From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

The Magic Mountain

Thomas Mann,

John E. Woods (Translator)

Start date: October 1, 2015

Finish date: December 1, 2015

Discussion: Side Reads - Fiction

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What Members Thought

Nov 19, 2024 Henk rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2024-priority-list, owned

This has been a monumental literary journey, starting when I was sick during the summer. I enjoyed the humour and fourth wall breaking of the author, but had a hard time progressing and some of the sidesteps had me lost, like the treatises on skin and cells, or the discussion between Naphtha and Settembrini in respect to the church
Life is dying, there is no sense to sugarcoat it.

Quite special to read this 100 year old novel during 2024, but I definitely enjoyed Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Fam ...more

46 likes · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2013 Everyman rated it really liked it

I have never had as much trouble reviewing a book as I have had with The Magic Mountain.

There is no question that it is generally recognized to be a monumental work of literature. And it certainly has a wealth of philosophical views, social commentary, medical analysis, and numerous other aspects which make it richly complex. But.

Many -- perhaps most -- critics analyze it as an analysis of the state of pre-WWI Europe. Frankly, although I looked for this, I didn't see it. Mann does, indeed, bring I have never had as much trouble reviewing a book as I have had with The Magic Mountain.

There is no question that it is generally recognized to be a monumental work of literature. And it certainly has a wealth of philosophical views, social commentary, medical analysis, and numerous other aspects which make it richly complex. But.

Many -- perhaps most -- critics analyze it as an analysis of the state of pre-WWI Europe. Frankly, although I looked for this, I didn't see it. Mann does, indeed, bring in patients of many different nationalities, but it wasn't clear to me that they really represented national views or, if they did, what those views actually were. I was surprised by how little discussion of current or world events there was for a book supposedly centered around a commentary on the state of Europe.

Looked at in terms of plot, amazingly little actually happens for a 700+ page novel. This rest of this paragraph will contain slight spoilers, so if you want to read the novel and be surprised by what happens, skip to the next paragraph. Basically, Hans Castorp goes to a sanatorium to visit his sick cousin, he is diagnosed as having some sickness himself (whether he is ever really ill seems to me to be an unresolved question), he spends an inordinate amount of time eating, resting, taking walks, and talking, mostly with two philosophers, he spends seven years at the sanatorium going through a variety of activities to pass his time, people come and go and some die, and at the end -- well, that would be a real spoiler, so I won't reveal it. But suffice it to say that purely in terms of action, it could be boiled down to about 20 pages and leave nothing of significance out.

There are several themes that run through the novel, a primary one being repeated references to time, how it does or doesn't pass, how it is perceived by various people at various times, how it impacts humans, and other aspects of time, both short term (hours and days) and longer term (months and years).

It has been described by some as a bildungsroman, but I don't necessarily agree with that since Hans Castorp -- he is always referred to by his full name, for reasons that never became clear to me -- doesn't seem to develop to the extent that a bildungsroman, in my view of the genre, requires.

I could have given it anywhere from two to five stars, depending on what aspects of it I wanted to emphasize. I decided on four as a compromise, but I should make clear that I don't recommend it on that basis with the same fervency that I would normally recommend a four star novel. It will appeal to people who like slow, intricate, philosophical novels that compel thought and reward patience. It will most definitely not appeal to a reader who likes to see things happen, likes to his characters to go interesting places and do interesting things.

If you try it, and you should at least consider trying it, don't do so because I gave it four stars. Do it because you are up for a challenge and, like me, wanted to see why it has been called by numerous critics a monumental book of great importance.

...more

33 likes · Like · see review

Oct 01, 2015 El rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books-list, 20th-centurylit-early, big-effing-books, library-borrow, wanderlust

Tagline: Time. It Happens.

You know how in The Fellowship of the Ring Boromir says "One does not simply walk into Mordor", and then a hundred million nerds created memes about a hundred million nerdy things? Like see for yourself.

One does not simply pick up and read The Magic Mountain.

The Magic Mountain is all sorts of things - it's a beautiful story; an investigation in religion, philosophy, spiritualism; a biography of tuberculosis; a novel of ideas [insert collective groan here]; and an instru ...more

24 likes · Like · see review

Jun 21, 2015 Alasse rated it did not like it · review of another edition

*emerges from cave, blinking in the sunlight*

God, I'm finally free. I'M FREEEEEEE!!!

Hey, guys, I finished! I did it!

Is anyone there? Guys? Please?

