his is one of Thomas Mann's shorter narrations, and it is one of the most concentrated ones, with a strong atmosphere and a simple plot. It is about a family spending their summer vacation in an Italian village about 1930. One day, a kind of magician announces a show. After some time, it is clear that he is not a normal circus magician, but he has an alarming way of behaving and the ability to manipulate and to humiliate people just by the strength of his will. "Mario and the Magician" (something must have gone wrong with the title, Mario is not the magician) was written in 1930, a time when Europe slowly was running towards the darkness of fascism, and this explains the political background of the narration. Some people wondered why Mussolini allowed to publish an Italian translation...