{"product_id":"the-master-of-contradictions-thomas-mann-and-the-making-of-the-magic-mountain-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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMorten Høi Jensen\u003c\/b\u003e is a Danish-American writer and critic. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eA Difficult Death: The Life and Work of Jens Peter Jacobsen\u003c\/i\u003e and has contributed to numerous publications, including the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCommonweal\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eLiberties\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51661468434706,"sku":"9780300233742","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_2cbf6d33-87d0-4810-a53c-19620301bd7d.jpg?v=1760444701","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-master-of-contradictions-thomas-mann-and-the-making-of-the-magic-mountain-9780300233742","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}