guests play. And looming above them all is Doctor Behrens, the gruff, bluff and blunt chief physician, the man of science who is leading society in its great charge forward.

The novel is all of this, but it is so much more. There is a wealth of detail, fascinating characters, and gorgeous writing - including plentiful sidebars about those German staples, food and music - and depth and insight abound amongst the various actions in this microcosm amongst the Alps. One scene in particular, where Hans finds himself lost amongst the ski slopes as a winter storm breaks, is as starkly beautiful and haunting as anything you will read. The size of the novel may be daunting, but the pages will fly by as you are drawn into Mann's world. Recommended highly and unreservedly - and remember to get the Woods translation.(less)

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Jun 30, 2008

Michael rated it

Shelves: mann

Unusual and yet classic, in the same way Moby-Dick wraps an epic seafaring adventure around a digressive, encyclopedic treatise on whales. Mann's achievement might be more important, however, for attempting a complete psychological, historical, philosophical, aesthetic, religious, biological, mystical, astrological, and seasonal understanding of mankind at the brink of the catastrophe of World War I. The Magic Mountain is therefore utterly exhausting, sometimes agonizingly frustrating and repeti...more

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Feb 15, 2011

Michael rated it

This book was quite a challenge for me to read, both due to length and an abundance of heavy philosophy throughout. There's no doubt in my mind that Mann's prose is virtuostic and perhaps peerless in certain respects. Magic Mountain has great writing and plenty of intelligently explored themes (time, love, religion, humanity, metaphysics). The characters are generally amusing and Mann does a humorous job in assigning one dimensional personalites to the supporting characters.

The main...more

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Feb 10, 2010

Janet rated it

Time time time... I have the flu, which is the perfect condition in which to read 700 page book about a tuberculosis sanitarium. It changes your sense of time to read a book like this, to yield yourself up to the experience described. What does it mean to have time, to fill time, to experience time as short or long. I am rereading this book, and enjoying all my college-day marginalia--find it hugely preferable to reading books annotated by random anonymous people... Everything fascinating i...more Time time time... I have the flu, which is the perfect condition in which to read 700 page book about a tuberculosis sanitarium. It changes your sense of time to read a book like this, to yield yourself up to the experience described. What does it mean to have time, to fill time, to experience time as short or long. I am rereading this book, and enjoying all my college-day marginalia--find it hugely preferable to reading books annotated by random anonymous people... Everything fascinating is already highlighted, margins full of insights I did not recall nor would have thought of now.

Like the basic idea right now of tedium, and why a vacation is more restful than just lying around. "habituation is a falling asleep or fatiguing of the sense of time; which explains why young years pass slowly, while later life flings itself faster and faster upon its course. We are aware that the intercalation of periods of change and novelty is the only means by which we can refresh our sense of times, strengthen, retard and rejuvenate it, and therewith renew our perception of life itself."

But if it goes too long, and you start to feel at home, "As one 'gets used to the place', a gradual shrinkage makes itself felt. He who clings, or better expressed, wishes to cling to life, will shudder to see how the days grow light and lighter, how they scurry by like dead leaves, until the last week, of some four, perhaps is uncannily fugitive and fleet.'

Only page 110 now... it's a long climb up the Magic Mountain!+++++

+++++Now on page 336, continuing the climb,... currently hit a plateau with all the UNTRANSLATED french in the Walpurgisnicht chapter... where Hans Castorp finally chatting up the obsessively attractive Russian patient Frau Chauchat... IN FRENCH. Oh God, why didn't they translate the French in the older editions? It's like Tolstoy. They translate the German and the Russian, but assume EVERYONE speaks French. Good god. Limping along with Babelfish, but going to have to just ambush a francophone friend to finish it off...

That said, what isn't in this book? You don't know whether you're bored or fascinated--mostly both... So many ideas! Our hero goes from being a very conventional young man who didn't think about much besides his evening cigar, to begin to consider the great questions, not only of that age, but any age: What is life? What is the nature of matter? What is disease and health? Ideas about classicism and republicanism and conservatism and spirituality... considered at very great length, I might add.

This is not a book, it's a relationship, a conversation with one of the greatest minds of our time, who can be incredibly boring and long-winded and yet you come away with your head stuffed with new, exciting ideas. And what subtle understanding of human nature! But gawd... gotta keep moving or I'll never make it.

++++P. 440was horribly sick and didn't want to read this, it all seemed like it was coming true.

