The Magic Mountain | Thomas Mann | Literature at its Finest

The Magic Mountain | Thomas Mann | A Labor of Love

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The Magic Mountain

	The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann Vintage, 1996 - 720 pages average customer review:based on 85 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Literature at its Finest

I hesitate to think what would happen if Thomas Mann wrote the Magic Mountain today. Would his publisher ask him to shorten it by half? Would he be told by his agent -- were he fortunate enough to get one -- that the book could never sell unless he enlivens the plot? Truly, it would be simple enough to ridicule the book's simple plot, particularly given its length. But if anyone listened, they just might miss out on arguably the greatest philosophical novel ever written.

As intellectually stimulating as this book was, it was equalling gripping to the heart. That, of course, is the hallmark of a truly great novel of ideas. In a land of action movies and MTV for teenagers and 50+ hour work weeks for "college educated" adults, I wonder what percentage of our population would have either the time or the patience to savor this masterpiece. In fact, it might not be too bold to say that we can evaluate the level of education in a society by its ability to nurture the appreciation for works like this one. I feel blessed for being given the opportunity to read it.

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A Labor of Love

Yes, the Magic Mountain is a dense read but well worth it. Mann delves deep into the psychological aspects of his characters to create profound understanding of each. I felt very well acquainted with the charachters like Frau Stoer, the Hofrat, Mm Chauchat, and of course, Hans Castorp. Not all have the same vocabulary as we do today but it's easy to relate these characters to similar people I have met in my lifetime.

The metaphors are not so well hidden that one cannot extract their meaning with a little effort. I sum this book up as an effort to convey to people to examine themselves where personal balance and understanding leads to good health physically and mentally. And that personal success is the beginning of the path to freedom and salvation. That is what I personally felt more so than the relationship to Europe pre WWI.

Do yourself a favor though and get the modern edition by Woods. The earlier Howells edition requires an arcaic english dictionary to wade through it.

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Effortlessly surpassing all contemporary thinking

In his incredibly deep and moving novel Magic Mountain, Mann uses in a delightfully idiosyncratic manner the Swiss Alpine town Davos ?Europe?s highest situated town? (1600m, above sea-level) as the stage for the European condition of the time.

Characters inhabit both political positions of the time, as much as they embody emotions and questions Mann raises within his work.

From the central character of Hans Castorp, a 23 year old Hamburg engineer, who is visiting his cousin Ziemßen for no more than a planned duration of three weeks, to Settembrini, the Italian Free-Mason and his opponent the strictly conservative but even more complex character of Naphta, a Jesuit priest(who both become his primary teachers) Mann creates within the Micro Cosmos of Davos the whole world as it is presented to the decidedly unsure inhabitant of Hamburg. Davos can be seen as a metaphor of exclusion, height and decadence; a step away from the world to see as it reassembles itself in an amplified manner.

The three week stay gets extended on behalf of his health, though Mann raises the question of health and time, as well as the luxury to dwell upon either that Castorp decides to indulge in. Is Castorp really ill? Or has he simply decided that the life outside his reclusive world in the lower regions of his country where he could serve his pursued career is not his chosen path?

The book doesn?t answer many questions, and though it scarcely contains a fast moving narrative it remains fascinating on a multitude of levels. It raises the question about health and its true origin, as well as time and its evident relativity. Are three weeks really short if they appear long and seven years long if they seem to have passed by without thinking for a second?

Are intelligence and great arguments really more important than simply possessing personality? What is love and how is it connected to illness of the soul and body? Or has it any connection at all? Is believing in a rational world, forward moving, or just an outdated bourgeois model from two centuries ago? What if someone foresees future events out of the explainable with utter precision? How does rationality function in regard to the mysterious?

Mann doesn?t answer these questions, but makes the reader like his moderately simple, indecisive, yet willing student and main character Castorp think. Just like him, the reader can make up his own mind. Mann has with Magic Mountain created a novel of ideas that is neither preachy nor excessively difficult to engage with, even though the sheer volume that easily exceeds Ulysses, might turn some readers of. Yet this volume is necessary to develop the ideas Mann deals with, to reach their depth of argument. Even though it may not after all as Mann suggest be useful to little Hans anymore, but to the reader it very much remains though.

As some reviews on Amazon show (and I think this represents the opinion of many past critics of the book, too) it is often described as ponderous, unduly long, and descriptive, whilst not giving a precise direction or definition. I think the detail is what makes Magic Mountain and the in depth discovery of its themes without it I much more think that the book would be tedious and superficial. With the description of appearances, Mann often wants to set the mood as well as provide details about the person?s behaviour, neurosis, etc, which I think is utterly necessary to lift the book to the status it deservedly inhabits now. As for its ambiguity, this is not Marx, nor it is Nietzsche trying to convince you, but simply a presentation of conflicting ideas and ideals that made Europe tick and remain very applicable to this day.

It is wrong to approach this book just like any other. In the German edition I read, it contains more than 1000 pages, making it only slightly shorter than War and Peace and it very much should be seen as a work challenging as the above mentioned. Indeed, this is no trouble-free beach novella; but in my opinion effortlessly Mann?s best, and with it one of the best novels ever written.

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Long, but good.

Ah, the Magic Mountain.
It deals with the issues. The passage of time, the management of people, the different sort of people you might meet from day to day.

Some of the passages go on theese philosophical reveries, which are really great.

These issues are so huge, and they have so many potential connections to things, past and present, that I can scarcely get my mind around some of them.

Invariably, reading this, I'd lose patience and have to pick up something lighter, like statistical abstracts.

The mundane mountain

Maybe I'm just too dumb to appreciate it's subtlety and complex themes, and I'm sure there's a lot that I'm "not getting", but I honestly feel that this is one of the dullest, most pretentious, most uninvolving books I've read.
I had actually looked forward to reading Thomas Mann's bloated opus "The Magic Mountain" for some time prior to finally checking it out of my school library; and yet I was extremely disappointed to find that more than half of it consisted of esoteric and incomprehensible conversations between the characters, with little plot or character development. Yes, yes, I understand that the characters supposedly constitute some kind of big metaphor for the major countries of Europe; but I don't give a [...], I just absolutely hated this book. I still don't know how I managed to wade through all 800+ pages of it.
So unless you're a very patient and motivated reader (I usually am) who can contemplate every nuance of a novel without having your patience tried, don't bother with this one, because chances are it'll leave you sleepy and more than a little puzzled.

p.s Hmmm...having finished this review, I feel compelled to re-evaluate my statements...sure, as I was reading "The Magic Mountain" I couldn't help feeling that, while somewhat intellectually stimulating, it was a little boring...and yet, somehow, when you're finished with it, it has left a curious impact on you...odd.

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