As with all of Mann's mature works, it seems more profitable to discuss literary traditions than literary precedents in the elucidation of the novel's imaginative context.

The title itself is clearly meant to suggest the world of fairy tales. The hermetically sealed environment of the sanatorium and the enchantment which regularly befalls all who enter its precincts hint at a realm of different dimensions. And yet this realm is described by a realist who does not rest until the surroundings are recognizable as those of the Swiss resort of Davos.

By the nature of its theme, The Magic Mountain can also lay claim to the peculiarly German tradition of the educational novel, the bildungsroman, of which Goethe's Wilhelm Meister Apprenticeship (1795-1796) remains the classic example. The way in which ideological combat dominates the scene, on the other hand, reminds one of the novel of ideas, which...