{"product_id":"the-master-of-contradictions-morten-hi-jensen-9780300233742","title":"The Master of Contradictions: Thomas Mann and the Making of the Magic Mountain","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe arresting story of how Thomas Mann wrote \u003ci\u003eThe Magic Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e as a defeated Germany descended into political chaos\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Like many writers of his generation, Thomas Mann (1875-1955) welcomed the outbreak of the First World War. He viewed it as a spiritual necessity, a chance to reassert German cultural dominance over Western ideas of democracy and enlightenment. Then, in 1924, he published \u003ci\u003eThe Magic Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e, a massive novel that culminates in the slaughter of war and foreshadows the Nazi terror to come. One of the central achievements of modernism, \u003ci\u003eThe Magic Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e bears testimony to its author's dramatic political reorientation as a defender of democracy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This poignant book is a biography of Mann's great novel--its evolution from a short story into a two-volume masterpiece and one of the bestselling novels of the Weimar era. Deftly weaving together elements of biography, history, and literary criticism, Morten H i Jensen reveals how writing \u003ci\u003eThe Magic Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e against a backdrop of world war, revolution, hyperinflation, and rising right-wing terror moved Mann to embrace the democratic and humanistic ideas he once scorned. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e One hundred years after \u003ci\u003eThe Magic Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e was first published, at a time when democratic ideas are again under threat, Jensen reveals the universality and timeliness of Mann's great novel--its still-resonant debates over democracy and tyranny, time and place, illness and death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Morten H?i Jensen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0300233744\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780300233742\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Yale University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/21\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Morten H?i Jensen","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46747837300991,"sku":"9780300233742","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5e220178-10ad-40ca-8f83-01998d4c72d1.jpg?v=1743584875","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-master-of-contradictions-morten-hi-jensen-9780300233742","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}