Book Bearings
The Magic Mountain
- 729 pages · about 12 hours
- First published 1924
- 188 editions
- Free to read
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1 About this book
The Magic Mountain (German: Der Zauberberg) is a German novel written by Thomas Mann, published in November 1924 about a young and aspiring engineer Hans Castorp. While staying in the secluded world of a high-altitude sanatorium in the years leading up to 1914, Hans encounters otherworldly figures who confront him with politics, philosophy, but also romance, illness, and death. Enchanted by his love for a woman he meets in the sanatorium, which prompts him to reflect on an early and formative schoolboy romance, he stays considerably longer than originally planned.
The novel was inspired by the conditions at a sanatorium in Davos, which the author had visited in 1912 while caring for his wife, who was suffering from tuberculosis.
The Magic Mountain was republished in several editions and translated into numerous languages.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Good for readers who want: a coming-of-age story and a long read.
- Philosophy
- Coming of age
- Bildungsromans
- Civilization
- Germany
2 Read it free, right here
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Read it on the Internet Archive3 About Thomas Mann
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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