+++p 520 Feel like I've made it over the crest. The famous SNOW chapter very beautiful.. now we're back in the land of the windbags again... the Jesuit one vs. the freethinker rationalist...
++++ DONE.
The finest of fine toothed combs run over all of Western civilization. The ongoing debate between the classical humanist and the absolutist Jesuit was the longest boxing match in history, evenly matched and yet rarely really connecting. Yet the later chapters, Chauchat and Peeperkorn, and what happens to Castorp's good-soldier cousin Joachim, the surprising mystic episode, made it worth staying into the 18th and 19th rounds.
As was the case with Anna Karenina, I could have done with less philosophizing. yet this is what spurred him, like Tolstoy, to write his book--can't have your cake without your broccoli. Very glad I did it. (less)

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Aug 21, 2009

Maarten rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: patient people

So, I finally finished Der Zauberberg. And even though it took me over a year, with many stops and reading other books in between, it was a wonderful, unforgettable experience. Especially near the end, when the pace picks up and the prose is just amazing, sometimes pure perfection. You really have to stand in awe of the book as a whole, and those who have read the whole thing will be able to see the impressive composition of it, and how even the long, drawn-out parts have their place and meaning...more

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Jan 13, 2008

Donna rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classic-books, 1001-books, switzerland, germany, nobel-prize

Loved this. Need about four or five more readings. Set up as a novel, but is more a collection of essays on all sorts of human philosophical debates. Beautifully constructed. Must read more by this author.

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “What then was life? It was warmth, the warmth generated by a form-preserving instability, a fever of matter, which accompanied the process of ceaseless decay and repair of albumen molecules that were too impossibly complicated, too impossibly ingenious in structure...more

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Jul 24, 2009

Peter is currently reading it

I started this book about a year ago. It was a little like riding a bicycle into a lake. I powered through the first chapters, full of optimism and the excitement of discovering early 20th century Germany, but I rapidly slowed, and then, after a chapter entirely in French, which I understood only by virtue of three years of high school French (a long time ago), and which I can find no translation of, I stopped dead in the water.
After a good break, I felt ready to go back to that world; an...more

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Mar 01, 2009

Dan Frey rated it

Oh man. This was probably one of the most difficult novels I've read since Don Quixote.

There are so many points during the narrative where the characters are discussing the nature of time, existence, etc. After awhile it's hard to read another monologue about humanistic theory, and the nature of being.

I would say that the last half of the novel is actually very readable and informative.

I read somewhere that Thomas Mann suggested that to fully understand th...more

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Jun 28, 2008

Amy rated it

This was required reading in my college days and the first 100 pages or so nearly killed me -- thanks to the mealy-mouthed middle class hero, Hans Castorp -- German bourgeois everyman. Trudging through I came to love him (and recognized my hatred as a form of thinly veiled self-loathing ).

If you can't vacation for a year or so in the Swiss Alps at mountain top resort, read this and become a temporary resident of the Berghof sanatorium. You'll become immersed in the world of sweet ig...more

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Oct 16, 2007

John Wiswell rated it

Recommends it for: Literary readers, readers with a serious illness, psychology readers

I've spent the last thirteen years in a state of perpetual pain due to a neuromuscular condition. Often the condition and the life it's forced me to lead make me feel insane, or at least sane but detached from the world. No book has quite captured the detachment sickness causes like Magic Mountain, so much so that I was convinced Mann must have been using his thin fantasy premise of a mountain away from time as a wedge to get into this mindset. It's not an entertaining read; often it's as grindi...more