*sigh* ...more

18 likes · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2012 Lark Benobi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites-of-all-time, germany, books-i-ll-read-again-many-times, favorite-book-i-read-this-year, books-i-ve-read-at-least-3x, male-identified-authors, europe, my-kind-of-book, magnificent-translations, original-language

Possibly my favorite novel ever. The unexpected shock of Naphta's solution to a quarrel. the SNOW chapter, of course. The sense of a past never to be repeated and a world completely shattered by the Great War. The story manages in almost every sentence to be simultaneously bleak and triumphant. I wish for more people in the world to have read this novel. ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2019 Genia Lukin rated it did not like it

Shelves: classics, 1001-books, other

Man, I am not nearly bored enough to read about a guy spending seven years in a sanatorium.

9 likes · Like · see review

Jun 18, 2017 Pamela rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: boxall-1001-read, guardian-1000-read

This is a challenging but fascinating book, that rewards patient and careful reading. Like Proust, Mann will not appeal to everyone with his musings on time and his lengthy commentaries on religion, art, philosophy and society. However, I found myself quite entranced by the descriptions of the sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, a hermetically enclosed society where time both races and seems to stand still, and where people are freed from the constraints of the world 'down there'.

Hans Castorp arrives ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 31, 2021 Irene rated it it was ok

I am obviously too stupid to appreciate this classic. This is an account of 7 years in a TB sanitarium in the Alps that feels more like a resort. The bulk of the novel is given to lengthy philosophical debates between characters. The very detailed descriptions of mundane moments will either put the reader in the scene or put the reader in a stupor. Intellectually, I understand why this is so well regarded by scholars. But I was not up to the task.

6 likes · Like · see review

Sep 27, 2015 Wendy rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, blooms-western-canon, classics, doorstops, in-translation

In the Magic Mountain time slows to a crawl, holds one hostage, and eventually inflicts on one a form of Stockholm Syndrome. I'm describing the effects on me as a reader of the book, not the characters themselves, though perhaps the same could be said of them.

Not to sugarcoat matters, this was a long, slow crawl of a book that required lots of self-discipline on my part to finish it within a month. I can't call it a novel because there is a setting (a sanitarium in the Swiss alps), and some char In the Magic Mountain time slows to a crawl, holds one hostage, and eventually inflicts on one a form of Stockholm Syndrome. I'm describing the effects on me as a reader of the book, not the characters themselves, though perhaps the same could be said of them.

Not to sugarcoat matters, this was a long, slow crawl of a book that required lots of self-discipline on my part to finish it within a month. I can't call it a novel because there is a setting (a sanitarium in the Swiss alps), and some characters (Hans Castorp et. al.), but in place of a plot we get some lovely meditative writing, some jewels of description and insight into human nature. The X-ray scene! The first half of the Snow chapter! The seance! But this all comes alongside a pervasive "Groundhog-Day" feeling of dull repetitiveness and long-winded, dated discussions of stale political philosophies (can anyone actually follow these things?). I especially dreaded the chapters where Sembrettini, Naphta, and Peeperkorn showed up.

So why am I not grumpy with this book? I am. But there's that Stockholm Syndrome. After nearly a month of habitually picking up this book first thing in the morning over a cup of green tea and trudging through 5% (about 35 pages) each day, I came to find it a soothing morning meditation. For the rest of the day I would feel accomplished, sort of like an bonus to the runners-high that carries me through my day after a quick 3 miles around the block. By the second half, I finally (FINALLY) even found myself emotionally responding to some of the more tragic moments. Surprising things--plot things--actually happen in the final chapters, and the ending provided a much-needed kick in the gut.

If only it had been tighter. And shorter. I could have liked this for more than as a meditation manual and cure for insomnia. I'm glad I read Magic Mountain, but it requires an immense amount of patience to tackle and I wouldn't recommended it to the average reader who is not border-line OCD about reading door-stop classics. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 12, 2017 Janice (JG) rated it it was amazing

The trick to reading and enjoying The Magic Mountain, and perhaps almost anything written by Thomas Mann, is to allow yourself to be completely immersed in the novel. Immersion in this novel is particularly important because so much of it is a meditation on time, and it is written as if we were living through every minute by minute experience of the main character, Hans Castorp. I read the book over about a two and a half month period, and I read small sections at a time so that I could focus co ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2015 Rachel rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, hardbooks, classics, philosophy, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

Well this book quite derailed all my reading plans over the past couple of months. Thank god it's over! I'm glad to have read it, but I did not enjoy the journey! ...more

3 likes · Like · see review