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The Magic Mountain
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
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The Magic Mountain
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Summary
It was The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg) that confirmed Thomas Mann as a Nobel prizewinner for literature and rightly so, for it is undoubtedly one of the great novels of the 20th century.
Its unusual story - it opens with a young man visiting a friend in a tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps - was originally started by Mann in 1912 but was not completed until 1924. Then, it was instantly recognised as a masterpiece and led to Mann’s Nobel Prize in 1929.
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912, and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure, and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, some of whom have been there for years, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
Among them are Hofrat Behrens, the principal doctor, the curiously attractive Clavdia Chauchat and two intellectuals: Ludovico Settembrini and Leo Naphta with their strongly contrasted personalities and differing political, ethical, artistic and spiritual ideals. Hans Castorp’s stay is extended, once, twice and still further, as he appears to develop symptoms which suggest that his health, once so robust, would benefit from the treatments and the mountain air.
As time passes, it becomes clear that the young man, with a particular interest in shipbuilding and not much else, finds his outlook and knowledge broadened by his mountain companions, his intellect stretched and his emotional experience deepened and enriched. Hans Castorp is changing, day by day, month by month, year by year, sometimes imperceptibly, sometimes with a sudden advance, as he encounters the varied range of sparkling characters, their comedies and tragedies, their aspirations and their defeats.
The Magic Mountain is a classic bildungsroman, an educational journey of growth - a genre that began with an earlier novel in the German tradition: Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. It is presented here in the acclaimed modern translation by John E. Woods and is told by David Rintoul with his particular understanding for Thomas Mann as displayed in his widely praised Ukemi recording of Buddenbrooks.
What listeners say about The Magic Mountain
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- Matte Fog
- 17-01-23
Rich
It has been a beautiful experience.
A bit slow or difficult at times but so are some of the best things in life.
Hope many others, like I did, will enjoy this masterpiece.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- John Smith
- 10-07-22
Mann is outdated
Why was Mann so popular last century? This book is a stitched together series of essays the product of a human stuck in the thinking mind and creepily observing others around them. It’s so verbose and pretentious I can’t. The person who recorded it is great on the other hand, his tone sometimes has a tiresome gravitas and pretence, but I imagine Mann speaking with a similarly annoying and unnecessary tone.
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- Jane
- 04-01-21
Wonderful engrossing and subtly humorous
This is a wonderful, slow, meditative and often hilarious listen. It's a book for the contemporary Mindful Crowd and all the idiocy that goes with too much self examination. Thomas Mann must have really enjoyed himself writing this!
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Peggymac
- 07-07-21
Magically exquisite
I just loved the narration of this book, having attempted to read it a few times but got bogged down in the occasionally too long narratives. However, listening allowed me to do gardening, housework, dog walking in the mountains (where I live) while absorbing the story. Thomas Mann covers many aspects of humanity and the descriptions of Hans’s learning, curiosity and wonderment of the new-fangled innovations of the time - x-rays and gramophone records. Covered also were Free-Masonry, Music, Botany, Snowflake formation, the wonder of Death and Time, passion and love. Strangely appropriate also during this time of lockdowns and pandemic and climate change.
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- Kindle Customer
- 13-09-22
amazing book and lovely narration
so long but definitely worth your time, in terms of characters, setting and writing.
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- Revd S BALL
- 03-01-23
Outstanding performance by David Rintoul
A great work of European literature brought wonderfully alive by an outstanding narration by David Rintoul - thank you.
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- Gerard
- 04-02-21
A masterpiece and almost perfect audiobook
David Rintoul deserves our sincere thanks for an absolutely spellbinding reading of Thomas Mann’s masterpiece.
Set aside plenty of time to enjoy the hours and hours, and hours of the novel’s fascinating exposition of the hermetic life’s of the inhabitants of the International Sanatorium Berghof.
Mann’s ruminations on the nature of time seem especially topical as we live through lockdown.
I hope that we will hear the narrator read more of Mann in the very near future ..... Dr Faustus, please!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- TIM H.
- 12-07-21
The breath of life
With Hans and Setembrini we are complicit in the struggle for meaning through understanding the backgrounds and actions of the patients on The Magic Mountain their life and loves hopes and dreams illness and sometimes death. It is an enriching experience for all a book to last a lifetime.
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- Iamhanuman
- 16-04-23
Where do I start?
An epic that doesn't feel like an epic. Thomas Mann has a talent for creating something more akin to a miniseries. You follow our protagonist and his fellow travellers on their meandering journeys through mostly inner space as their actual physical space and abilities are limited. So we look inwards and crikey we find all manner of stories that hit home. I can see why he was chosen to speak to the German people after WW2 to inform them of the atrocities which had occurred. Amazing publication with much to say about the human condition and nations in this ever changing world.
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- Heartlovesart
- 27-02-24
The narrator is EXQUISITE
I had zero dislikes . It was a pleasure from beginning to end and that’s as all due to the perfect narration
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