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101-624: Mann started writing The Magic Mountain in 1912. It began as a much shorter narrative that comically revisited aspects of Death in Venice , a novella that he was preparing for publication. The newer work reflected his experiences and impressions during a period when his wife, who was suffering from respiratory disease , resided at Dr. Friedrich Jessen's  [ de ] Waldsanatorium in Davos , Switzerland , for several months. In May and June 1912, Mann visited her and became acquainted with

202-526: A bildungsroman ( German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːn] , plural bildungsromane , German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːnə] ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age ), in which character change is important. The term comes from the German words Bildung ('education', alternatively 'forming') and Roman ('novel'). The term

303-499: A classic example of the European Bildungsroman – a "novel of education" or "novel of formation" – and as a cunning satire of this genre. Many formal elements of this type of fiction are present: like the protagonist of a typical Bildungsroman , the immature Castorp leaves his home and learns about art, culture, politics, human frailty, and love. Also embedded within this vast novel are extended reflections on

404-475: A death-bound sleep, dreaming at first of beautiful meadows with blossoms and of lovable young people at a southern seaside; then of a scene reminiscent of a grotesque event in Goethe's Faust I ("the witches' kitchen", again in Goethe's "Blocksberg chapter"); and finally ending with a dream of extreme cruelty – the slaughtering of a child by two witches, priests of a classic temple. According to Mann, this represents

505-559: A discussion on medical matters, that an interest in life means an interest in death. In the "Schnee" chapter, Castorp comes to exactly the opposite conclusion. The basis for Castorp's contradiction can be found in the speech " On the German Republic " ( Von deutscher Republic ), written in the previous year, in which Mann outlines his position with regards to precedence of life and humanity over death. Even though Castorp could not possibly have learnt from either Naphta or Settembrini

606-501: A famous Silesian author in his early 50s who recently has been ennobled in honor of his artistic achievement (thus acquiring the aristocratic " von " in his name). He is a man dedicated to his art, disciplined and ascetic to the point of severity, who was widowed at a young age. As the story opens, he is strolling outside a cemetery and sees a coarse-looking, red-haired foreigner who stares back at him belligerently. Aschenbach walks away, embarrassed but curiously stimulated. He has

707-465: A group of high-spirited youths, who has tried hard to create the illusion of his own youth with a wig, false teeth, make-up, and foppish attire. Aschenbach turns away in disgust. Later, he has a disturbing encounter with an unlicensed gondolier—another red-haired, skull-faced foreigner—who repeats "I can row you well" when Aschenbach orders him to return to the wharf. Aschenbach checks in to his hotel, where at dinner he sees an aristocratic Polish family at

808-409: A higher sanity and health...". Mann acknowledged his debt to the skeptical insights of Friedrich Nietzsche concerning modern humanity, and he drew from these in creating conversations between the characters. Throughout the book the author employs the discussions among Settembrini, Naphta, and the medical staff to introduce the young Castorp to a wide spectrum of competing ideologies about responses to

909-650: A humorous, ironic, satirical (and satyric) follow-up to Death in Venice , which he had completed in 1912. The atmosphere was to derive from the "mixture of death and amusement" that Mann had encountered while visiting his wife in a Swiss sanatorium . He intended to transfer to a comedic plane the fascination with death and triumph of ecstatic disorder over a life devoted to order, which he had explored in Death in Venice . The atmosphere and personae in The Magic Mountain , as completed, do contrast considerably with

1010-520: A journey to visit his tubercular cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, who is seeking a cure in a sanatorium in Davos , high up in the Swiss Alps . In the opening chapter, Castorp leaves his familiar life and obligations, in what he later learns to call "the flatlands", to visit the rarefied mountain air and introspective small world of the sanatorium. Castorp's departure from the sanatorium is repeatedly delayed by his failing health. What at first appears to be

1111-463: A long essay, Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man , which came out only in 1918. The end and the aftermath of the war led him to rethink his position, however, and in 1919, he changed the tone of the novel to reflect the reality of war rather than a romanticized depiction of it, and to include conflict between characters that was inspired by that between his brother and himself. Mann undertook a major re-examination of European bourgeois society. He explored

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1212-407: A main conflict between the main character and society. Typically, the values of society are gradually accepted by the protagonist , and they are ultimately accepted into society—the protagonist's mistakes and disappointments are over. In some works, the protagonist is able to reach out and help others after having achieved maturity. Franco Moretti "argues that the main conflict in the bildungsroman

1313-497: A metaphysical perspective. Besides the deaths from fatal illness, two characters commit suicide, and finally Castorp goes off to fight in World War I, and it is implied that he will be killed on the battlefield. In the above-mentioned comment Mann writes: What Castorp learns to fathom is that all higher health must have passed through illness and death... As Hans Castorp once said to Madame Chauchat, there are two ways to life: One

1414-406: A minor bronchial infection with slight fever is diagnosed by the sanatorium's chief doctor and director, Hofrat Behrens, as symptoms of tuberculosis . Castorp is persuaded by Behrens to stay until his health improves. During his extended stay, Castorp meets a variety of characters, who represent pre-war Europe in miniature. These include Lodovico Settembrini (an Italian humanist and encyclopedist,

1515-634: A moment looking out to sea, then turns halfway around to look at his admirer. To Aschenbach, it is as if the boy is beckoning to him: He tries to rise and follow, only to collapse sideways into his chair. His body is discovered minutes later. Mann's original intention was to write about "passion as confusion and degradation" after having been fascinated by the true story of Goethe 's love for 17-year-old Baroness Ulrike von Levetzow , which had led Goethe to write his " Marienbad Elegy ". The May 1911 death of composer Gustav Mahler in Vienna and Mann's interest in

1616-534: A nearby table. Among them is an adolescent boy of about 14 in a sailor suit. Aschenbach, startled, realizes that the boy is supremely beautiful, like a Greek sculpture. His elder sisters, by contrast, are so severely dressed that they look like nuns. Later, after spying the boy and his family at a beach, Aschenbach overhears Tadzio, the boy's name, pronounced Tadjoo in Polish by his mother, and conceives what he first interprets as an uplifting, artistic interest. Soon

1717-434: A rash youth, making rash decisions which cost dearly to himself and all around him. (...) The story reaches its conclusion when Achilles has reached maturity and allows King Priam to recover Hector's body". The genre translates fairly directly into the cinematic form, the coming-of-age film . A bildungsroman is a growing up or "coming of age" of a generally naive person who goes in search of answers to life's questions with

1818-399: A strange manner. Mynheer Peeperkorn is used by the author to personify his rival, the influential German poet Gerhart Hauptmann , and even certain properties of Goethe (with whom Hauptmann often was compared). Joachim Ziemssen, Hans Castorp's cousin, is described as a young person representing the ideals of loyalty and faithfulness as an officer. As already mentioned, Dr. Behrens alludes to

1919-441: A student of Giosuè Carducci ); Leo Naphta, a Jewish Jesuit who favors communistic totalitarianism; Mynheer Peeperkorn, a dionysian Dutchman; and his romantic interest, Madame Clawdia Chauchat. Castorp eventually resides at the sanatorium for seven years. As the novel concludes, the war begins, and Castorp volunteers for the military. His possible demise upon the battlefield is portended. The Magic Mountain can be read both as

2020-610: A successful treatment of his illness, and he dies in the sanitarium. His death is described in a moving chapter of the novel, with the title "As a soldier, and a good one" [(Ich sterbe) als Soldat und brav], again a well-known citation from Goethe's Faust . The Magic Mountain is mentioned in the film The Wind Rises (2013), directed by Hayao Miyazaki , by a German character named Hans Castorp. Death in Venice Death in Venice ( German : Der Tod in Venedig )

2121-444: A thermometer in his mouth for seven minutes, and Mynheer Peeperkorn announces his suicide in a group of seven. Joachim decides to leave after a stay of seven times seventy days, and dies at seven o'clock. The novel itself, moreover, is divided into seven chapters. Hans Castorp loved music from his heart; it worked upon him much the same way as did his breakfast porter, with deeply soothing, narcotic effect, tempting him to doze. There

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2222-501: A trip into the city of Venice, where he sees a few discreetly worded notices from the Health Department warning of an unspecified contagion and advising people to avoid eating shellfish. He smells an unfamiliar strong odor everywhere, later realising it is disinfectant. However, the authorities adamantly deny that the contagion is serious, and tourists continue to wander obliviously round the city. Aschenbach at first ignores

2323-555: A tropical disease. Mynheer Peeperkorn, Clawdia Chauchat's new lover, enters the Berghof scenery late, but he is one of the most commanding persons of the novel. His behavior and personality, with its flavour of importance, combined with obvious awkwardness and the strange inability ever to complete a statement, is reminiscent of certain figures in former novellas of the author (e.g. Herr Klöterjahn in Tristan ) – figures, which are, on

2424-613: A vision of a primordial swamp-wilderness, fertile, exotic and full of lurking danger. Soon afterward, he resolves to take a holiday. After a false start in traveling to Pula on the Austro-Hungarian coast (now in Croatia), Aschenbach realizes he was "meant" to go to Venice and takes a suite in the Grand Hôtel des Bains on the island of Lido . While shipbound and en route to the island, he sees an elderly man in company with

2525-413: Is a novella by German author Thomas Mann , published in 1912. It presents an ennobled writer who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a boy in a family of Polish tourists—Tadzio, a nickname for Tadeusz. Tadzio was likely based on a boy named Władzio whom Mann had observed during his 1911 visit to the city. The main character is Gustav von Aschenbach,

2626-411: Is a direct reference to the death of Rathenau is borne out by the fact that in the first edition Mann refers to the shooting of Kotzebue, whereas he was in fact stabbed. Alerted to this mistake by Max Rieger, Mann replied on 1 September 1925 that he would rectify the error at the first opportunity. Mann changed the word geschossen to erstochen for future editions. For the 1924 readership, however,

2727-424: Is a fleeting visitor, like Odysseus . Behrens compares the cousins to Castor and Pollux ; Settembrini compares himself to Prometheus . Frau Stöhr mentions Sisyphus and Tantalus , albeit confusedly. The culmination of the second part of the novel is perhaps the – still " episodic " – chapter of Castorp's blizzard dream (in the novel simply called "Snow"). The protagonist gets into a sudden blizzard , beginning

2828-568: Is a generic German first name, almost anonymous, but also refers to the fairy tale figure of " Hans im Glück " and the apostle St. John (Johannes in German), the favourite disciple of Jesus, who beholds the Revelation ( Offenbarung des Johannes in German). Castorp is the name of a historically prominent family in Mann's hometown, Lübeck , which provided at least three generations of Mayors for

2929-497: Is a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation. An Erziehungsroman ("education novel") focuses on training and formal schooling, while a Künstlerroman ("artist novel") is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self. Furthermore, some memoirs and published journals can be regarded as bildungsroman although claiming to be predominantly factual (e.g. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac or The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto "Che" Guevara ). The term

3030-486: Is almost an anagram of August, and the character's last name may be derived from Ansbach , Platen's birthplace (however, Aschenbach is a real ancient German name, for instance, the founder of the Kishkin family). However, the name has another clear significance: Aschenbach literally means "ash brook". It "suggests dead ashes ( Aschen ) clogging the stream ( Bach ) of life". The novella's physical description of Aschenbach

3131-631: Is also described in Goethe 's Faust I . At this event, Castorp woos Madame Chauchat; their subtle conversation is carried on almost wholly in French. Another topos of German literature is the Venus Mountain ( Venusberg ), which is referred to in Richard Wagner 's opera Tannhäuser . This mountain is a "hellish paradise", a place of lust and abandon, where time flows differently:

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3232-623: Is derived from the French chaud chat [hot cat], and her first name includes the English 'claw'. (Her name may also be a reference to the Chauchat machine gun , a French weapon that saw significant use by the French and American forces during World War I.) ChaudChat could also be a play on words with 'chaud' [hot] and 'chatte' [female genitalia] in French slang. Clawdia Chauchat leaves the Berghof for some time, but she returns with an impressive companion, Mynheer Peeperkorn, who suffers from

3333-404: Is evident in the novel's exploration of how time appears to accelerate or decelerate based on the characters' experiences in the sanatorium setting. The Magic Mountain , in essence, embodies the author's meditations on the tempo of experience. The narrative is ordered chronologically but accelerates throughout the novel, so that the first five chapters (approximately half of the text) relate

3434-520: Is located on a mountain, both geographically and figuratively, a separate world. The mountain also represents the opposite of Castorp's home, the sober, businesslike "flatland". The first part of the novel culminates and ends in the sanatorium's Carnival feast. There, in a grotesque scene named after Walpurgis Night , the setting is transformed into the Blocksberg , where according to German tradition, witches and wizards meet in obscene revelry. This

3535-428: Is rather shy, known to stand somehow outside of the community. He tries to escape from what he, unspokenly, feels to be a morbid atmosphere. After long discussions with his cousin, and in spite of being warned by Dr. Behrens, he returns to the "flatlands", where he fulfills his military duties for some time. But after a while, forced by deterioration of his lungs, he returns to the Berghof . It is, however, too late for

3636-557: Is rife with allusions from antiquity forward, especially to Greek antiquity and to German works (literary, art-historical, musical, visual) from the 18th century. The novella is intertextual , with the chief sources being first the connection of erotic love to philosophical wisdom traced in Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus , and second the Nietzschean contrast between Apollo , the god of restraint and shaping form, and Dionysus ,

3737-418: Is some indication that Tadzio is aware of his admiration, the two exchange nothing more than occasionally surreptitious glances. Aschenbach begins to fret about his aging face and body. In an attempt to look more attractive, he visits the hotel's barber shop almost daily, where the barber persuades him to have his hair dyed and his face painted to look more youthful. The result is a fairly close approximation to

3838-507: Is something suspicious about music, gentlemen. I insist that she is, by her nature, equivocal. I shall not be going too far in saying at once that she is politically suspect. (Herr Settembrini, ch. 4) Mann gives a central role to music in this novel. People at the Berghof listen to "Der Lindenbaum" from the Winterreise played on a gramophone. This piece is full of mourning in the view of death and hints of an invitation to suicide. In

