The Magic MountainThomas Mann's Emblematic Novel

In November 1924 a masterwork of twentieth century literature was published: Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain tells the story of Hans Castorp, a young German from Hamburg who visits his cousin in a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. What begins as a three-week trip becomes a months-long stay in a work that is a reflection on life and death, a classic Bildungsroman, and a critique of pre-first world war European society, swept away by the conflict.