The Magic Mountain
Published on 4. March 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
776 pages
978-1-4341-0580-6 (ISBN)
Description
In this masterpiece of intellectual fiction, Nobel Prize-winning author Thomas Mann takes you to a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps-a community devoted to sickness that becomes a microcosm for Europe's prewar society.
Young Hans Castorp planned a three-week visit to his tubercular cousin, only to find himself mysteriously drawn to the isolated mountain retreat. As his stay stretches from months to years, Hans falls under the influence of the remarkable residents: the humanist Settembrini, the nihilistic Naphta, and the captivating Clavdia Chauchat. Through their philosophical debates and seductive charisma, Hans's perception of time, identity, and meaning undergoes a profound transformation.
Mann's rich symbolism and meditative prose explore the enigmatic nature of time, the seduction of intellectual surrender, and the fragility of Western civilization on the brink of catastrophe. The Magic Mountain stands as one of the most influential works of twentieth-century literature-a novel of ideas that continues to mesmerize and challenge readers nearly a century after its original publication.
This edition, complete and unabridged, features footnoted translations of the French and Italian passages used in the novel, including the rather erotic conversation in the section "Walpurgis-Night." Newly designed and typeset for easy reading by Waking Lion Press, this edition is printed on acid-free, archival-quality paper for a long life in your personal library.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 178 mm
Thickness: 42 mm
Weight
1431 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4341-0580-6 (9781434105806)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
German novelist, short story author, social commentator, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Paul Thomas Mann lived from 6 June 1875 to 12 August 1955. His sardonic and highly symbolic epic novels and novellas are renowned for their understanding of the minds of artists and intellectuals. He incorporated modernized versions of German and Biblical tales, as well as concepts from Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in his analysis and critique of the European and German spirit. In his first book, Buddenbrooks, Mann-a member of the Hanseatic Mann family-depicted his clan and social status. Three of Heinrich Mann's six children, Erika Mann, Klaus Mann, and Golo Mann, all went on to become well-known German writers, as did his older brother Heinrich Mann, a radical writer. Mann escaped to Switzerland in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler took office. He relocated to the United States in 1939 when World War II began, then went back to Switzerland in 1952. One of the most well-known authors of the so-called Exilliteratur, German writing produced in exile by individuals opposed to the Hitler government, is Mann.