Zulfqar Tabish
asked:
What Is The Most Important Quality Of This Novel Which Make It Such a Epic Literary Work ?
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The Magic Mountain,
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Mark Hebwood
I was asking myself this same question the entire time I was reading it. I think this novel is best enjoyed as a reading experience in itself, just as a piece of music is enjoyed in itself. I do not believe this novel is about anything, it is certainly not a novel of ideas, as some critics have claimed. Thomas Mann himself advised contemporaries to read it like an orchestral symphony, to follow common themes, and just let the narrative play. And I think if you try this, this actually works - so my answer would be that Mann wrote a piece of literature that can be "listened to", and that's all it needs to be.
David Hambling
It's not epic at all (just long!). In fact, it's a rather intimate book in terms of the location and how much of it occurs inside the protagonist's head, really more of a salon novel than an epic in its treatment of ideas and events.
Virtuella
A profound understanding of the human condition, of our culture and its decline, of philosophy, religion, psychology; combined with the very best use of the German language.
Andras Cser
I would say the following (in no particular order):
- humor (but you never know if he author is serious or not)
- discussion and contrasting of opposites
- deep discussions of time, illness, death, and life in general
- conservatism vs liberalism
- humor (but you never know if he author is serious or not)
- discussion and contrasting of opposites
- deep discussions of time, illness, death, and life in general
- conservatism vs liberalism
Ma Maria
The insightful juxtaposition of arguments.
Greg
That if you take a group of random people and put them in a new setting, they resume the same roles as before. The snobs have esoteric arguments that are mostly nonsense, the horndogs get laid with whomever is at their dinner table, those with a great attitude about life continue that attitude as they just laugh and have a good time. The central character, Hans, is the kind of person always looking for meaning, and at the spectacularly unexpected and weird ending, he finds that perhaps there is no meaning in anything at all.
Nisus
It's the biggest German novel (as far as I know), Germany's "War and Peace", and its main character is an embodiment of youth- spiritual youth, I mean.
It also has (Nietzsche) Settembrini: the sage every one would like to know in this life.
It also has (Nietzsche) Settembrini: the sage every one would like to know in this life.
Bob Towner
An appreciation of mortality.
John Calvelli
Having just finished the novel, I have to remark that it is about the First World War - even though one could dismiss this theory merely on the basis of how few pages are devoted to it. Mann wrote it in the decade following the war, and it meaningless horror is reflected in the endless narcissism and relentless searching that the rest of the book relates.
d
"Beautiful language"
Bozo
Have no idea struggling through it is more difficult than watching my grass grow. Hey but don't worry any review can come up with more BS than my cows paddock.
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