The Magician

The protagonist and only point-of-view character in the novel is based on real-life Nobel Prize-winning German novelist Thomas Mann. The story unfolds from Thomas’s close third-person perspective. Filled with caustic irony, keen observation, and reflectiveness, Thomas’s voice establishes him as a sensitive, passionate, and self-critical man. He often examines and judges his own conduct, beset with the feeling that he’s a fraud. He’s also particular about social appearances and his public image. The narrative indicates that Thomas’s sensitivity to public opinion stems partly from the exile of his teen years, when he was forced out of Lübeck. Feeling like an outsider after the move, Thomas is torn between his desire to be an artist and to be seen as a traditional, respectable man. Another reason for his sensitivity is Thomas’s complex relationship with his sexuality. From his teen years, Thomas has known he’s attracted to men. Nevertheless, he decides to marry a woman and lead a heteronormative lifestyle.

Thomas’s marriage to Katia Pringsheim is a pivotal event in his life. He courts her when she’s 21 and he’s 29, both because he’s drawn to her and because she represents the lifestyle to which he aspires.