Thomas Mann and The Magic Mountain

Thomas Mann was a German novelist born in 1875. He known for his intelligent human observations in his novels as analysis of insight psychology with symbolic and ironic plots. Mann attended the science division of a Lübeck Gymnasium, then spent time at the Ludwig Maximillianus University of Munich and Technical University of Munich where, in preparation for a journalism career, he studied history, economics, art history and literature. His career as a writer began when he wrote for Simplicissimus. Mann's first short story, "Little Mr Friedemann" (Der Kleine Herr Friedemann), was published in 1898.

The Magic Mountain is first published in November 1924. The main character in the book is Hans Castorp, the only child of a Hamburg merchant family who, following the early death of his parents and raised by relatives. Just before beginning this professional career Castorp undertakes a journey to visit his tubercular cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, who is seeking a cure in a sanatorium in Davos, high up in the Swiss Alpes. Hans Castorp’s stay in The Magic Mountain provides him with a panoramic view of pre-war European civilization and process of medical institutionalization. Mann debates the philosophy of life and death and being ill in the novel.