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pari27's review against another edition
2.0
The writing, the tone, the plot were all slays. It was actually kinda humorous which I was not expecting from such an old book. But I was so bored most of the time. It’s just so long and the plot kinda takes a backseat to the characters and what they each represent. But for me to enjoy a book like this, I need to love the main character. And that did not happen. Hans is annoying as hell. Also it didn’t help that I’m not too familiar with pre WW1 Europe so I couldn’t connect to the themes and concepts being represented.
aloysiusventham's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
renya_popcornbooks's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.75
sturmvoqel's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Charaktere (10/10):
- unzählige weitere, toll ausgearbeitete Charaktere tauchen im Laufe der Geschichte auf, verschwinden wieder, hinterlassen einen bleibenden Eindruck...
- der Roman lebt durch die Charaktere, die Story ist da nebensächlich
- Lieblingscharakter: Mynheer Peeperkorn: Der "Kaffeekönig", Niederländer und Plantagenbesitzer ist so charismatisch und einnehmend, er redet ohne wirklich etwas zu sagen und trotzdem hängen alle, inklusive der Leser, an seinen Lippen
- die Dreiecksbeziehung zwischen ihm, Hans und Clawdia Chauchat war sehr interessant
Atmosphäre (10/10):
- manches Mal erscheint das Sanatorium als Gefängnis, dann wieder als Paradies...aber immer als isolierter Ort fernab der Realität und trotzdem passiert dort alles genau wie in der Welt, nur im Kleinen.
- Bewohner und Leser können sich dem Sog aus Tod und Erotik kaum entziehen.
Schreibstil (10/10):
- die Wortgewandtheit ist atemberaubend, es passiert so viel zwischen den Zeilen, alles wirkt wie komponiert aber nie erzwungen, sondern ganz natürlich
- der Witz ist ebenfalls nicht zu verkennen, ich habe bei manchen Ausdrucksweisen und Sätzen herzlich lachen müssen
Handlung: (8/10):
- zuweilen verliert sich der Roman sehr in Diskussionen zwischen Settembrini und Naphta - den beiden Mentoren Hansens --> da hat mir sicherlich Vorwissen bzgl. Zeitgeschenen etc. gefehlt
Neugier/Interesse (8/10):
- manchmal fühlte es sich wie eine Telenovela an - ich wollte immer wissen wie geht es bspw. mit Hans und Clawdia weiter? Wie krank ist Joachim wirklich? Wie lange wird Hans im Sanatorium bleiben? Und so vieles mehr...
- mir sind die Charaktere sehr ans Herz gewachsen
Logik (10/10):
- dementsprechend fühlt sich alles sehr authentisch und realistisch an
- selbst Szenen die unwirklich und überzogen erscheinen, wirken im Kontext glaubwürdig
- ich habe keinerlei Logiklücken entdeckt
Unterhaltungsfaktor (8/10):
--> 64/70 Punkte
paulineg's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
qwu's review against another edition
1.0
We talked about Thomas Mann in my last German class, so I thought it would be fun to look the guy up and try read something he wrote.
I'll never do it solely for fun.
I'll never do it solely for fun.
dukegregory's review against another edition
5.0
New favorite Mann? I feel Death's scythe grazing my throat. This took me a bit over two months to complete, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The Magic Mountain tempers time via narrative, a cognizant and precise reconfiguring of temporal perception, in order to highlight and, thus, foreground time's passage in its objective and subjective formulations. As such, this novel of the ill and pseudo-sick (is everyone not just a little sick... are we not all in some way, shape, or form on the verge of mental-physical-political collapse?) presents a vision of wasted time: life is wasted time, a war waged between activity and passivity. What comes of this is a work that records the lead-up to WWI through extended allegory and nuanced archetypes, presupposes the tensions that will lead to WWII, summarizes and recontextualizes the legacy of European philosophy up to the point of the novel's initial release while emphasizing the simultaneous necessity and futility of thought (is thinking, in its own way, yet another vision of sickness/the passive?), vivisects the manner in which bourgeois life proceeds to be lived, dissects the enmeshing of life and death in quotidian experience as the clock ticks away, and stretches the limits of how much a novel can hold structurally. A high modernist behemoth. It's an experiential work, so I feel all my thoughts to be rather half-baked and insufficient. Mann's prose makes me laugh, evokes an immense breadth of emotionalities without relying on the saccharine, and challenges you to keep up with its interweaving of the feverish and the lackadaisical. A total slog in the best way: by design. I can't believe I've actually finished it.