3939-429: Is the common, direct, and brave. The other is bad, leading through death, and that is the genius way. This concept of illness and death, as a necessary passage to knowledge, health, and life, makes The Magic Mountain into a novel of initiation. The treatment of time ( Zeit ) is a major narrative and philosophical concern in the novel. The novel's structure reflects this through its asymmetrical handling of chronology:

4040-407: Is the myth of modernity with its overvaluation of youth and progress as it clashes with the static teleological vision of happiness and reconciliation found in the endings of Goethe 's Wilhelm Meister and even Jane Austen 's Pride and Prejudice ". There are many variations and subgenres of bildungsroman that focus on the growth of an individual. An Entwicklungsroman ('development novel')

4141-585: Is unable to decide. His body temperature is a subtle metaphor for his lack of clarity: Following Schiller ’s theory of fever, Castorp’s temperature is 37.6 °C (99.7 °F), which is neither healthy nor ill, but an intermediate point. Furthermore, the outside temperature in Castorp's residence is out of balance: it is either too warm or too cold and tends to extremes (e.g. snow in August), but never normal. According to Christian Kracht , "Hans Castorp experienced

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4242-451: The Age of Enlightenment . However, a classical Bildungsroman would conclude by Castorp's having become a mature member of society, with his own world-view and greater self-knowledge, while The Magic Mountain ends with Castorp's becoming one of millions of anonymous conscripts under fire on a World War I battlefield. Mann wrote that he originally planned The Magic Mountain as a novella ,

4343-452: The sirocco is the only health risk, he finds a British travel agent who reluctantly admits that there is a serious cholera epidemic in Venice. Aschenbach considers warning Tadzio's mother of the danger; however, he decides not to, knowing that if he does, Tadzio will leave the hotel and be lost to him. But Aschenbach is not rational; "nothing is as abhorrent to anyone who is beside himself as returning into himself.... The awareness that he

4444-592: The "Adagietto" 4th movement from the Symphony No. 5 , and made Aschenbach into a composer instead of a writer. Aschenbach's name may be an allusion to Wolfram von Eschenbach , the author of the Middle High German medieval romance Parzival , whose reimagining and continuation of the Grail Quest romance of Chrétien de Troyes contained themes similar to those found in Mann's novella, such as

4545-733: The Adriatic coast to an alpine, quasi-resortlike sanatorium prized for its (alleged) health-restoring properties. The Berghof patients suffer from some form of tuberculosis, which rules their daily routines, thoughts, and conversations of the "half lung club". The disease ends fatally for many of the patients, such as the Catholic girl Barbara Hujus, whose fear of death is heightened in a harrowing Viaticum scene, and cousin Ziemssen, who leaves this world like an ancient hero. The dialogues between Settembrini and Naphta examine life and death from

4646-479: The Republic and humanitarian concerns, and adds that his new-found passion for humanitarianism is closely related to the novel on which he is working. In the climax of the "Schnee" chapter, Castorp's vision is of the triumph of life, love and human concern over sickness and death. This realisation corresponds closely to Mann's key observation in "Von deutscher Republik". As if to dispel any lingering doubts, Mann makes

4747-523: The Weimar Republic, precipitated by the assassination of then German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau whom Mann deeply admired, which may explain why Settembrini, especially in the later chapters, becomes the "Sprachrohr des Autoren" (the voice of the author). Settembrini's physical characteristics are reminiscent of the Italian composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo . Settembrini's antagonist Naphta

4848-595: The association with Rathenau could not have been clearer. Clawdia Chauchat represents erotic temptation, lust, and love, all in a degenerate, morbid, "Asiatic-flabby" form. She is one of the major reasons for Castorp's extended stay on the magic mountain. The female promise of sensual pleasure as hindrance to male zest for action imitates the themes from the Circe mythos and in the nymphs in Wagner's Venus Mountain . Chauchat's feline characteristics are noted often, her last name

4949-568: The author of the work that had inspired the composer. Modris Eksteins notes the similarities between Aschenbach and the Russian choreographer Sergei Diaghilev , writing that, although the two never met, "Diaghilev knew Mann's story well. He gave copies of it to his intimates". Diaghilev often stayed at the same hotel as Aschenbach, the Grand Hotel des Bains , and took his young male lovers there. Eventually, like Aschenbach, Diaghilev died in

5050-436: The author's fascination with and idealization of the purity of youthful innocence and beauty, as well as the eponymous protagonist's quest to restore healing and youthfulness to Anfortas, the wounded, old Fisher King . Given Mann's obsession with the works of Richard Wagner , who famously adapted and transformed von Eschenbach's epic into his opera Parsifal , it is possible that Mann was crediting Wagner's opera by referencing

5151-490: The author, the protagonist is a questing knight, the "pure fool" looking for the Holy Grail in the tradition of Parzival . However, he remains pale and mediocre, representing a German bourgeois that is torn between conflicting influences – capable of the highest humanistic ideals, yet at the same time prone to both stubborn philistinism and radical ideologies. As usual, Mann chooses his protagonist's name carefully: 'Hans'

