The magic mountain (The Zauberberg) is a classic German-language book published in 1924. It is the most important publication of Thomas Mann, an extensive novel whose interest is focused on the depth of his reflections, not so much on the narrative. Pocket-size has reissued it in Spanish.
This intellectual novel by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929 ponders about different topics at the same time that it shows us a narrator character, Hans Castorp, visiting his cousin in a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. Time will be the trigger for the thoughts and learning of the protagonist who will be surrounded by other characters almost as important as him. This classic of universal literature has been described by Mann himself as a novel of time.
The magic mountain: or the novel of time
Reflections in Berghof
Hans Castorp is a young man who comes to the Swiss Alps to visit his cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, at the Berghof sanatorium. At first he would stay for a few weeks, but his stay ended up lengthening and in that place he met people who plunged him into long meditations in a quiet environment. This temporary flow will condition the narrative as well as the experience of the protagonist. The vision of the world in this natural place begins to take different considerations in that peculiar stay in a Swiss sanatorium.
The truth is that Thomas Mann's wife had been admitted to a similar institution some time ago and her visits surely became a catalyst to create this reflective novel where time loses meaning and even interest. That is why he described it as a "novel of time". In this recreation, Mann takes the opportunity to delve into transcendental issues such as the human condition itself, life and existence, or the deepest affections.
Mann revisits the first half of the XNUMXth century as he wrote the novel for more than ten years. In The magic mountain vertebrates are found the beginnings of a turbulent century in which human aspects such as those related to the bourgeoisie and its decadence stand out, a recurring theme in the pen of the German writer. The first quarter of the XNUMXth century teeters with World War I, an inevitable if distant background in the novel's space.
A Bildungsroman
In addition to a time novel, it is also a learning novel, which in German is known as Bildungsroman. The young engineer Castorp is fascinated by what he finds in a remote clinic, far from what happens beyond the mountains. The sense of time will be one of the considerations that he will take into account, and the influences of the place and its inhabitants will lead you to reconsider the meaning of many things. The magic mountain It is, therefore, a learning novel in which time is a relative measure that leaves history behind. However, the narration helps Thomas Mann to expose the ideas and reflections that most concerned him in a simple and to a certain extent accessible way.
In a meditative environment like that, the protagonist's stay stagnates, but not his consciousness and intelligence. The novel also plunges readers into conversations and dialectical battles between liberal and totalitarian thoughts. that threaten Europe at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. Topics such as politics, history and the spirit will be a constant among its pages. Likewise, a tuberculosis clinic becomes the home of young Hans. For this reason, other topics such as illness and death stand out with close and evident contact.
A contemplative novel made without haste
The author began writing it in 1912, so its development was slow and the pages increased over time. What began as an idea based on a personal experience became a vast body of work, highly thought out and outlined. The magic mountain composes a huge and sharp reflection on the human, or the political, with very well detailed characters.
Among the many leading references and authors that Thomas Mann has received throughout his work, as well as in this novel, are Goethe, Freud, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer or the Bible. In The magic mountain the story exceeds the expectations of the reader and initiates an affront to their knowledge and judgment.
Conclusions
The magic mountain It is many things: a philosophical and contemplative novel, of learning or of time, as its creator liked to refer to it. In her the characters are just as important as the background of the book and the different themes that are dealt with: life and death, faith, illness, love, politics or the historical situation experienced during the writing process, the First World War. The human condition seen through declining European bourgeois eyes is a detailed portrait of this social class in the first quarter of the XNUMXth century. However, the novel cannot be reduced solely to a social group, since Mann tries to expose the innate paradoxes of the human being. Seen from today, it continues to be a text from which new lessons can be drawn. A vast classic that has won the race against time, and an affable read.
About the Author
Thomas Mann was born in Lübeck (German Empire) in 1875.. He belonged to a wealthy family and as a child he began to write. He is one of the most important writers of the first half of the XNUMXth century and stands out for his novels, short stories and essays. Although The magic mountain It is his most famous and recognized work, At the age of just over 25, he published his first work, which would end up defining him as an author, The Buddenbrocks (1901), in which he portrays one of his main themes, the decadence of the bourgeoisie. In 1929 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature thanks, in principle, to this novel.
His thinking and his work on politics put him in an awkward position when the Hitler regime was triumphant in Germany during the 30s, so in 1933 he went into exile in Switzerland and then in the United States. In this country he received citizenship and continued his writing while spreading an anti-fascist ideology. He returned to Switzerland three years before dying in Zurich in 1955.. He also received the prestigious Goethe Prize and published other notable books such as Death in Venice (1911) Joseph and his brothers (1934), which began a tetralogy, and Doctor Faustus (1947)