The Magic Mountain Author:Thomas Mann The Magic Mountain is at once a novel of romantic transcendence and an elegiac paean to the bygone way of life of the European bourgeoisie in the days before the First World War. In the enchanted, otherworldly realm of an exclusive tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, Hans Castorp -- a simple yet shrewd scion of a respectable Hamburg fami... more »ly -- undergoes a transformation through a series of adventures unimaginable in the mundane world of the "flatlands." In the course of his experiences and encounters with sickness and death, he overcomes his inborn morbidity to achieve a greater understanding of humanity, a greater sanity and health.« less