Despite the learned professor's praise of the book, and his explanation of literary and historical allusions and references in the work, I find the amount of narrative devoted to the love story between two uninteresting characters to be extremely tedious. I gave up on this book.
#TheMagicMountain

@mms

So gracious of you to admit to it!!

An unnecessary fear.

As with every novel, when reading a Mann novel one just has to suspend disbelief and follow it through. Once you accept that, you are fine.

The Magic Mountain, Doctor Faustus, Lotte in Weimar, each of these perfòrms absolute literary magic, and you will enjoy the journey.

These are "late Thomas Mann" books. They define our era. The earlier works: masterful but historical, no need to worry about them.

But these three books: they are alive now, burning hot.

(As is every single Conrad novel.)

#JosephConrad #ThomasMann #TheMagicMountain #DoktotFaustus #LotteInWeimar

@mms

"The Shadow Line" (1917) in my view is the second-greatest book ever written. (The first, of course, being The Magic Mountain, published just 7 years later but distinctly in a different era. Conrad is "transition to modernism", Mann is modernism.)

#JosephConrad #TheShadowLine #ThomasMann #TheMagicMountain

"A deep gulf divided their two existences; he felt, he knew, that he was not up to defending her in the face of any recognized social authority. Hans Castorp was, for his own person, quite without arrogance; yet a larger arrogance, the pride of caste and tradition, stood written on his brow and in his sleepy-looking eyes, and voiced itself in the conviction of his own superiority, which came over him when he measured Frau Chauchat for what she was."
#TheMagicMountain

"What is time? A mystery, a figment -- and all-powerful."

*The Magic Mountain*, Chapter VI, "Changes"

---
I haven't posted much here as I've been reading but my private notebook has been a pretty steady stream of chatter.

It's been a slow read, unsurprisingly given that I started it just as the semester was wrapping up, but hoping to finish it over the next week or so. Overall, I'm really enjoying it.

The carnival scene that closes Chapter V, with Hans confessing/ranting his love to Chauchat, is a literature scene for the ages. Also, a bit of a challenge for my intermediate French.

I find Hans to be a baffling character which has probably kept me reading.

No great thoughts here - I'll put those in something more thoughtful - just a check-in.

#ThomasMann #TheMagicMountain

"An unassuming young man was travelling, in midsummer, from his native city of Hamburg to Davos-Platz in the Canton of the Grisons, on a three weeks' visit."

-- Thomas Mann, *The Magic Mountain*

(welp, I guess I'm reading this now -- reading notes will go here)

#FirstLines #ReadingNotes #NowReading #Bookstodon #ThomasMann #TheMagicMountain

Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain" was published 100 years ago.

The novel is full of challenging ideas, memorable characters, and striking images. It's definitely a work that I will reread.

Image: First edition of Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain) - H.-P.Haack - Wikimedia Commons -- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

#ThomasMann #TheMagicMountain
#GermanLiterature

Deed - Attribution 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons

#TheMagicMountain #ThomasMann #ErichKästner #Davos

The tourist office in Davos asked Erich Kästner for a light-hearted novel about the city, since Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain had brought the place into disrepute. Accordingly, Davos is also the scene in „Der Zauberlehrling“, a fragment of a novel from 1936.

#ThomasMann #TheMagicMountain

It was about eight o'clock, and still daylight.

'August, August!' said Hans Castorp. 'But I am cold, abominably cold; I mean in my body, for my face burns shockingly - just feel it!'

„If I remember rightly, it is the beginning of August.“