Description

To unlock his full creative potential, Adrian Leverkuhn makes a lethal pact with nature and intentionally contracts syphilis.

A brilliant young composer, Adrian believes that the disease-induced madness will fuel his genius. But while his music reaches new heights, his mind and morality begin to unravel. 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

(Cover may vary)

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 *