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This was a book that was originally published in 1924. It has since been called one of the most influential books to come out of Germany in the 20th century. In its original German the book is titled is Der Zauerberg, and many who have read The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann have been mystified by the cryptic symbolic messages therein.
Mann spent twelve years working on the manuscript for this book. While he was working on it, his wife was experiencing issues with her lungs and was treated by doctors in Switzerland. During two months when he was visiting his wife, the author was inspired to form the foundation of the novel's opening chapter.
When the First World War broke out, Mann's work on this novel was interrupted. While this terrible conflict may have delayed the completion of the book, it also had a profound impact on it and was an essential experience of the author for the book to be what it was. This war and the turmoil that followed it caused the author to reassess many of his values and rewrite much of the book.
This novel falls into the genre of bildungsroman, a classic form that focuses on the education or spiritual journey of the heroine or hero. Rather than centralizing the plot on the great deeds of the protagonist, this kind of story is mainly about the journey taken. In this book, the hero is undergoing personal growth and the story focuses on that path.
The irony in this book serves multiple purposes, being one of Mann's favorite literary devices to use. In defining the protagonist Hans Castorp as simplistic then revealing him to be not so simple after all, the author is making a statement about the underlying complexity of all people. The ironic simplification of reality for the hero also serves as a commentary on the complexity of life itself.
One of the central themes of the book is disease both as it pertains to individuals and to society. Symbolically, disease comes to represent a symptom of a need for change, and sometimes for a spiritual journey to be made. The polarity of life and spirit is a theme that the author uses a lot in his work, and resolves that this polarity must be transcended.
Almost anyone who reads this book will have a hard time honestly saying that he or she understood all of the symbolic ideas that are there in the story. One of the biggest challenges for readers of this story is the engaging, almost interactive nature of the narrative. The reader will have to answer certain questions posed by the narrator, and some are more subtle than others.
The complexity of the book is in part due to the way the author uses both realism and symbolism alongside each other. This makes it hard to always tell what is symbolic and what isn't, and his use of irony makes it even harder. Mann's own recommendation was to read the book twice, so there is no shame in not understanding everything on the first read.
Mann spent twelve years working on the manuscript for this book. While he was working on it, his wife was experiencing issues with her lungs and was treated by doctors in Switzerland. During two months when he was visiting his wife, the author was inspired to form the foundation of the novel's opening chapter.
When the First World War broke out, Mann's work on this novel was interrupted. While this terrible conflict may have delayed the completion of the book, it also had a profound impact on it and was an essential experience of the author for the book to be what it was. This war and the turmoil that followed it caused the author to reassess many of his values and rewrite much of the book.
This novel falls into the genre of bildungsroman, a classic form that focuses on the education or spiritual journey of the heroine or hero. Rather than centralizing the plot on the great deeds of the protagonist, this kind of story is mainly about the journey taken. In this book, the hero is undergoing personal growth and the story focuses on that path.
The irony in this book serves multiple purposes, being one of Mann's favorite literary devices to use. In defining the protagonist Hans Castorp as simplistic then revealing him to be not so simple after all, the author is making a statement about the underlying complexity of all people. The ironic simplification of reality for the hero also serves as a commentary on the complexity of life itself.
One of the central themes of the book is disease both as it pertains to individuals and to society. Symbolically, disease comes to represent a symptom of a need for change, and sometimes for a spiritual journey to be made. The polarity of life and spirit is a theme that the author uses a lot in his work, and resolves that this polarity must be transcended.
Almost anyone who reads this book will have a hard time honestly saying that he or she understood all of the symbolic ideas that are there in the story. One of the biggest challenges for readers of this story is the engaging, almost interactive nature of the narrative. The reader will have to answer certain questions posed by the narrator, and some are more subtle than others.
The complexity of the book is in part due to the way the author uses both realism and symbolism alongside each other. This makes it hard to always tell what is symbolic and what isn't, and his use of irony makes it even harder. Mann's own recommendation was to read the book twice, so there is no shame in not understanding everything on the first read.
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