The Magic Mountain in Never too Late to Read Classics

Sep 27, 2020 Chrissie rated it liked it

Shelves: long, humor, germany, italy, switzerland, medical, politics, magic, 2020-read, ww1

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann is a coming-of-age story. It is also a commentary on and depiction of life at a Swiss Alpine sanatorium for consumptives, of European society before the First World War and of human behavior as a whole. T. Mann had personal knowledge of life at a sanatorium. In 1912, his wife, ailing from a lung complication, spent several months at Dr. Friedrich Jessen’s Waldsanatorium in Davos Switzerland. There, he visited her. It was at this time he began writing the book, o ...more

44 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2008 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nobel-prize, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, german-literature, fiction-20th-century, classics

The Magic Mountain (German: Der Zauberberg) is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in German in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature.

Mann started writing what was to become The Magic Mountain in 1912. It began as a much shorter narrative which revisited in a comic manner aspects of Death in Venice, a novella that he was preparing for publication. The newer work reflected his experiences and impressions during a perio ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2018 Karen rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001, 2018-chunky-book-challenge

The Magic Mountain is a book that has everything: Love, Life, Illness Death and Philosophy, lots of philosophy. The reason I didn't give it 4 or 5 stars is because I had to force myself to keep reading at times. I thoroughly enjoyed some sections, others, particularly the romance, was quite silly, others quite boring. I have read that one should read this book more than once to really understand it and maybe one day I will. ...more

1 like · Like · see review