The Magic Mountain
1929 Nobel Prize in Literature
Thomas Mann (1875-1955)
1995 at Eliane's House
Your comments
N.B. Two out of the group loved this book - Sam and Martine
(both women). Max and Eliane didn't.
It is unnecessary to "defend " the Thomas Mann's book. Suffice
it to say that he is acclaimed as one of the best writer that
the world has ever known.
It is a dreamlike coming-of-age story about young Hans Castorp
who spends a three-week vacation with his sick cousin in a
sanitarium high in the Swiss Alps, but becomes a patient himself,
and stays seven years. The mood of the book is dreamlike in
the way that Kafka is dreamy, elusive, ambiguous, though Mann
has a wonderfully ironic style which is much more concrete,
and is alternately very funny or very sad.
Hans Castorp's fate is to remain an ill-defined "hero". He
is nonetheless surrounded by unforgettable characters who
are all richly painted: the unflaggingly eloquent Italian
Setembrinni and the sour Jesuit Naptha, his nemesis, who debate
and duel throughout; the sanitarium director who plays the
role of Death himself, "rowing" his way through the halls;
a frog-like head nurse, with wandering nervous eyes, croaking
"Man-alive!" in amazement at every commonplace event; and
especially the aged royal Peeperkorn, Castorp's rival, who
commands respect form the group by gestures alone, without
uttering a sentence-- all are painted with brilliant crystal
clarity. All lovable yet oddly detestable.
Magic Mountain has been a favorite of mine for many years.
The aspect of the story that I find most compelling is the
pursuit of "fads"--whether philosophical (Settembrini) or
technical (the x-ray machine, the phonograph) or "spiritual"
(the seances) or physical (cigars, Clavdia Chauchat). I've
often wondered if Mann wasn't influenced by Flaubert's Bouvard
et Pecuchet, those two avid amateurs of big ideas. My assumption
about Mann's assumptions is that there's pathos (or bathos)
no matter how trivial or profound the pursuit. Once you leave
the mountain the psychic refuges of civilization lose their
protective powers. Christian Lundin
Eliane should read it at least. If you didn't get past page
100 - well, then you missed a fantastic experience. You must
have patience to be able to appreciate works like The Magic
Mountain. It's Mann's best work, and one of the most original
and profound novels of the 20th century. Follow Mann's advice
and reread it as soon as you're finished with it ... you'll
see what I mean.
It was Aldous Huxley who said that it is a sign of a good
writer if women don\'t like him. He had Conrad in mind. I
have yet to meet a woman who likes Huxley. But if Huxley is
right, then most women will certainly not like Thomas Mann\'s
"The Magic Mountain". The book is excellent.
Yes. This is an unconventional novel, breaking many other
rules, like the rules that adventure-movie-loving readers
imagine apply to any "good" plot. The apparent weakness of
the plot may be one point that Mann was making about the heros
who marched gallantly to World War One, who willingly shrugged
their tiresome bourgeois lives to fight in hell with honour.
It may be something to take away from this book, for heroes
in the 20th century, for ourselves.
Should be read twice or three times to get the full thrust
of the book.
This really is one of the greatest of all novels; and yes,
at first it is a little difficult to read. However, once you
enter into the characters -- once you get attuned to Mann's
voice, and his wry way of looking and describing things --
it becomes very funny. Settembrini is a gem of a character.
In the end, he is the most memorable of them all, -- just
a delight to listen to and to watch. Also, when you read it,
take note of the construction of the thing: how "time" --
one of the themes of the book -- contracts as the novel goes
on; so that the first few days take up, relatively, a large
part of the book, while the ensuring years take up increasingly
less.
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