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Dec 14, 2011

Tom Cunliffe rated it

· review of another edition

Read at my blog http://southcoastsounds.org.uk/wordpress... or as below[return][return]I have wanted to read this book for a long time, and decided to take the plunge on discovering this new translation by John E Woods. This is a monster of a book - at 854 closely typeset pages, it is going to take a long time to read - in my case, the best part of a month. One of the main topics of this books is “time”. The patients at the mountain sanatorium initially arrive for what they think is going to be ...moreRead at my blog http://southcoastsounds.org.uk/wordpress... or as below[return][return]I have wanted to read this book for a long time, and decided to take the plunge on discovering this new translation by John E Woods. This is a monster of a book - at 854 closely typeset pages, it is going to take a long time to read - in my case, the best part of a month. One of the main topics of this books is “time”. The patients at the mountain sanatorium initially arrive for what they think is going to be stay of a few weeks, but inevitably they end up staying on for months, years, and even returning for more “treatment” when they have tried to return to normal life below in “flatland”. I read this book during a period of waiting of my own, and found that it complemented my own mood, giving me a bizarre feeling of empathy with the strange collection of characters in Mann’s novel.[return][return]My opinion on finishing is that if you like this sort of thing its tremendously rewarding, but even still its going to be a difficult read at times, and you will find that some of the dense philosophical dialogue will need to be skim-read if you are not going to get bogged down.[return][return]There are many think I liked about it:[return][return] * A unique setting and situation - the patients at a Swiss Sanatorium in the 7 years preceding World War 1;[return] * The closed world Mann creates with its obsessions and rivalries, its artificial manners and routines. This is a unique fictitious society, but one that is entirely credible in view of the situation its inhabitants find themselves in;[return] * The way it so perfectly captures the state of mind of the patients, their adaptation to their illness and the way they have found a community that accepts them as they are;[return] * The creation of a timeless world where months merge into one another and years pass without notice;[return] * The way the sanatorium is a microcosm of Europe in the early part of the 20th century, with all the national conflicts in the wider world being played out in this intense community of tuberculosis sufferers.[return] * The perfect descriptions of obsessive states of mind that can be developed in such situations, imaginary love affairs, supernatural occurrences, intense antagonisms on the one hand and alliances on the other.[return][return]On the downside, the characters in the novel are incredibly verbose. When they speak, they go on for pages, and you have to picture the other people in the conversations standing politely waiting for the speaker to finish before they launch off into their own equally dense replies. However, this is all part of Mann’s creation of “timelessness”, and if you want to read this book in a hurry you’re going to miss the point.[return][return]The translation is modern and natural and while I do not read German, I suspect that the spirit of the author comes through the pages.[return][return]I am pleased to have read this and feel quite a sense of achievement. My only regret is that I felt the ending is a bit hurried (remarkable for this book!), and is not entirely satisfactory. However, undoubtedly a pillar of 20th century literature, this book should not be missed - if you have the time to read it.(less)

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Nov 16, 2010

Laginestra added it · review of another edition

Shelves: l, germanica

Un grammofono elettronico consolava le solitarie notti di Hans Castorp. “Questi dunque […] i dischi che Castorp preferiva”:

Radamès ha tradito, per una schiava barbara, la patria e l’onore. La purezza del suo cuore gli permette di affrontare con fermezza il tribunale dei sacerdoti e l’indignazione di Amneris. Condannato a perire in una tomba sotterranea, Radamès troverà conforto in Aida, che per amore ha scelto di intrecciare il suo destino a quello dell’amato. Può esservi amore senza sofferenz...moreUn grammofono elettronico consolava le solitarie notti di Hans Castorp. “Questi dunque […] i dischi che Castorp preferiva”:

Radamès ha tradito, per una schiava barbara, la patria e l’onore. La purezza del suo cuore gli permette di affrontare con fermezza il tribunale dei sacerdoti e l’indignazione di Amneris. Condannato a perire in una tomba sotterranea, Radamès troverà conforto in Aida, che per amore ha scelto di intrecciare il suo destino a quello dell’amato. Può esservi amore senza sofferenza? Il duetto finale è celestiale, all’unisono cantano l’attesa del “raggio dell’eterno dì”. Moriranno di fame, di stenti, prima uno e poi l’altro. Rimarranno solo ossa. Ma “per la mente teatrale di Radamès e Aida non esiste l’imminente realtà”. E per noi che la realtà esiste, quale scelta dobbiamo fare?

Un fauno suona il suo flauto supino su un prato punteggiato di fiori, sereno e dimentico del tempo. Nel suo rifugio arcadico non c’è responsabilità, non arrivano i “discolpati!”, non v’è nessun richiamo all’onore. Là regna la beata quiete, l’innocenza fuori dal tempo, la “trascuratezza in piena coscienza, l’apoteosi di ogni negazione della comandata attività occidentale”. Ma è questo oblio la più pura aspirazione umana?

Le trombe della caserma suonano la ritirata: codice chiaro per il militare ma ignoto a Carmen. Cos’è il dovere? La zingara cerca di trattenerlo, lo sbeffeggia, lo accusa di non amarla a sufficienza. Il giovane canta il suo amore, sebbene le vicende lo costringano subito dopo alla diserzione. Accompagnano la sua fuga i canti dei gitani: Le ciel ovuert, la vie errante/pour pays l’univers;/et pour loi sa volonté!/Et sourtout, la chose enivrante;/la libertè! la liberté! Ma è questa, poi, la libertà?

Ancora un pezzo in cui regna lo spirito militare: Valentino, in procinto di partire per la guerra, canta la sua preghiera a Dio, affinché protegga la sorella. Combatterà valorosamente, ma se dovesse perire, se Dio lo dovesse chiamare a sé, veglierà da lassù sulla sorella. J'ira combattre pour mon pays,/Et si, vers lui, Dieu me rappelle/Je veillerai sur toi fidèle. Ma cosa esiste oltre la morte? Qualcuno resterà a vegliare per noi?

Infine un canto di nostalgia, rivolto all’ombra consolante di un amato tiglio, luogo di serenità, rifugio ai turbamenti della vita. Il viandante lontano affronta le avversità, die kalten Winde, senza voltare le spalle, ich wendete mich nicht, mentre nelle sue orecchie risuona consolante la voce frusciante dell’albero distante. L’amore per questa canzone, per questo oggetto spirituale, non nasconde forse l’amore per quell’universale che il lied cela? E non può essere, questo universale, la stessa morte? La voce del tiglio non è un richiamo all'ultima pace? Ma questa simpatia per la morte è pura religiosità: il “soave canto della nostalgia” è cordiale, sereno, sano. Sano? Non è al contrario morboso guardare alla morte? Salute e malattia: un dilemma della relazione con l'oggetto, non dell'oggetto in sè, o del suo più alto significato. Anche il frutto più invitante va gustato al momento opportuno, altrimenti perisce. È pregno di morte, e questa doppia natura nasconde la magia dell’anima. Come ascoltarla? Come realizzare questa alchimia spirituale? Sacrificare la propria vita nel superamento di sé, tendere alla morte con sulle labbra il soave lied, e morire per esso: non già più esso ma ora, nella morte eroica, morire per le nuove parole dell’amore e dell’avvenire. Ma quale avvenire? E cos'è l'amore?

Quali risposte troverà Hans Castorp a queste domande, lui “pupillo della vita”, rifugiato in una isolata “provincia pedagogica”, lui rinnovata immagine di fool e quester medievale? E quali risposte ha provato a darsi l’umanità intera in questi 85 anni? La malattia, la morte, il tempo, l’amore, il progresso. Il sogno di un’umanità futura è solo sogno, destinato ad impallidire con il risveglio, o un dovere “per rispetto alla bontà e all’amore”?

La montagna incantata rappresenta il più importante documento della psicologia e dei problemi spirituali nei primi trent’anni del secolo XX. Rappresenta anche l’ultimo anello di una lunga catena di testi misterici, dove la montagna magica è “una variazione del tempio di iniziazione, sede della pericolosa ricerca del mistero della vita”.

Dice Hans Castorp: “Ci sono due strade che conducono alla vita: una è la solita, diretta, onesta. L’altra è brutta, porta attraverso la morte ed è la strada geniale”.(less)

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Feb 16, 2009

Marguerite rated it

Shelves: bailed-out

Way back when, I was a college student who had a fair amount of time on my hands, and Thomas Mann on my to-read list. I got a paperback copy of The Magic Mountain. But after 300-odd pages I was weary of reading about sputum-covered hankies. I was eager for Hans Castorp to kick the proverbial bucket. Since there aren't many people whose death I'd relish, I stuck a pristine tissue in the page where I'd bailed out and left it in my bookshelf as a reminder that life is too short for tedious books, n...more

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Jan 27, 2009

Scuppers rated it

To say that this book drags a little bit through the middle while the characters talk philosophy is a real understatement. It drags a whole lot. Luckily what it lacks in excitement, it makes up in setting and in description of characters.

Mostly, it's about a tuberculosis hospital on the top of a mountain. It's about the characters being sick, and how they each handle that situation differently.

It's supposed to be an allegory in some ways - it's got a guy who's a reall...more

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Jan 28, 2012

Giovanni A. rated it

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Mann, Thomas (1924). La montagna magica (Der Zauberberg). Milano: Mondadori. 2010.
La montagna magica

libon.it

Piccolo dilemma, di cui verosimilmente non importa niente a nessuno tranne che a me: che io recensisca capolavori classici universalmente e da tempo acclamati è probabilmente, oltre che inutile, un atto di hỳbris; d’altra parte, ho promesso a me stesso, e ho detto anche a voi (i proverbiali 25 lettori) che avrei recensito, non sempre tempestivamente, tutti i libri...moreMann, Thomas (1924). La montagna magica (Der Zauberberg). Milano: Mondadori. 2010.
La montagna magica

libon.it

Piccolo dilemma, di cui verosimilmente non importa niente a nessuno tranne che a me: che io recensisca capolavori classici universalmente e da tempo acclamati è probabilmente, oltre che inutile, un atto di hỳbris; d’altra parte, ho promesso a me stesso, e ho detto anche a voi (i proverbiali 25 lettori) che avrei recensito, non sempre tempestivamente, tutti i libri che avessi letto.

Dunque, eccomi qui. Me la caverò menando il can per l’aia: non recensendo il libro, ma parlandone un po’ in relazione a me e alle vicende che mi riguardano personalmente.

Il primo romanzo di Thomas Mann che ho letto fu I Buddenbrook, su suggerimento di mio padre: a casa mia – privilegio di cui non smetterò mai di essere grato ai miei – si parlava sempre a tavola “dei massimi sistemi” e dunque spesso di letteratura. Ero adolescente, non alle medie, suppongo, ma al ginnasio direi. Anche perché rimasi molto colpito dal modo in cui Mann descrive l’insorgere del tifo del piccolo Hanno. E perché ricordo di averne discusso con G. M., amico fin dalla prima elementare, di madre amburghese e quindi fonte preziosa di quelle atmosfere (soprattutto di Travemünde, dove se non ricordo male andavano anche in villeggiatura i cammellini di peluche del professor Kranz di Paolo Villaggio).

Qualche anno dopo ho letto (come tutti all’epoca) La morte a Venezia: il film di Luchino Visconti – senza l’articolo! – è del 1971, ma restò più memorabile, per me, per la scoperta dell’Adagietto dalla 5ª Sinfonia e dello stesso Gustav Mahler, che fino ad allora avevo appena sfiorato. Nel film l’orchestra dell’Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia era diretta da Franco Mannino.

Poco dopo – erano dunque gli anni dell’università – arrivò la lettura di Doktor Faustus, legato anch’esso a una scoperta musicale (anche qui, più il Beethoven della Sonata op. 111 che la dodecafonia e la Scuola di Vienna). Oltre alla stupenda interpretazione di Sviatoslav Richter che vi propongo qui sotto, vi segnalo anche la bella lezione di Roman Vlad che trovate su Rai Educational.

Per molto tempo ho rinviato la lettura de La montagna incantata (all’epoca era tradotto così il titolo originale – Paolo Mauri racconta tutta la vicenda su la Repubblica), fino a quando la nuova edizione e traduzione non mi ha deciso al grande passo.

È un bel libro? Certamente sì.

È un bel romanzo? Non so. Opinione personalissima, e probabilmente una bestemmia per i veri esperti, e non posso escludere nemmeno che se lo rileggessi, magari in momenti e circostanze diverse …

Insomma, non sono sicuro che in quanto romanzo sia sopravvissuto bene agli anni: sarà che il linguaggio e il fraseggio così “classici” anestetizzano i grandi temi che sono il “vero” contenuto del romanzo, sarà che ci siamo abituati ai romanzi-saggio in cui la contrapposizione delle idee non ha bisogno di incarnarsi fisicamente in personaggi (e vicende), sarà che Davos ormai non ci fa nemmeno pensare alle gare di sci ma al forum di qualche decina di esperti strapagati che discettano del nostro destino, sarà che 1000 pagine sono tante per un romanzo e poche per un saggio che mette tutta quella carne al fuoco, sarà la musica che gira intorno, saremo noi che abbiamo nella testa un maledetto muro …
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Dec 23, 2011

