The Magic Mountain: Part 7, Chapter 3: Vingt et un Summary & Analysis

A few weeks or so pass, and one night the socializing in the lobby turns a bit more festive than usual—even Krokowski and Behrens join in. Hans, meanwhile, sits apart from the crowd in the reading room, scanning a newspaper. Suddenly, a voice behind him inquires about his cousin. Hans turns and sees Clavdia Chauchat. Hans slowly puts down his newspaper and assess Clavdia coldly before telling her that Joachim returned to his military service, got sick, came back to the Berghof, and then died. Clavdia expresses her condolences, calling Joachim a “much finer man than most—than certain people.” She also reminds Hans that she predicted Joachim would die if he resumed his military service. Hans says he knows, addressing Clavdia with informal pronouns, and an awkward silence follows.

Gradually the conversation resumes, and Clavdia is shocked to discover that Hans has been here at the Berghof the entire time she’s been gone—and waiting for her. He also says he’s still sick: Behrens recently discovered a new “moist spot” in Hans’s lungs, which is what’s causing Hans’s constant, albeit mild, fever. Hans asks Clavdia where she’s been all this time, and she talks about her travels to Moscow, her stays at German spas, and a trip to Spain. When the subject of Peeperkorn comes up, Hans scowls and mockingly insults the man’s tendency to ramble and never get his point across. Hans asks Clavdia if she still has his “interior portrait,” but her answer is vague. He replies that he still has hers—and carries it with him at all times. 

Just then, Peeperkorn arrives, interrupting Hans and Clavdia’s stilted conversation. Clavdia introduces the men to each other. It’s clear to Hans that Peeperkorn likes him, though it’s also clear that he has inferred the truth about Hans’s past relations with Clavdia. Clavdia, taking a hint from Peeperkorn’s friendly gestures, suggests that they stick around the reading room, assemble a group, and drink some wine and play a game. Peeperkorn orders Hans to go off and find some friends to join them. Hans goes upstairs and rounds up Ferge, Wehsal, and Herr Albin. He also gets Frau Stöhr, Fräulein Kleefeld, and the Magnuses. Clavdia and Peeperkorn gather their own guests, and in the end there are a dozen people gathered in the reading room. Peeperkorn orders Emerentia to get them three bottles of wine to start. Then everyone settles down to play vingt et un.

Some people play for low stakes, and other people play for high stakes. But to everyone, the gambling isn’t the main attraction of the game: it’s witnessing Mynheer Peeperkorn in his element, even if most everything he says is utter nonsense. Peeperkorn orders lots of food for the table. When it arrives, he takes a few bites and angrily deems it inedible, a move that’s out of character for the normally jovial personality. Clavdia calms him, reassuring him that he can just order something else. Peeperkorn relents and kisses Clavdia’s hand. He gives the serving staff money to convince them to return the food to the kitchen to be redone, and he’s satisfied with the replacement meal.

Hans smokes, and Clavdia joins him. Peeperkorn disapproves of smoking, deeming it an “over-refined pleasure[]” that detracts from “the simpler gifts of life.” Then he goes off on an enthusiastic tangent praising the simple pleasures of life and lamenting the many people society has cast out for simply enjoying themselves—and also lamenting the great sin of turning to “over-refined pleasures” and overlooking life’s simple pleasures. Peeperkorn pauses. When nobody responds, Hans sees “a flicker of terror” in Peeperkorn’s eyes, and so Hans jumps in to voice his full and enthusiastic agreement with what Peeperkorn has just said.

Peeperkorn praises Hans’s response but admits that he isn’t yet ready to address Hans using informal pronouns. He might, someday, but it’s too soon right now. Hans gestures to show that he agrees. He also realizes that Peeperkorn is quite drunk—and that drunkenness does little to diminish Peeperkorn’s radiant character. Peeperkorn goes off on a tangent about life, emotion, and passion. He laments the “defeat of feeling in the face of life,” which he likens to “Doomsday.” and Hans considers how the word “Doomsday” perfectly encapsulates Peeperkorn’s character. Hans realizes that neither of his mentors has used the word before.

When Peeperkorn pauses his speech, Hans interjects to argue that, perhaps, enjoying life’s “over-refined pleasures” signifies an embrace rather than a rejection of life. He continues incoherently for a bit before realizing how drunk he is and trails off. Peeperkorn listens in silence, and Hans senses anger building inside the large man. In response, Hans backtracks and praises the vice the group is presently enjoying—wine. He muses philosophically about “culture” really being about “enthusiasm” rather than “well-articulated sobriety.” Hans’s maneuver apparently works, and Peeperkorn’s anger appears to subside.

Clavdia interrupts to tell Peeperkorn that he isn’t paying enough attention to his guests, who are getting bored. She suggests they end the party now. Peeperkorn rouses himself and orders champagne and petits fours for the table. The card game is over by this point, and people stick around to make drunken small talk. The party is still in full swing at 1:00 in the morning. Peeperkorn flirts with Emerentia and Frau Stöhr, causing both women to blush. Women, Peeperkorn remarks, are “doomsday.”

A bit later, word spreads that Behrens is heading their way to break up the party, and people begin to panic. Peeperkorn calls everyone “spineless slaves,” but he settles down after Clavdia and Hans remind him that his party has lasted six hours already and has to end eventually. He asks Clavdia and Hans to help him to his room, and they oblige. Hans declares what an honor it is to be allowed to escort such “a manifest personality” to his room. Peeperkorn brushes off Hans’s obnoxious praise. Then he orders Hans and Clavdia to kiss each other goodnight, but Hans refuses. As Hans retreats to his own room, Peeperkorn remains frozen in shock by Han’s “act of insubordination.”