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In this long-form conversation, Milo and Jack speak with translator Simon Pare about the challenge of translating The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann for Oxford World’s Classics.

This discussion explores the language, style, and enormous technical challenges behind bringing one of the greatest novels of the 20th century into English. Simon discusses his new 2026 translation of The Magic Mountain, the legacy of earlier translators, and the strange experience of living inside Mann’s vast novel while translating it.

Topics include:

• Why Thomas Mann is so difficult to translate

• The challenge of translating The Magic Mountain’s long German sentences

• Hans Castorp, time, and the atmosphere of Davos

• Translation choices, compromises, and literary voice

• Settembrini, Naphta, Behrens, and Peeperkorn’s speech styles

• The legacy of H. T. Lowe-Porter and later English translations

• Translation theory and literary translation in practice

• Switzerland, Thomas Mann, and the culture surrounding the novel

• The relationship between language, rhythm, and character

The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg) began as a short novella inspired by Thomas Mann’s visit to a Davos sanatorium and grew into a monumental meditation on time, illness, modernity, and European intellectual life before the First World War.

This interview focuses primarily on translation and language. A separate discussion with Richie Robertson on the novel’s themes and content will follow.

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