Roberta rated it

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Shelves: 2007

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) è uno dei maggiori letterati tedeschi. Vincitore del Premio Pulitzer nel 1929 “principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increasing recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature”, è l’autore anche de La montagna incantata, La morte a Venezia. Tutti e tre questi libri sono stati oggetto di riduzioni cinematografiche.
Il progetto per questo romanzo, nato da un soggiorno come ospite della moglie in una clinica svizzera, pr...moreThomas Mann (1875-1955) è uno dei maggiori letterati tedeschi. Vincitore del Premio Pulitzer nel 1929 “principally for his great novel, Buddenbrooks, which has won steadily increasing recognition as one of the classic works of contemporary literature”, è l’autore anche de La montagna incantata, La morte a Venezia. Tutti e tre questi libri sono stati oggetto di riduzioni cinematografiche.
Il progetto per questo romanzo, nato da un soggiorno come ospite della moglie in una clinica svizzera, prevedeva originariamente un romanzo breve. La stesura venne interrotta dallo scoppio della Prima Guerra Mondiale, a seguito della quale Mann rivalutò la portata delle tematiche affrontate nel manoscritto incompiuto e finì con il produrre questo voluminosissimo tomo che richiese complessivamente 12 anni per venire alla luce.
Hans Castorp, giovane di belle speranze orientatosi verso la professione di ingegneria, decide di spendere tre settimane in visita presso il cugino Joachim, aspirante ufficiale degente presso un sanatorio svizzero.Una volta raggiunto il sanatorio, Castorp entra in confidenza con le abitudini del luogo, che si concentrano principalmente sullo stato fisico dei degenti: la misurazione della temperatura corporea e il riposo sul balcone sono le cose più importanti per queste persone, la cui “scarcerazione” viene deferita di 6 mesi in 6 mesi dai solerti dottori.
Il periodo iniziale di tre settimana diventa un soggiorno di sette anni, durante i quali, oltre ad accompagnarsi al cugino, Castorp viene colpito dalla bella russa Chauchat della quale si innamora, e nel frattempo coltiva l’amicizia del bizzarro e polemico massone italiano Settembrini e successivamente del suo amico gesuita Naphta. Questi due personaggi in particolare intavolano lunghissime e profonde discussioni su miriadi di argomenti sui quali si trovano sempre in disaccordo totale. Lo stesso Castorp comincia ad interessarsi prima alla fisiologia umana e poi alla fisica e ancora ad altre discipline che nella vita normale non avrebbe mai avuto la possibilità di affrontare.
Il significato fondamentale del libro è oscuro anche ai critici letterari di Mann, i quali esprimono opinioni contrastanti. Non posso dire di aver capito esattamente che cosa volesse comunicarci Mann con questo tomo, ma senza dubbio rappresenta una lettura affascinante, per quanto spesso anche sfiancante a causa dello stile pomposo e della scrittura prolissa. Ma il bildungsroman di Castorp, che parte da una Colonia (se non vado errata) come tronfio borghese farcito di luoghi comuni e sfizi e finisce con l’impantanarsi per sette anni in un sanatorio fuori dal mondo (dei cui ritmi lenti ed ovattati la lunghezza del romanzo è un’impegnativa metafora) per poi finire nelle ultime pagine a correre sotto le bombe e gli spari della guerra, è un’incredibile avventura. Come Mann stesso disse, presentando la sua opera ad Oxford in una conferenza, se un autore si rendesse veramente conto delle difficoltà di scrivere un libro si arrenderebbe prima ancora di levare la penna. E lo stesso forse si può applicare ad un lettore che, se sapesse veramente cosa vuol dire leggere un simile libro, rinuncerebbe già in partenza. Un vero peccato, anche perché Mann consiglia di leggere La montagna incantata due volte, essendo questo a suo parere l’unico metodo per afferrare pienamente il messaggio del romanzo. Maratona che si può affrontare, ammette lo stesso autore, solo se il libro è piaciuto in prima istanza.(less)

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Oct 30, 2011

Xon rated it

Young Herr Castorp, a recent engineering graduate, finds himself up in the Alps at Davos, in a hospital that specialized in respiratory illnesses, where he falls ill after visiting a good friend. Thereafter, he was supposed to be cured of his new-found sickness in three weeks, but remains at the hospital for all of seven years. In the story, one is not quite sure if Hans was sick, or he appeared sick that he could remain at the hospital to be caught up in the "magic" of the mountain.
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Aug 02, 2011

Andrii Mironchenko rated it

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Shelves: classical-literature

Мне кажется, что роман получился слишком длинным.
Многостраничные диалоги между Нафта и Сеттембрини введены автором лишь для того, чтобы показать непримиримость позиций собеседников, их готовность идти на любые софизмы лишь бы доказать собственную правоту.

Причем важен процесс спора, а не его тема, которая всегда лишь косвенно связана с повествованием.
А следовательно, зачем воспроизводить этот процесс в романе несколько раз? Зачем повторяться без надобности?

...more

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Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen Dery rated it

An earlier version of this article was first published as Book Review: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann on Blogcritics.org.

This is perhaps a mountain of a book that can be categorized as a spectacular piece of literature. You know, sometimes, a grandiose book would appear, and it is grand and spectacular, not simple because of its size, but because it is a magnificent tour de force in all respects. Works such as Thomas Pynchon's V and Roberto Bolaño's 2666 come to mind. I believe The ...moreAn earlier version of this article was first published as Book Review: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann on Blogcritics.org.

