First edition in English, signed limited issue, number 170 of 200 copies signed by the author. Set in a Swiss mountainside sanatorium, Mann's mythic tale is one of the defining works of 20th-century German literature. It was originally published in Germany as Der Zauberberg (1924) and here translated into English by the American writer Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter. Mann, endearingly referred to as "the Magician" by his children, began constructing this labyrinthine work in 1912. He attended séances and engaged with the spiritualist interests of his contemporaries, and while he was derisive of blind faith in the unknown, he used his experiences to weave a vein of occultism and hermeticism throughout this novel. The finale is a blend of the psychic and the psychoanalysis, as a clairvoyant child-patient at the sanatorium is enlisted by the establishment to participate in a series of seances, culminating in the manifestation of the protagonist's dead cousin. Lowe-Porter (1876-1963) was granted exclusive rights to translate the works of Mann by Knopf in 1925. For about two decades, her translations were the only English versions available, playing a fundamental role in establishing Mann's reputation among the English-speaking audience. The success of the present translation led to Mann's Nobel Prize in Literature in 1929. Two volumes, octavo. Original japon-backed patterned blue paper boards, spines lettered in gilt, edges untrimmed, a few uncut. Frontispiece portrait of the author by E. O. Hoppé in vol. I and facsimile of final page of author's manuscript in vol. II, with captioned tissue guards. Neat ownership signature of one Marion B. Williams on front free endpaper of vol. I. Bright covers toned at head, covers and extremities lightly rubbed, corners slightly worn, a few leaves roughly opened, firm and fresh internally: a very good set.
