Magic Mountain (Modern Library) (Vintage International)

by Thomas Mann

Hans Castorp is 'a perfectly ordinary, if engaging young man' when he goes to visit his cousin in an exclusive sanatorium in the Swiss Alps.What should have been a three week trip turns into a seven year stay. Hans falls in love and becomes intoxicated with the ideas he hears at the clinic - ideas which will strain and crack apart in a world on the verge of the First World War.

• ISBN10: 0394704975
• ISBN13: 9780394704975
• Publish Date: 12 August 1969 (first published 1 January 1927)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 25 January 2021
• Imprint: Vintage Books USA
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Language: English

Reviews

[brokentune]

Abandoned it.

Don't get me wrong, the two stars are not a reflection on the writing. There are some fantastic pieces of writing in this book - mostly in the voice of the narrator. However, I cannot bring myself to rate it higher. This would be to say I liked it. And the condensed truth is that apart from the narrator - I just didn't.

I guess I also prefer books that have a story to tell that I can care about, but since TMM/Zauberberg is about characters which can't bring myself to particularly care about, their story does leave me rather un-affected.

This is my fourth shot at Thomas Mann, and my last.