This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit grandhotelabyss.substack.com

Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 20 minutes are free, is the final in a four-part sequence on Thomas Mann’s novel The Magic Mountain. It primarily concerns the novel’s culminating theme: the Bildungsroman, with its cultivation of the hero’s soul, as a secularized alchemical transformation of matter into spirit, not to mention this Bildung’s prospect in a modernity characterized by the decadence of culture and the frenzy of apocalyptic war. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall: