Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain': A Casebook by Hans Rudolf Vaget

Abstract

MLR, 104.3, 2009 913 Thomas Manns 'The Magic Mountain: A Casebook. Ed. by Hans Rudolf Vaget. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2008. viii+275 pp. ?15.99. ISBN 978-0 19-530474-9. Books in theCasebooks inCriticism series 'introduce readers to the essential criti cism on landmark works of literature and film' involumes inwhich a distinguished scholar who is an authority on the texthas collected themost elucidating and dis tinctive scholarly essays on thatwork and added key supporting materials'. Among the key task for each volume is the editor's substantial introduction that considers the key features of thework' and the contextualization of 'its cultural import and contemporary reputation' and a surveying of 'themajor approaches that have in formed thework's critical history'. There can be no doubt that thisparticular volume brilliantly succeeds in all respects in that ambition. Of its ten contributions five are (revised) reprints from international journals and publications, dating with one significant exception from the last fourteen years; the other five, including two by the editor,were specially written for this casebook, which is a truly outstanding example of lucid introduction and ground-breaking challenging scholarship. Itdoes indeed 'inspire further critical forays into some of the unmapped territories of this great mountain of a book' (p. 3), which could so easily leave the reader of TheMagic Mountain stranded. Thomas Mann liked to think that even hismost difficultfiction, such as Lotte in Weimar, shared something of the excitement of stories of adventure, of Indianergeschienten, as itcaptivates the reader. Hans Rudolf Vaget's volume helps us to unlock that secret of this extraordinary Bildungsroman. It is centred around the hermetic mountain world of a tuberculosis sanatorium in which the male neophyte, losing all sense of time, undergoes a transformation and initiation, until a clap of thunder breaks the spell and the events of the FirstWorld War erupt.He disappears on thebattlefields of Flanders. The titles of the ten contributions clearly reflect the stimulating wide range of aspects of the novel: 'Telling Timelessness inOer Zauberberg (Dorrit Cohn), 'Pho tography and Bildung in TheMagic Mountain (Eric Downing), 'Thomas Mann's Naphta and the Ideological Confluence of Radical Right and Radical Left in the Early Years of theWeimar Republic' (Anthony Grenville), 'The "Magic Mountain Malady": The Reception of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain in theMedi cal Community, 1924-2000' (Malte Herwig), 'Modern Masculinities on theMagic Mountain' (Todd Kontje), 'Naphta and his Ilk: JewishCharacters inMann's The Magic Mountain (Franka Marquardt and Yahya Elsaghe), 'Projections on Blank Space: Landscape, Nationality, and Identity inDer Zauberberg (Nancy. Nenno), 'The Magic Mountain: A Humoristic Counterpart toDeath inVenice (Ellis Shook man), 'Death, Knowledge, and the Formation of Self: TheMagic Mountain (Martin Travers), and 'TheMaking of TheMagic Mountain and '"Politically Suspect": Music on theMagic Mountain' (both byVaget). Itwould now be a pleasure to discuss the novel with readers informed by this slim volume so rich innew insights. University of Nottingham Hinrich Siefken ...