Description

A masterpiece of German modernism and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

Adrian Leverkuhn is a young man destined for success. He is a composer – creative and brilliant, but he will stop at nothing to achieve greatness. Intentionally contracting syphilis in order to deepen his creative potential through madness, Adrian makes his pact with nature. Mann’s interpretation of the Faustian legend is a story of madness and sanity, genius and corruption, intellectual attainment and Germany’s moral fall.

‘Arguably the great German novel’ New York Times

THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION BY H. T. LOWE-PORTER

Publisher Review

Arguably the great German novel * New York Times * Perhaps not since Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus has a novelist conveyed so tangibly and exaltedly the mechanism and the aesthetic effect in musical performance * New York Times * The real masterpiece * New York Times * Mann struggled with his own conflicted feelings about Germany and German culture, and in his magisterial Doctor Faustus found the perfect metaphor for what his country had done; it had bargained with the devil, and lost. * The Herald *