The literature of the sanatorium probably deserves a list of its own, but Mann’s classic is one of the first and best studies of institutional life. The reader is never entirely sure if the hero, Hans Castorp, is really ill or succumbing to the pleasures of institutionalisation. In an Alpine sanatorium for tuberculosis at the beginning of the 20th century, the rituals of mealtimes, carefully prescribed walks, rests and consultations leave the patients little to do but watch each other and try not to think about death.