Celebrated Translations -- The Magic Mountain (Color Illustrations Edition)

Author: (German) Thomas Mann, translated by Yang Wuneng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: University student Hans visits his cousin Joachim at the high-altitude sanatorium for lung disease, only to contract the illness himself and have to stay for treatment. The people in the sanatorium come from all over the world, with diverse personalities and thoughts. Hans is an idealistic young man, but after interacting with these people, his thoughts become confused, and his spirit declines; the Russian woman Clara becomes even more captivating to him. He forgets his career and responsibilities, and the high mountains become a magic mountain," trapping him in a state of helplessness. In the blink of an eye, seven years pass, his cousin dies, Clara leaves, and his close friends also go their separate ways. Life shatters his illusions one by one, leaving him in pain and solitude. The of World War I shakes him awake. Looking back, Hans realizes he has been asleep on the magic mountain" for seven years, and he resolutely sets off for the front lines.
Thomas Mann is one of the greatest writers of German literature in the 20th century and a leading figure in the next peak period of German literature after Goethe and Schiller. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. Thomas Mann is also recognized as a master of German language in the 20th century for his meticulous word choice and sentence structure. The Magic Mountain is one of Thomas Mann's most successful novels and a classic work in Western literature of the 20th century. It is one of the most outstanding educational novels after Goethe's The Wanderings of Wilhelm Meister and Keller's Green Henry, with profound philosophical and dialectical depth. The book brought the author great reputation. After being translated into English in 1927, it became a bestseller in English-speaking countries. In 2000, in the selection of the most important German novels of the 20th century jointly organized by institutions such as the Betzmann Literary House in Germany and the Munich Literary House, The Magic Mountain ranked at the top. The renowned German literary critic Hans Mayer highly praises The Magic Mountain and compares Thomas Mann's realistic masterpiece to Balzac's La Comédie Humaine.