This is perhaps a mountain of a book that can be categorized as a spectacular piece of literature. You know, sometimes, a grandiose book would appear, and it is grand and spectacular, not simple because of its size, but because it is a magnificent tour de force in all respects. Works such as Thomas Pynchon's V and Roberto Bolaño's 2666 come to mind. I believe The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann is another one of them. So before I review this book, let me provide the requisite synopsis.

The Magic Mountain takes place in a sanatorium in Davos, in the Swiss Alps. The story is set in the early twentieth century, and revolves around Hans Castorp. Hans Castorp heads up to Davos to visit his cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, who has been undertaking treatment in the sanatorium. What initially is planned as a 3-week visit ends up to be seven years, as Hans Castorp visits his cousin, develops a sickness of his own worth curing, and interacting with the various characters that are present in his surroundings. People come and go, and characters enter and exit, either temporarily (by heading down to the flat lands) or permanently (by dying).

So, perhaps the most troubling aspect about this book is about coherence. I have this idea that it is just too big to be a coherent work. I felt the same way with respect to Roberto Bolaño's 2666 as well (however, I think that was the beauty of that work, that it was mysterious and slightly incoherent). For The Magic Mountain, however, it is coherent, but certain bits and pieces make me do a double-take on that factor.

See, I think this is a novel that functions as a vehicle for Mann to illustrate the various philosophies that are prevalent during his day. Characters are actually allegorical and symbolic, and stand as archetypes for different philosophies. Ludovico Settembrini for example is the personification of humanism, while Joachim Ziemssen is the person who always follows duty over anything. Naphta on the other hand is the radicalist. And the whole novel is just a dialogue between these different people, as Mann provides an exposition with respect to these different philosophies.

Crucial to the story is Hans Castorp, the innocant bystander. At some level, he is the topic of the novel, as he is the prime character. But at another level, he is just a bystander whose function in the novel is to witness the different expositions and illustrations of these different philosophies. His body temperature is modulated by these expositions, and actually tips back and forth as a reflection of his personal belief. That I thought was a neat literary trick.

The aspect I do not like about this work, however, has something to do with overall coherence. My previous paragraph mentioned this idea that this novel can be analyzed in different levels, which is fine. What I didn't like are these little snippets or sub-plots in the story, which don't seem to provide a purpose. One such example is the sub-plot that revolves around Elly Brand, the Danish patient who seems to be psychic and becomes the spirit medium of a ghost by the name of Holger. I just don't see how this sub-story related with the overall picture. And unlike Roberto Bolaño's 2666, I have a hard time seeing The Magic Mountain as hyperlink literature.

Overall, however, I still think positively of this book. It was a good exposition of the prevailing philosophies during Thomas Mann's time. And because of that, I am not surprised that this is rated as one of the best examples of German literature out there. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
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May 09, 2011

Karl H. rated it

Magic Mountain is the story of Hans Castorp, the "delicate child of the world" who travels to a sanatorium only to become a permanent resident. It's a deeply philosophical novel, and widely considered to be Thomas Mann's masterpiece. Unfortunately, it may have been a bit too dense for my taste.

The writing is top notch, expressive and ingenious by turns, and the set pieces and characters well constructed, both in terms of individual character and also symbolically. There's a...moreMagic Mountain is the story of Hans Castorp, the "delicate child of the world" who travels to a sanatorium only to become a permanent resident. It's a deeply philosophical novel, and widely considered to be Thomas Mann's masterpiece. Unfortunately, it may have been a bit too dense for my taste.

The writing is top notch, expressive and ingenious by turns, and the set pieces and characters well constructed, both in terms of individual character and also symbolically. There's a lot going on here. It makes sense, given the introduction (which talks about the difference between the pre-war and post-war period as "not measurable in suns") and conclusion (which leaves us smack in the middle of the war) that this is a book vastly influenced by World War I. The mountain has an international flavor, which enables many different nationalities to make appearances in the book. There is fierce debate about liberalism and radicalism carried out between the arch-rivals Setterbrini and Naphta. The death of trivial characters can symbolize something like the end of the age of royalty. Social criticism of the bourgeois also abounds with Hans Castorp's cheerful content mediocrity. A thorough grounding in the history of the buildup to World War I would help make sense of a lot of the characters and their actions.

But let's not confine this book to mere political allegory. There are many issues which the book tackles. In particular focus seems to be the idea of time, which takes on a magical quality in this book. The first several weeks take up a disproportionately large amount of the book, and then the novel accelerates as it goes on. This is mirrored by Hans Castorp's perception of time, and ties into a narrative digression about how our perception of time changes based on the newness of its content. There are many more ideological contrasts between the mountain and the "flat-land," or the land below it. This is a struggle between meditation and action, civilian life and military life, progress and anarchy, rationality and mysticism, sickness and health, life and death, between subjective and objective time. In short, as the novel puts it, between the 'vertical' of the magical mountain and the 'horizontal' prosaic world.

