The Magic Mountain (1924, German) By Thomas Mann; (English translation 1995 By John Woods)

 

The plot of The Magic Mountain was interesting, the writing was excellent, but the reading was slow, it took me three weeks to make my way through this novel. Written by Thomas Mann the novel covers the several years before the outbreak of World War I. It was first published in German in 1924, I read the English translation by John E. Woods published in 1995.

Mann’s earlier work included Death in Venice which dealt with a cholera outbreak, and won him commercial success and literary praise. The Magic Mountain, with a plot that deals with tuberculosis (TB), is considered by many to be his masterwork.

The title refers to the International Berghof Sanatorium, a tuberculosis treatment facility in the Alps of Switzerland. In an era of limited medical ability to address TB, the Berghof is a resort-like facility where wealthy, mostly highly educated Europeans go to for a “rest cure,” a regimented program of a lavish diet, on-site medical assistance, and fresh, cold mountain air thought to provide the only hope for a cure, of which there were few.

The novel begins in Hamburg (normally referred to as the “flatlands”) when Hans Castorp, who has just finished engineering school is set to begin an internship at the family’s ship-building firm. Before the internship begins he decides to visit his cousin Joachim Ziemssen who is a patient at the Berghof for several weeks. Joachim has arranged for his cousin to stay in the room next to his. When he arrives, he quickly learns to adjust to the Berghof routine. That routine includes mandatory community meals with fellow patients, as well as regular “rest cures” and sleeping on the balconies where one can breath in the mountain air.

These community meals are where the sanatorium’s other patients and medical staff are introduced, and there are many. Some will become important characters in the story. One is Herr Lodovico Settenbrini, an Italian man who spouts humanist philosophy throughout the book; late in the novel we will discover that Settenbrini is a high-ranking Mason. Another is Herr Naphta, a friend and neighbor of Settenbrini, who while ethnically Jewish was raised by the Jesuits and was on the verge of joining the order when he was diagnosed with TB and sent to the Berghof.

There is an attempt at a love story in the novel. One of the patients is a French speaking woman named Clavidia Chauchat. She is married to a Russian government administrator stationed in a province “beyond the Caucasus.” Hans is head over heels in love with her but only tells her so the night before she departs the Berghof to visit her husband. She returns to the Berghof several months later after spending much of her time in Spain. She returns as the “traveling companion” of an extraordinarily rich Belgian man named Mynbeer Peeperkorn.

The conversations between the cousins and Settenbrini and Naphta are why this book is a slow read. Presented as digressions from the main plot, these discussions ranged from theology, philosophy, politics, the secrets of the Knights Templar, the nation-state chaos of pre-war Europe and other topics. Note, while I said these endless discussions were a slow read, they were not uninteresting, quite the opposite. They are great essays tied together, loosely, by the storyline. Readers should not skip over them. 

One philosophical discussion that repeats throughout the novel is on “time” and how time is situational, particularly when the people having the discussion have been diagnosed with what then was an incurable disease.

Recommendation: Excellent book, but you will need to devote time and patience to do it justice.