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5252-618: The bildungsroman is normally dated to the publication of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1795–96, or, sometimes, to Christoph Martin Wieland 's Geschichte des Agathon of 1767. Although the bildungsroman arose in Germany, it has had extensive influence first in Europe and later throughout the world. Thomas Carlyle 's English translation of Goethe's novel (1824) and his own Sartor Resartus (1833–34),

5353-505: The book was set in print in 1924, as a message to the readers of the time, who, after years of hyper-inflation and political turmoil, not only expected but also desperately needed a positive direction to their lives, some words of wisdom which would give them hope. Settembrini represents the active and positive ideal of the Enlightenment, of Humanism , democracy , tolerance and human rights . He often finds Castorp literally in

5454-477: The book's final scene, Castorp, now an ordinary soldier on Germany's western front in World War I, hums the song to himself as his unit advances in battle. Mann uses the novel's main characters to introduce Castorp to the ideas and ideologies of his time. The author observed that the characters are all "exponents, representatives, and messengers of intellectual districts, principles, and worlds," hoping that he had not made them mere wandering allegories. According to

5555-421: The boy Władzio during a summer 1911 vacation in Venice were additional experiences occupying his thoughts. He used the story to illuminate certain convictions about the relationship between life and mind, with Aschenbach representing the intellect. Mann also was influenced by Sigmund Freud and his views on dreams, as well as by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , who had visited Venice several times. The novella

5656-504: The boy did fascinate him, and he thought of him often. […] I still remember that my uncle, Privy Counsellor Friedberg, a famous professor of canon law in Leipzig, was outraged: "What a story! And a married man with a family!" The boy who inspired "Tadzio" was perhaps Baron Władysław Moes , whose first name was usually shortened as Władzio or just Adzio. This story was uncovered by Andrzej Dołęgowski, Thomas Mann's translator, around 1964, and

5757-420: The content of time, while monotony and emptiness hinder its passage". The characters also reflect on the problems of narration and time, about the correspondence between the length of a narrative and the duration of the events it describes. Mann also meditates upon the interrelationship between the experience of time and space; of time seeming to pass more slowly when one does not move in space. This aspect of

5858-404: The danger because it somehow pleases him to think that the city's disease is akin to his own hidden, corrupting passion for the boy. During this period, a third red-haired and disreputable-looking man crosses Aschenbach's path; this one belongs to a troupe of street singers who entertain at the hotel one night. Aschenbach listens entranced to songs that, in his former life, he would have despised—all

5959-427: The dark and switches on the light before their conversations. He compares himself to Prometheus of Greek mythology, who brought fire and enlightenment to Man. His own mentor Giosuè Carducci has even written a hymn to another lightbringer: Lucifer , "la forza vindice della ragione." His ethics are based on bourgeois values and labor. He tries to counter Castorp's morbid fascination with death and disease, warns him against

6060-454: The decade before World War I . It introduces the protagonist, Hans Castorp, the only child of a Hamburg merchant family. Following the early death of his parents, Castorp has been brought up by his grandfather and, later, by a maternal uncle named James Tienappel. Castorp is in his early 20s, about to take up a shipbuilding career in Hamburg, his hometown. Before beginning work, he undertakes

6161-652: The definitive translation, but it is unclear to what other translations Auden was comparing it. Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter's authorized translation, published in 1922 in Mann's Stories of Three Decades , has been less well received by critics due to Lowe-Porter's treatment of sexuality and homoeroticism. In the Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation it is criticized for its "puritanism", which saw Lowe-Porter "tone down Mann's treatment of sexuality, especially homoeroticism". The author considers

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6262-472: The earlier novella. Whereas the protagonist of the novella was the mature and acclaimed author Gustav von Aschenbach, the central figure is now a callow young engineer at the outset of an anticipated career. The alluring Polish adolescent Tadzio in the novella corresponds to the Asiatic-flabby ("asiatisch-schlaff") Russian Madame Chauchat. The setting has shifted from the densely populated island city on

6363-502: The elevation of his temperature as lifting him to an elevated state of being." The most pronounced instances of Thomas Mann's political conversion is in the "Schnee" (snow) chapter. Completed in June 1923, this chapter, which forms the philosophical heart of the novel, attempts to overcome apparent contrasts and find a compromise between Naphta's and Settembrini's positions. In the chapter "Humaniora", written in 1920, Castorp tells Behrens, in

6464-440: The expectation that these will result in gaining experience of the world. The genre evolved from folklore tales of a dunce or youngest child going out in the world to seek their fortune. Usually in the beginning of the story, there is an emotional loss which makes the protagonist leave on their journey. In a bildungsroman, the goal is maturity, and the protagonist achieves it gradually and with difficulty. The genre often features

6565-413: The experience of time, music, nationalism, sociological issues, and changes in the natural world. Castorp's stay in the rarefied air of The Magic Mountain provides him with a panoramic view of pre-war European civilization and its discontents. Mann describes the subjective experience of serious illness and the gradual process of medical institutionalization. He also alludes to the irrational forces within

6666-508: The first English bildungsroman, inspired many British novelists. In the 20th century, it spread to France and several other countries around the globe. Barbara Whitman noted that the Iliad might be the first bildungsroman. It is not just "the story of the Trojan War. The Trojan War is in effect the backdrop for the story of Achilles ' development. At the beginning Achilles is still

6767-754: The first five chapters (approximately half the novel) detail only the initial year of Castorp's stay, while the final two chapters compress the remaining six years. Mann addresses time both as a narrative device and a philosophical concept. Chapter VII, titled "By the Ocean of Time," opens with the narrator directly questioning the possibility of narrating time itself. The characters frequently discuss theories of time perception, debating whether time passes more quickly or slowly depending on circumstance and routine. Contemporary philosophical discussions of time, particularly Henri Bergson's concepts of duration and subjective time experience, informed Mann's approach. This influence

6868-424: The first of Castorp's seven years at the sanatorium in great detail; the remaining six years, marked by monotony and routine, are described in the last two chapters. This asymmetry corresponds to Castorp's own skewed perception of the passage of time. This structure reflects the protagonists’ thoughts. Throughout the book, they discuss the philosophy of time and debate whether "interest and novelty dispel or shorten

6969-421: The god of excess and passion. The trope of placing classical deities in contemporary settings was popular at the time when Mann was writing Death in Venice . Aschenbach's name and character may be inspired by the homosexual German poet August von Platen-Hallermünde . There are allusions to his poems about Venice in the novella, and like Aschenbach, he died of cholera on an Italian island. Aschenbach's first name

7070-448: The hot, humid weather begins to affect Aschenbach's health, and he decides to leave early and move to a cooler location. On the morning of his planned departure, he sees Tadzio again, and a powerful feeling of regret sweeps over him. When he reaches the railway station and discovers his trunk has been misplaced, he pretends to be angry, but is really overjoyed; he decides to remain in Venice and wait for his lost luggage. He happily returns to

7171-457: The hotel and thinks no more of leaving. Over the next days and weeks, Aschenbach's interest in the beautiful boy develops into an obsession. He watches him constantly and secretly follows him around Venice. One evening, the boy directs a charming smile at him, looking, Aschenbach thinks, like Narcissus smiling at his own reflection. Disconcerted, Aschenbach rushes outside, and in the empty garden whispers aloud "I love you!" Aschenbach next takes

7272-489: The hotel. In her 1974  Unwritten Memories , Mann's wife Katia recalls that the idea for the story came during an actual vacation in Venice at the Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido, which they took in the summer of 1911: [A]ll the details of the story, beginning with the man at the cemetery, are taken from actual experience [...]. [I]n the dining-room, on the very first day, we saw the Polish family, which looked exactly

7373-552: The human psyche, at a time when Freudian psychoanalysis was becoming a prominent type of treatment. These themes relate to the development of Castorp's character over the time span covered by the novel. In his discussion of the work, written in English and published in The Atlantic in January 1953, Mann states that "what [Hans] came to understand is that one must go through the deep experience of sickness and death to arrive at

7474-405: The idea that the experience of death is ultimately that of life and leads to a new appreciation of humanity, Mann was determined from at least September 1922 onwards to make this message the main point of his novel. In a letter of 4 September 1922 to Arthur Schnitzler , Mann refers to "Von deutscher Republik", in which, he says, he is endeavouring to win the German middle classes over to the cause of

7575-432: The ill Madame Chauchat, and tries to demonstrate a positive outlook on life. His antagonist Naphta describes him as "Zivilisationsliterat", meaning cosmopolitan, un-German intellectuals. Mann originally constructed Settembrini as a caricature of the liberal-democratic novelist represented, for example, by his own brother Heinrich Mann . However, while the novel was being written, Mann himself became an outspoken supporter of

7676-416: The lobby in his hotel, feeling ill and weak, and discovers that the Polish family plans to leave after lunch. He goes to the beach to his usual deck chair. Tadzio is there, unsupervised for once, and accompanied by Jasiu, an older boy. A fight starts between the two boys, and Tadzio is quickly bested; afterward, he angrily leaves his companion and wades over to Aschenbach's part of the beach, where he stands for

7777-445: The magically self-laying table of " Table, Donkey, and Stick "; Frau Engelhardt's quest to learn the first name of Madame Chauchat mirrors that of the queen in " Rumpelstiltskin ". Castorp's given name is the same as " Clever Hans ". Although the ending is not explicit, it is possible that Castorp dies on the battlefield. Mann leaves his fate unresolved. Mann makes use of the number seven, often believed to have magical qualities: Castorp

