“[A] fascinating and accessible account . . . In his entertaining book, Mr. Eilenberger shows that his magicians’ thoughts are still worth collecting, even if, with hindsight, we can see that some performed too many intellectual conjuring tricks.” —Wall Street Journal A grand narrative of the intertwining lives of Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Ernst Cassirer, major philosophers whose ideas shaped the twentieth century The year is 1919. The horror of the First World War is fresh for the protagonists of Time of the Magicians, each of whom finds himself at a crucial juncture. Benjamin is trying to flee his overbearing father and floundering in his academic career, living hand to mouth as a critic. Wittgenstein, by contrast, has dramatically decided to divest himself of the monumental fortune he stands to inherit, in search of spiritual clarity. Meanwhile, Heidegger, having managed to avoid combat in war by serving as a meteorologist, is carefully cultivating his career. Finally, Cassirer is working furiously on the margins of academia, applying himself to his writing and the possibility of a career at Hamburg University. The stage is set for a great intellectual drama, which will unfold across the next decade. The lives and ideas of this extraordinary philosophical quartet will converge as they become world historical figures. But as the Second World War looms on the horizon, their fates will be very different.
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“[Eilenberger’s] lucid presentation of his characters’ often hard-to-comprehend thinking and the muddy language in which they expressed it make this book invaluable for anyone seeking to learn about these extraordinary figures.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Splendid.”
— Financial Times (London)“[A] fascinating and accessible account.”
— Wall Street Journal“A group portrait of four brilliant young philosophers in the aftermath of the first world war…Eilenberger tells it with free-wheeling gusto.”
— The Guardian (London)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Wolfram Eilenberger is an internationally bestselling author and philosopher. He is the founding editor of Philosophie Magazin. His Time of the Magicians was a bestseller in Germany, Italy, and Spain and is translated into more than twenty languages. He has been a prolific contributor of essays and articles to many publications, including Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, and Cicero and taught at the University of Toronto, Indiana University, and University of Arts, Berlin.