The Magician

Based on the life of Thomas Mann, The Magician joins the ranks of books such as Joyce Carol Oates’s Blonde (2000), based on Marilyn Monroe, and Tóibín’s other work of biographical fiction, The Master (2004), based on Henry James. While these novels use facts and real timelines, their authors imagine the central figures’ interior lives to infuse emotional heft into the story. Using internal monologue, the novelist illuminates the figure’s dilemmas, feelings, and complex thought processes. For example, in The Magician, Thomas’s inner dialogue sheds light on his complex sexuality and the tension between his artistic liberalism and traditional worldview. Although the fictionalized biography—and its cinematic equivalent, the biopic—is a popular contemporary genre, its roots go back to the early 20th century. Thomas Mann’s own Lotte in Weimar (1939) is biographical fiction based on the life of Goethe.

Fictionalizing biography enables a novelist to play with chronology, point of view, and narrative structure, selecting facts to serve the story. For instance, Elizabeth Fremantle’s Queen’s Gambit uses two third-person narrators to depict the life of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII.