Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend

Book Description

The new translation, by the masterly John E. Woods, of one of Thomas Mann's most famous and important novels: his modern reworking of the Faust legend, in which twentieth-century Germany sells its soul to the devil.

Mann's protagonist, Adrian Leverkühn, is one of the most significant characters in the literature of our era, for it is in him that Mann centers the tragedy of Germany's seduction by evil. This modern Faust is a great artist: Leverkühn is a musical genius who trades body and soul in a Mephistophelian bargain for twenty-four years of triumph as the world's greatest composer. He is isolated, brilliant, a radical experimenter who both plays and thinks at the very edges of artistic possibility. The story of his life becomes an apocalyptic narrative of his country's moral collapse as it surges into the catastrophe of World War II. No simple symbolic figure, Leverkühn is himself, almost paradoxically, a morally driven man in the vortex of an entire culture's self-destruction.

Through the wonderful--and terrible--story of Leverkühn's life and death, Mann not only gave us his most profound writing on the very nature and heart of all art--how it is created and how it impinges on every aspect of our experience: artistic, religious, political, sexual, psychological--but also forced his countrymen (the novel was first published fifty years ago, in 1947) to come face-to-face with how they had fallen prey to all that was most lethal in their heritage.

Customer Reviews:

Artist Meets Scientist.......2006-12-27

In Doctor Faustus, arguably his greatest book if not the greatest book ever, all of Mann's formidable gifts come together. Lying at the heart of Mann's concern is the central figure of Adrian Leverkuhn, theologian turned composer. In him all the warring impulses, all the contradictions of our age are focused. "Cold" by nature, inclined to mathematics and to "speculate the elements" as scientists do, he yet craves the freedom and unrestraint of art, specifically music, the most demonic of the arts. But the fearful complexities of modern composition and his own innate coldness form an insuperable barrier, he needs something to kindle him to his destiny as a great composer. This turns out to be the Devil, who in a memorable interview heavy with fate offers him a quick way out of his difficulties.

The book teems with unforgettable images. To pick a few at random: the extended description of Adrian's sojourn in the Italian countryside, where he meets the Devil and his fate is sealed; the wintry excursion to the Bavarian Alps; the vision of the children in the choir singing a motet to Adrian, bedecked with rubies on their fat hands while little yellow worms crawl from their nostrils down into their chests in the finest diabolic style. The density and vividness of Mann's imagery, its capacity to fill the mind and linger there, is Shakespearean.

Mann's treatment of his characters is sensitive, fine-grained, subtly ironic, and humanly engaging, with much wry humor. The amazing chapters dealing with Schwerdtfeger's vicarious wooing of Marie Godeau for Adrian, the piling up of layers of meaning and subcontext (including the latent homosexuality that runs like a provocative thread throughout Mann's writings), amount to a virtuoso performance whose incredible, sustained brilliance is rivaled only by Joseph's interview with Pharaoh in Joseph and His Brothers, also by Mann. Those readers who complain that the narrator Serenus Zeitblom is a tedious boor, that the other characters are lifeless cardboard cutouts, and that nothing ever happens, simply haven't gotten to first base with this novel.

What then is the problem? It is one that Mann himself wrestled with and which for a time led him to consider the work a failure, although he was determined to finish it. The problem is that the story cannot just unfold naturally and tell itself. A certain amount of history, of context, is needed to motivate the character of Adrian Leverkuhn; readers must be made to understand why the problems he wrestled with are not peculiar to him but arise inevitably and are universal -- in short, our problems as well. This context-building necessitates a rather long, abstract, and careful development. With his daughter Erika's help, the original manuscript was cut extensively to leave only the most essential material, but even so this development occupies the first third of the book. Anyone interested in Western history will find it fascinating, while those who aren't will be richly rewarded for persisting, for the narrative pace, at first imperceptible, does pick up and toward the end becomes irresistible, like the final running out of the sand in Adrian's hourglass.

Given that Adrian's concerns are ours as well, what are we to do about them in our own very different age? What meaning does the concluding high G on the cello in Adrian's final work, that abides like a light in the night, hold for us? When we strip away all the inanity, futility, and trash of our era, what is left? Not art, alas, for art is a finite store that has been exhausted. But there is science, which is unlimited and inexhaustible, and it is specifically the scientific aspect of Adrian's nature, his tendency to "speculate the elements", that is meaningful for us. Modern biology now offers the prospect of understanding and manipulating the essence of life itself. Will it just be more "devil's juggling", more falling down in the dust to worship the quintillions, from which Zeitblom protested nothing human can ever emerge? Can man be trusted to resist temptation in carrying out such a program? Can the devil and the humane even be separated from this vital substance? No one can tell us, yet the essence of the problem is already fully present in symbolic form in Doctor Faustus. This is the triumph of Mann's representative art, of the Artist way. As we continue on the precarious, ever-changing path of self- and world-discovery, Mann's book stands as a guidepost and a warning. This is the enduring significance of Doctor Faustus and the reason why it will always be with us for as long as we remain recognizable as a species.

brief thoughts..........2006-12-24

I just finished Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann.

I agree with other readers that it is written in highly complex prose. It reminds me quite a bit of Joseph Conrad. While Mann's sentences are strangely convoluted, if you read them slowly and carefully, eventually they do make sense. The effort is worthwhile and satisfying. The translator Woods has obviously done a painstaking job in rendering into English an obviously difficult German text. There is however an annoyingly substantial amount of technical discussion on musical theory that (as Mann himself notes on several occasions) demands considerable forbearance on the part of the reader, especially one who is not particularly skilled in the art. It is not clear why Mann decides to go into such detailed technical discussions, except perhaps as an expression of some longstanding personal interest of his in classical music. The depth of technical detail is not critical to the reader being able to appreciate the brilliance of Adrian's composing. Balanced against this, there are some beautiful literary passages (Adrian's trip to the brothel; his father's science experiments; the exchange with the devil; the sleigh ride in the country) that more than compensate for the long-winded music-theoretical discourses.

The basic story, as all reviewers know, is the classic Marlowe/Goethe tale of a man who sells his soul to the Devil in return for a lengthy period of great artistic creativity and power. In this case the luckless hero is composer Adrian Leverkuhn. The parallel between Adrian and Germany in the inter-war years has been noted by other reviewers, so I won't go into further detail here.

I have not yet read the Marlowe or Goethe versions but, having read this book, I have now put these high up on my list. However, I am not in a particular rush to read anything more by Thomas Mann. I might care to open up one of his earlier books in a couple of years, but I first need to let Doctor Faustus crystallize in my mind for a while. The subtlety of the text (reminsicent of Kenziburo Oe's masterpeice "Somersault" or Madison Smartt Bell's recent "All Souls' Rising") needs time to work its way properly into my neural network.

I would not advise casual readers, simply looking for a good entertaining story, to pick up Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann. Such a reader might be disappointed and would have trouble getting very far into it. The book, written somewhat relectively by a mature writer, is more appropriate for a person interested in digging around in the dusty corners of great literature.

A Reckoning........2005-04-20

This review is dedicated, in friendship and grateful memory, to Bob Zeidler, one of Amazon's best and brightest customer reviewers. It is partly inspired by an exchange with Bob, whose comments hereon are sorely missed.
_______________________________

"Yes ... we are lost. That is to say: the war is lost, but that means more than a lost military campaign, in fact it means that *we* are lost, lost is our substance and our soul, our faith and our history. It is over with Germany; ... an unnamable collapse, economical, political, moral and spiritual, in short, all-encompassing, is becoming apparent, - I don't want to have wished for what is looming, because it is despair, it is madness."*

Thus, the narrator of Thomas Mann's last completed and, I think, greatest novel sums up Germany's fate after the barbarities of national-socialism. But this is no mere character speaking: This is Mann himself - the erstwhile self-proclaimed "Unpolitical Man," condemned to watch the Nazi tyranny's horrors from the distance of his Californian exile, taking up the mighty pen that had gained him his Literature Nobel Prize and, through the voice of a narrator named Dr. Serenus Zeitbloom (in itself, supremely ironic comment on Mann's own circumstances) composing his final reckoning with the country he left when the Nazis came to power, and where he never returned to live, although he finally did leave the U.S. in 1952, driven out by McCarthyism.

According to his diaries, as early as 1904 Mann had the idea of using a composer's temptation by the devil (and thus, updating the Faustian legend, *the* quintessential theme of Germany's cultural history at least since the Middle Ages) to illustrate the corruption of art by evil. Seeing the country's intoxication with the glorious promises of Hitler and his henchmen, seeing all of German society fall under the spell of evil, including the "Bildungsbürgertum," the educated middle class considering itself guardians of Germany's cultural tradition (and for whose acceptance the dark-haired merchant's son without a university education struggled throughout his life, much as they bought his books), reviving that idea first conceived forty years earlier was a logical choice; now further inspired by the personalities of Arnold Schoenberg, whom Mann met in exile and whose twelve-tone scale became that of his novel's protagonist Adrian Leverkuehn, and Friedrich Nietzsche, with whose writings and personal fate Mann had been fascinated early on. Philosophically and musically, the novel is also influenced by critical theorist Theodor Adorno, with whom Mann entertained an in-depth epistolary dialogue.

Blending together musical theory, the decline of humanist philosophy, the rise of fascism and the powers of black magic (most of which Mann had already explored in earlier works like "The Magic Mountain" and, very pointedly, in the 1930 short story "Mario and the Magician"), "Doctor Faustus" is thus simultaneously a comment on the political developments, a warning, an attempt to come to grips with Germany's high-flying, yet so easily destructible philosophical and moral compass - and, masterfully construed though it is, a cry of despair in the face of utter madness. For while the novel is brimming with references to the better part of German (and European) cultural history, from the medieval "Faustus" tale to Goethe, Weber's "Freischuetz," Martin Luther, Protestantism, and Thuringia and Saxony as focal points of all things German, Mann's central point remains the parallel between his country's fate and that of his novel's protagonist, both ending in ruin and madness-induced stupor after their deal with the devil has run its evil course.

Unlike Goethe, who places his Faust's temptation at his tragedy's beginning, leaving no doubt about the event's physical reality, Mann even narratively lifts Leverkuehn's temptation into the realm of allegory and imagination, by splitting it into two incidents, whose combined effect will only come to fruition in the novel's final part. On neither occasion Zeitbloom, the narrator, is present; for both we thus have only Leverkuehn's own words. Yet, even the first account, a letter describing how the would-be composer is mischievously led to a brothel and falls under the spell of a prostitute, already intimates the evil to come, the venereal disease that will later constitute the outward cause of his madness; and not only does Leverkuehn ask his friend to destroy that letter, he also closes it imploring him to pray for his soul.

Much later in the narrative - although indicating that it was actually written earlier; thus employing yet another level of (temporal) abstraction - Mann introduces Leverkuehn's transcript of his exchange with the devil; a dream-like sequence during which shape-shifting "Sammael," in language hearkening back to Goethe and even the Middle Ages, promises Leverkuehn nothing short of "the metamorphosis of a god": that by his name a whole generation of "receptively healthy boys"* will swear, "those who thanks to [his] madness will no longer have to be mad themselves;"* and that, indeed, his name will live forever. Still, at this point we have already witnessed Leverkuehn explaining the foundations of his twelve-tone scale, only to be challenged by Zeitbloom's question whether the strictness of his concept doesn't deprive the composer of all freedom (which Leverkuehn denies, rather seeing the composer as "bound by a self-imposed order, hence free").* And when in an exchange laden with symbolism Zeitbloom then presses whether the formation of harmony wouldn't be left to chance, Leverkuehn's response is, "Rather say: to constellation"* - thus squarely introducing, as his friend will quickly note, concepts of black magic, which in addition to the dialogue's musical and political references again drive home Leverkuehn's exposure to the irrational and evil, long before the reader actually learns about his interview with the devil.

Doubtlessly among Mann's most intimately personal works, "Doctor Faustus" is also among his most complex ones; and while hardly any of his writings make for a leisurely read, the sardonic "Felix Krull," the near-humoristic "Royal Highness" and even his early masterpiece "Buddenbrooks" are foils to the seasoned master craftsman's rapier that is drawn here. Demanding, certainly - but also highly recommended!
_______________________________

*Translation mine.

A great book, but very rough going!.......2004-08-04

First of all, I think Thomas Mann is without doubt the very greatest 20th century author! I am familiar with about everything he wrote, as well as his very interesting life. But I have found Dr. Faustus to be simply very rough going. The book's basic theme is outlined by many other reviews here. Though a very serious subject (life and death and the horrors of WW2), there is still not the wry humor I find in Mann in his other blockbusters (MagicMountain,Buddonbrooks,Royal Highness,Felix Krull,etc), so that solemnity overwhelms this great enterprise. In fact,in my humble opinion, the 2 best parts are his descriptions of prehistoric life under the sea, and the bombings of great German cities. The characterizations seem a bit dry, with nothing like the amusing personages in say, the Magic Mountain. And the descriptions of musical compositions practically require an advanced degree from the Julliard School. So these small criticisms simply suggest that great patience, learning, and thinking are required to fully appreciate this great novel, and probably this reviewer does not have these three qualities in ample quantity to really appreciate Dr. Faustus!

Hardly bearable.......2004-04-21

Mann's gorgeous, rich prose cannot save this dull, plodding tale from being an ordeal to read. The same density of language which charms the reader in the beginning becomes an irritant as hundreds of pages pass and almost literally nothing happens. Characters are well drawn, but in gloomy colors which evoke no sympathy. Not a single character stands as a hero; few are even likable. The narrator is a long-winded bore. In many respects, Adrian, the subject of this fictitious biography, remains inscrutable to the very end. Having loved THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, I persevered to the end in the hope of finding something to make the time invested seem worthwhile. I was disappointed.