7878-526: The meaning absolutely clear in his "Tischrede in Amsterdam" [Dinner speech in Amsterdam], held on 3 May 1924. Death stands for the ultra-conservative opponents of the Republic, while life embodies the supporters of democracy, the only way to guarantee a humanitarian future. The "Schnee" chapter was written in the first half of 1923 and the italicisation of the key sentence was probably requested by Mann when

7979-457: The novel mirrors contemporary philosophical and scientific debates which are embodied in Heidegger's writings and Albert Einstein 's theory of relativity , in which space and time are inseparable. In essence, Castorp's subtly transformed perspective on the "flat-lands" corresponds to a movement in time. The titular reference to 'mountain' reappears in many layers. The Berghof sanatorium

8080-471: The novella Aschenbach is Silesian , it was Moes who was really Silesian. However, serious doubts about this identification were raised in an article in "Der Spiegel" in 2002, mainly because of the significant differences in age and physical appearance between the Tadzio figure of the novella and Moes. The same article offers another candidate in the form of Adam von Henzel-Dzieduszycki, a Polish-Austrian, who

8181-496: The old man on the ship who had so appalled Aschenbach. Freshly dyed and rouged, he again shadows Tadzio through Venice in the oppressive heat. He loses sight of the boy in the heart of the city; then, exhausted and thirsty, he buys and eats some over-ripe strawberries and rests in an abandoned square, contemplating the Platonic ideal of beauty amid the ruins of his own once-formidable dignity. A few days later, Aschenbach goes to

8282-400: The one hand, admired because of their vital energy, and, on the other hand, condemned because of their naïveté. In total, this person represents the grotesqueness of a Dionysian character. The Greek god Dionysus is also important in Nietzschean philosophy , whose The Birth of Tragedy is the source of the title The Magic Mountain . Peeperkorn ends his life by suicide, also performed in

8383-560: The original and deathly destructive force of nature itself. Castorp awakens in due time, escapes from the blizzard, and returns to the Berghof . But rethinking his dreams, he concludes that "because of charity and love, man should never allow death to rule one's thoughts". Castorp soon forgets this sentence, so for him the blizzard event remains an interlude. This is the only sentence in the novel that Mann highlighted by italics. There are frequent references to Grimms' Fairy Tales , based on European myths. The opulent meals are compared to

8484-472: The pair as " Castor(p) and Pollux ", the twin brothers of the Greek mythology. And in fact, there is some affinity between the two cousins, both in their love to Russian women (Clawdia Chauchat in the case of Hans Castorp, the female co-patient "Marusja" in the case of Joachim Ziemssen), and also in their ideals. But, in contrast to Hans Castorp, who is an assertive person on the Berghof scene, Joachim Ziemssen

8585-429: The province of the communist revolution, is now suddenly also an instrument of reactionary conservatism. In a clear allusion on Mann's part to the assassination of Walther Rathenau , Naphta goes into the motivation of the revolutionary who killed Councillor of State August von Kotzebue in 1819 and concludes that it was not just the desire for freedom at stake here but also moral fanaticism and political outrage. That this

8686-488: The result "disastrous" and sees "a reworked, sanitized version of the text" by Mann. A translation published in 2005 by Michael Henry Heim won the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize . Other translations include those by David Luke (1988), Clayton Koelb (1994), Stanley Applebaum (1995), Joachim Neugroschel (1998), Martin C. Doege (2010), and Damion Searls (2023). Bildungsroman In literary criticism ,

8787-559: The sources of the destructiveness displayed by much of civilized humanity. He was also drawn to speculate about more general questions related to personal attitudes to life, health, illness, sexuality, and mortality. His political stance also changed during this period, from opposing the Weimar Republic to supporting it. Der Zauberberg was eventually published in two volumes by S. Fischer Verlag in Berlin . The narrative opens in

8888-670: The team of doctors and patients in this cosmopolitan institution. According to Mann, in the afterword that was later included in the English translation of his novel, this stay inspired his opening chapter ("Arrival"). The outbreak of World War I interrupted his work on the book. Like many other Germans, Mann supported the German Empire , and his own mental state he described as "sympathy with death"; he wrote essays "Gedanken im Kriege", "Gute Feldpost" and "Friedrich und die große Koalition", examples of his "intellectual military service" which he regarded as his duty. However, his position

8989-400: The terrorism championed by Naphta is no longer, in Castorp's eyes, associated solely with the "Diktatur des Proletariats", but also with conservative Prussian militarism and Jesuitism. The association here between Naphta's advocacy of terrorism and two extremely conservative movements – Prussian militarism and Jesuitism – is a huge political shift for the novel. Terrorism, up till now exclusively