That said, the book meanders through these themes somewhat aimlessly. And no matter what your opinion, surely one cannot argue that the plot is particularly urgent or fast-paced. This is an obvious problem if you think about it: How could the plot be fast paced in a story about a sanatorium anyway? This is the story of vast expanses of time where nothing happens, where the days blend together and become shapeless due to the blending of the seasons and the massive inactivity prescribed as a cure far away from everyone else. By its very nature it must reflect some of that extreme boredom. Interesting characters drop in and out of focus. They come and go and do not generally contribute to any sort of climax. By conventional standards then, the book just seems like formless sprawl, but fortunately there is a method to the madness.

Seven hundred pages is a long time to read a dense book and not really figure out what it's about, but regardless, in vain I searched for a key to the theme of this admittedly well written book for those seven hundred pages- only to anticlimactically find it in the commentary at the end. I freely confess I'm merely following the thoughts from Mann's excellent commentary at the end. I do not know if Mann's commentary is in every edition, but they definitely helped me understand it in a way I simply could not do when reading. My talents as a reader failed me I suppose.

Music- the thing that finally put Magic Mountain into clear focus for me was Mann's comment that Magic Mountain was influenced strongly by music. This made the entire structure of the book click into place for me at last. What we have, I finally understand, is not a 'plot' but rather a series of musical 'movements' which can be considered separately or as a whole, and which Mann urges us to read either backwards or forwards. Much like a symphony is a series of separate movements connected by similarities, Magic Mountain is a set of thoughts connected but also independent of each other. One more end this music comparison tied into place was the use of stock phrases from earlier passages employed on a regular basis, phrases like "prabislav eyes," "delicate child of the world," "borrow a pencil" and so on. A leitmotif is the use of a set musical phrase that suggests a character or idea. So when Mann makes those references to a series of ideas that he has explained in other passages, he is employing a leitmotif structure. This is certainly an innovative way to write a book, and I must give Mann props for originality and talent, even if it occasionally doesn't make for the most thrilling reading.

At the same time though, I should say that as clever and symbolically dense the book was, I didn't wish it was any longer. After all, for all the talk, at times not much actually happens. It's an interesting read, and would probably reward a second time through, as Mann recommends in the end-notes. I'm not going to follow his thoughts quite that far though, and I feel perfectly content to read it just the once.(less)

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Apr 26, 2011

Adam Calhoun rated it

Apparently Thomas Mann decided that he wanted to write about European Society in the years leading up to the first world war. What we get is an amusing first couple hundred of pages where one Hans Castorp is stuck at a sanatorium. Then we are treated to a few hundred pages of increasingly dense philosophizing, before returning at the close to our sanatorium story once more. There are several books to like here, but I'm not sure that Thomas Mann did a good job of weaving them all together.
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Apr 20, 2011

Nick rated it

Started in 1912 and finished in 1924, this novel presents 7+ years from the life of Hans Castorp, all of them spent in the Swiss Alps, at the Berghof Sanatorium for those with tuberculosis. A time to learn from various characters, a journey through life using the shorcuts at hand: A francmason and libertarian (Lodovico Settembrini), a radical/authoritarian (Leo Naphta), a joie-de-vivre Mynheer (lol) Pepeerkorn, the duty personified (cousin Joachim Ziemssen), the "playing with love" Cla...more

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Feb 02, 2010

Lea rated it

Recommends it for: anyone interested in philosophical arguments and the history of the time.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Hans, a naive and sheltered young man from a comfortable background, visits his cousin who has T.B.and is ensconced in a sanitarium on the Magic Mountain. This visit extends for seven years, during which time numerous characters make inroads (and out-roads ) into his life. He falls in love, falls under the influence of a humanitarian and an ex Jesuit who argue and vie for influence over the impressionable Hans.

The world of the sanatarium is vividly painted against a backdrop of mou...more

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May 26, 2009

James rated it

This is a hard book to rate -- who am I to give a mere three stars to a classic like this? But it has to be done: this is simply not a very good novel. There are a few engaging subplots, and flashes of humanity, but these get destroyed in the steamroller of Mann's symbolic vision: each person represents a particular thing, and always says the same thing, and on and on for 700 agonizing pages. The unfortunate characters who don't fit into the novel's set of symbols are instead completely defined ...more

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