Der Zauberer. Fragmente zu einem Roman，on the cover merely Der Zauberer is a small hardcover volume in the Bibliothek Suhrkamp series, of just under 120 pages. It consists of three texts of each about 30 pages: "Der Zauberer", "Kurzgefasster Lebenslauf" and "Kindheid des Zauberers" followed by an afterword.

Although the first text, "Der Zauberer" was written in 1921 as the first part of a novel, intented as "Aus dem Leben eines Zauberers" the publishers suggestion that all three texts are fragments of this planned but never written novel is stretched. In fact, the tone and style of the second text, "Kurzgefasster Lebenslauf", is very different much less dreamy than the style of the first and third texts. "Kindheid des Zauberers" was written in 1923, apparently separately from the first text and was published as a novella.

All three prose texts were separately published or read to audiences. Readers familiar with the work of Hesse will recognize that many of his writings contain autobiographical elements and together constitute a Gesamtkunstwerk. These three texts are each very beautiful, but three together, on essentially the same period, in much the same style and same diction ask for separate reading, and the texts should not be seen as part of a whole lost or unwritten work.

It is a bit confusing that Thomas Mann is often described as "Der Zauberer". ( )