9090-608: The town in the era of the Renaissance. The " torp " is Danish, not unexpected on the German north coast. Castorp also refers to the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology, who were identified by the New Testament scholar Dennis MacDonald as models for the apostles James and John. In a way, Hans Castorp can be seen as the incorporation of the young Weimar Republic : Both humanism and radicalism, represented by Settembrini and Naphta, try to win his favour, but Castorp

9191-475: The visitor loses all sense of time. Castorp, who planned to stay at the sanatorium for three weeks, does not leave the Berghof for seven years. In general, the inhabitants of the Berghof spend their days in a mythical, distant atmosphere. The X-ray laboratory in the cellar represents the Hades of Greek mythology, where Medical Director Behrens acts as the judge and punisher Rhadamanthys and where Castorp

9292-434: The way my husband described them: the girls were dressed rather stiffly and severely, and the very charming, beautiful boy of about thirteen was wearing a sailor suit with an open collar and very pretty lacings. He caught my husband's attention immediately. This boy was tremendously attractive, and my husband was always watching him with his companions on the beach. He didn't pursue him through all of Venice—that he didn't do—but

9393-415: The while stealing glances at Tadzio, who is leaning on a nearby parapet in a classically beautiful pose. The boy eventually returns Aschenbach's glances, and although the moment is brief, it instills in the writer a sense that the attraction may be mutual. Next, Aschenbach rallies his self-respect and decides to discover the reason for the health notices posted in the city. After being repeatedly assured that

9494-673: Was Jewish, but joined the Jesuits and became a Hegelian Marxist. The character was a parody of the philosopher Georg Lukács , who "plainly has not recognized himself in Naphta", wrote Mann in a 1949 letter. Even here a change in Mann's political stance can be seen. In "Operationes spirituales" from Chapter VI, written towards the end of 1922, Naphta is termed a "revolutionary" and "socialist", but Settembrini sees Naphta's fantasies as emanating from an anti-humanitarian reactionary revolution ("Revolution des antihumanen Rückschlages"). In this chapter,

9595-475: Was also on vacation in the same hotel in the summer of 1911 and was 15 years old at the time. An English translation by Kenneth Burke was published in periodical form in The Dial in 1924 over three issues (vol. LXXVI, March to May, issues # 3–5, Camden, NJ, USA). This translation was published in book form the following year by Alfred A. Knopf as Death in Venice and Other Stories . W. H. Auden called it

9696-459: Was based on a photograph of the composer Gustav Mahler . Mahler had made a strong personal impression on Mann when they met in Munich, and Mann was shocked by the news of Mahler's death in Vienna. Mann gave Mahler's first name and facial appearance to Aschenbach but did not talk about it in public. The soundtrack of the 1971 film based on the novella made use of Mahler's compositions, particularly

9797-446: Was coined in 1819 by philologist Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern in his university lectures, and was later famously reprised by Wilhelm Dilthey , who legitimized it in 1870 and popularized it in 1905. The genre is further characterized by a number of formal, topical, and thematic features. The term coming-of-age novel is sometimes used interchangeably with bildungsroman, but its use is usually wider and less technical. The birth of

9898-561: Was complicit, that he too was guilty, intoxicated him...." One night, a dream filled with orgiastic Dionysian imagery reveals to him the sexual nature of his feelings for Tadzio. Afterward, he begins staring at the boy so openly and following him so persistently that Aschenbach feels the boy's guardians have finally noticed, and they take to warning Tadzio whenever he approaches too near the strange, solitary man. However, Aschenbach's feelings, although passionately intense, remain unvoiced; he never touches Tadzio or speaks to him, and while there

9999-582: Was published in the German press in 1965. Moes was born on 17 November 1900 in Wierbka , the second son and fourth child of Baron Aleksander Juliusz Moes. He was aged 10 when he was in Venice, significantly younger than Tadzio in the novella. Baron Moes died on 17 December 1986 in Warsaw and is interred at the graveyard of Pilica, Silesian Voivodeship . He was the subject of the biography The Real Tadzio (Short Books, 2001) by Gilbert Adair . Ironically, while in

10100-489: Was seven when his parents died; he stays seven years at the Berghof , from the years 1907 to 1914; the central Walpurgis Night scene happens after seven months, both cousins have seven letters in their last name, the dining hall has seven tables, Madame Chauchat is initially assigned room number 7, the digits of Castorp's room number (34) add up to seven, and Joachim's room is a multiple of seven (28=7×4). Settembrini's name includes 'seven' ( sette ) in Italian, Joachim keeps

10201-402: Was shaken by anti-war intellectuals such as his older brother Heinrich , who, unlike Thomas, did not support the German state: on the contrary, he wrote the satirical novel Der Untertan and the essay "Zola", where he defended the idea of the inevitable defeat of Germany which would lead to Germany becoming a democracy. In response to the intellectuals with an anti-war stance, Thomas Mann wrote

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