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The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann This is a novel that deals with life, death, the nature of love, youth, politics, and time -- perhaps most of all, time. It brings together fairy tale and science, the lyrical and the prosaic, and becomes a fantastic whole to be read and reread. The Magic Mountain portrays a world of yesterday and elegantly and eloquently depicts Europe before World War I with accuracy, style, intelligence, irony, and a great deal of wit and humor. Using elements of anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, radiology, psychology, engineering, philosophy, theology, history, meteorology, and political theory to create the world of the tuberculosis sanatorium in which all the action takes place. Mann has invented a memorable protagonist in Hans Castorp, the young man who, along with the reader, gets a real education in his seven years on the mountain, and a whole panoply of unforgettable characters. I first read this novel as an undergraduate and remembered it affecting my dreams for weeks. When I was nineteen, death and time were topics that did not occupy my thoughts much, and this novel was my first real confrontation with the anxieties that accompany these concepts. It is still amazing to me that a novel of such profundity can be so delightful. Despite its 750 pages, it has become one of my favorite works to teach. -- Ruth Gross |
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