Originally planned as a novella, as a light counterpart to 'Death in Venice', 'The Magic Mountain' became one of the great novels of classical modernism. A brief visit to a sanatorium in Davos turns into a seven-year stay for Hans Castorp, with the health resort serving as a stage for the European condition before World War I. Started in July 1913 and interrupted during the war by essayistic works, particularly 'Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man', the novel was completed and published in 1924.