Skip to Main Content (Press Enter) Toggle side nav

The Magic Mountain

Introduction by A. S. Byatt

By Thomas Mann

By Thomas Mann

By Thomas Mann
Introduction by A. S. Byatt
Translated by John E. Woods

By Thomas Mann
Introduction by A. S. Byatt
Translated by John E. Woods

Best Seller

Part of Vintage International

Part of Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series

Paperback $19.95

Oct 01, 1996 | ISBN 9780679772873

Hardcover $30.00

Jun 21, 2005 | ISBN 9781400044214

All Formats
+
    The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
    Hardcover $30.00
    Jun 21, 2005 | ISBN 9781400044214

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (1) +

    Paperback
    +

    • Paperback $19.95

      Oct 01, 1996 | ISBN 9780679772873

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Hardcover
    –

    • Hardcover $30.00

      Jun 21, 2005 | ISBN 9781400044214

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Hardcover:

    About The Magic Mountain

    In this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Mann uses a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps–a community devoted exclusively to sickness–as a microcosm for Europe, which in the years before 1914 was already exhibiting the first symptoms of its own terminal irrationality. The Magic Mountain is a monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, a book that pulses with life in the midst of death.

    About The Magic Mountain

    Acclaimed translator John E. Woods has given us the definitive English version of Mann’s masterpiece. A monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, The Magic Mountain is an enduring classic.

    With this dizzyingly rich novel of ideas, Thomas Mann rose to the front ranks of the great modern novelists, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. The Magic Mountain takes place in an exclusive tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps–a community devoted to sickness that serves as a fictional microcosm for Europe in the days before the First World War.

    To this hermetic and otherworldly realm comes Hans Castorp, an “ordinary young man” who arrives for a short visit and ends up staying for seven years, during which he succumbs both to the lure of eros and to the intoxication of ideas.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Also in Vintage International

    Out (Special Edition)
    More Than I Love My Life

    Also by Thomas Mann

    Death in Venice and Other Stories
    Royal Highness
    Joseph and His Brothers
    Doctor Faustus
    Death in Venice
    See all books by Thomas Mann

    Also by Thomas Mann

    Death in Venice and Other Stories
    Royal Highness
    Joseph and His Brothers
    Doctor Faustus
    Death in Venice
    See all books by Thomas Mann

    About Thomas Mann

    Thomas Mann (1875–1955) was from Germany. At the age of 25, he published his first novel, Buddenbrooks. In 1924, The Magic Mountain was published, and five years later, Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Following the rise of the Nazis to… More about Thomas Mann

    About Thomas Mann

    Thomas Mann (1875–1955) was from Germany. At the age of 25, he published his first novel, Buddenbrooks. In 1924, The Magic Mountain was published, and five years later, Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Following the rise of the Nazis to… More about Thomas Mann

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $19.95
    Published by Vintage
    Oct 01, 1996 | 720 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780679772873

    Category: Literary Fiction | Fiction Classics

    Hardcover | $30.00
    Published by Everyman’s Library
    Jun 21, 2005 | 904 Pages | 5 x 8 | ISBN 9781400044214

    Praise

    “All the characters in Thomas Mann’s masterpiece come considerably closer to speaking English in John E. Woods’s version . . . Woods captures perfectly the irony and humor.” –New York Times Book Review

    “[Woods’s translation] succeeds in capturing the beautiful cadence of [Mann’s] ironically elegant prose.” –Washington Post Book World

    “[The Magic Mountain] is one of those works that changed the shape and possibilities of European literature. It is a masterwork, unlike any other. It is also, if we learn to read it on its own terms, a delight, comic and profound, a new form of language, a new way of seeing.” –from the new Introduction by A. S. Byatt

    Awards

    Nobel Prize WINNER 1929

    Author Essay

    In 1912 Thomas Mann’s wife, Katja, stayed in Dr Friedrich Jessen’s Waldsanatorium from March to September, suffering from a lung complaint. Mann himself visited her for four weeks in May and June. During that time, he said, he suffered a troublesome catarrh of the upper air passages, owing to the damp, cold atmosphere on the balcony. The consultant diagnosed a ‘moist spot’ of tubercular infection, just as Dr Behrens in the novel diagnoses Hans Castorp. Mann, however, did not stay in the magic mountain, but hastened back to
    Flatland and Munich, where his own doctor advised him to pay no attention. There is an ironic twist to this story which would have amused the novelist ? Katja, it appears was misdiagnosed, whereas Mann himself, in his post-mortem, was indeed seen to bear the marks of an earlier tubercular illness.

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Get the latest updates from Thomas Mann
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
    Dismiss
    Thanks!
    Something awesome is on its way.
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    Today's Top Books

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?
    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook