Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain: A Casebook

by Hans Rudolf Vaget

This collection seeks to illustrate the ways in which Thomas Mann's 1924 novel, The Magic Mountain, has been newly construed by some of today's most astute readers in the field of Mann studies. The essays, many of which were written expressly for this volume, comment on some of the familiar and inescapable topics of Magic Mountain scholarship, including the questions of genre and ideology, the philosophy of time, and the ominous subjects of disease and medical practice. Moreover, this volume offers fresh approaches to the novel's underlying notions of masculinity, to its embodiment of the cultural code of anti-Semitism, and to its precarious relationship to the rival media of photography, cinema, and recorded sound.

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2008

Reviews

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made extensive use of this while reading The Magic Mountain. Excellent reference/casebook. (Copy used was a hardback edition.)

Table of Contents:

"The Making of The Magic Mountain" Hans Rudolf Vaget

"Death, Knowledge, and the Formation of Self: The Magic Mountain" Martin Travers

"Photography and Bildung in The Magic Mountain" Eric Downing

"Modern Masculinities on the Magic Mountain" Todd Kontje

"Projections on Blank Space: Landscape, Nationality, and Identity in Der Zauberberg" Nancy P. Nenno

"'Politically Suspect': Music on the Magic Mountain" Hans Rudolf Vaget

"Linke Leute von recht:" Thomas Mann's Naphta and the Ideological Confluence of Radical Right and Radical Left in the Early Years of the Weimar Republic" Anthony Grenville

"Naphta and His Ilk: Jewish Characters in Mann's The Magic Mountain" Franka Marquardt and Yahya Elsaghe

"Telling Timelessness in Der Zauberberg" Dorrit Cohn

"The Magic Mountain: A 'Humoristic Counterpart' to Death in Venice" Ellis Shookman

"The 'Magic Mountain Malady': Der Zauberberg and the Medical Community, 1924-2006" Malte Herwig

[judy weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Heather Graber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard book to get into but it's a great story.

[Razi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very good essays on Mann's great novel. Well worth the £0.1 + p&p I paid for it!