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Enjoyable and a must read!
Read the man who inspired William Shakespeare
The Price of Fame....
Marlowe's Masterpiece.
"This word damnation terrifies not him"

Doctor Faustus (Signet Classics)
Christopher Marlowe
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451527798
Release Date: 2001-02-06

Book Description

New Mermaids are modernized and fully-annotated editions of classic English plays. Each volume includes:

• The playtext, in modern spelling, edited to the highest bibliographical and textual standards
• Textual notes recording significant changes to the copytext and variant readings
• Glossing notes explaining obscure words and word-play
• Critical, contextual and staging notes
• Photographs of productions where applicable
• A full introduction which provides a critical account of the play, the staging conventions of the time and recent stage history; discusses authorship, date, sources and the text; and gives guidance for further reading.

Edited and updated by leading scholars and printed in a clear, easy-to-use format, New Mermaids offer invaluable guidance for actor, student, and theatre-goer alike.

Customer Reviews:

Enjoyable and a must read!.......2007-07-26

By his untimely death at 29 Christopher Marlowe had written this and other plays (including The Jew of Malta) which inspired a beginning William Shakespeare to sharpen his craft.

Though the version we have was not recorded until about a decade after Marlowe's death (and therefore shows signs of later adulterations by other writers) you can still observe the genius of Marlowe at work.

The plot of this play is about a well-learnt man, Dr. Faustus, who believing that he has attained all the knowledge there is to learn (knowledge beyond the point of 'this far and no further'), turns to magic.

During one of his rituals he calls upon the underworld to aid him - Mephistopheles duly comes to Faustus' beckoning as any good demon would in their relentless search for souls; however Faustus, in his naive pride, believes that Mephistopheles is there as a result of his conjuring - demons are at his beck and call!

Mephistopheles plays it whatever way Faustus wants it, to ensure capturing his soul. They strike a pact - 24 glorious years of fame and fortune for Faustus, with Mephistopheles as his servant, after which his soul belongs to Lucifer. To make the contract binding Faustus writes out the pact and signs in blood. However, Mephistopheles is portrayed as a figure of sorrow and tries to warn Faustus about what he is getting himself into. But Faustus is unreceptive to the truth and ignores Mephistopheles' warning.

There is the good and bad angel that appear to Dr. Faustus several times. The good angel repeats over and over to Dr. Faustus that he can repent at any time and come back into good graces, while the bad angel keeps on telling him it's too late. The bad angel prevails.

A number of scenes are depicted - the main one being at the Vatican. Faustus is invisible and steals food and wine from under the Pope's nose, followed by putting to sleep a couple of Cardinals and stealing their clothes, and he frees Bruno who is to be put to death for impersonating the pope.

So the story develops - Faustus is the guest at the tables of the figureheads of Europe where he further increases his reputation by bringing to life such people as Helen of Troy. He is introduced to the Seven Deadly sins - Pride, Covetousness, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth and Lechery.

After twenty four years of fame Faustus' time is drawing to a close and he cannot postpone the inevitable. Mephistopheles, Lucifer and Beelzebub appear to collect their payment - the soul of Faustus. At the midnight hour they open the gates of hell. Faustus tries to repent but it's too late and his implorations to God are halfhearted. The devils rip his body apart before casting it aside - it has no use for them - their only currency is the soul.

In the 3rd and 4th acts, Faustus seems to let go of his quest for knowledge (for the most part) and indulges in practical jokes of an evil nature. There are some who feel that the 3rd and 4th acts are way too silly and that they drag the play down.

The 5th act begins, and Faustus has one final chance to avoid his fate, but he resigns himself to damnation if he can 'enjoy' Helen of Troy. The devil always tempts us with sexual fantasies, mankind's ultimate weakness!

The final scene where Faustus realizes that it is too late and hell awaits, is a scene of pure terror almost unparalleled in literature. He moves from requests that cannot be granted to the most imaginative escapes. The play ends with an appropriate warning to stay behind the line of 'this far and no further.'

Christopher Marlow's life is a bit of a mystery. Some historians believe that he might have been a spy. Not surprisingly, one of the groups of people who Marlowe is rumored to have spied on were Catholics intent on overthrowing what they saw as England's Protestant government. The first thing Dr. Faustus does when he makes his famous bargain is to play a practical joke on the Pope.

Marlowe was killed in a bar fight over an unpaid bill, but it seems highly likely that he was murdered because he was a spy.

Read the man who inspired William Shakespeare.......2006-11-24

By his untimely death at 29 Christopher Marlowe had written this and other plays (including The Jew of Malta) which inspired a beginning William Shakespeare to sharpen his craft.

As regards this play, Marlowe was sort of the Pete Best of the era doing his version of the Hey Joe of the era. To continue musical metaphors he didn't invent but merely sampled the Faustus tale and in so doing gave it his own unique spin.

Though the version we have was not recorded until about a decade after Marlowe's death (and therefore shows signs of later adulterations by other writers) you can still observe the genuis of Marlowe at work. By likening his character to the Greek methological story of Dedalus, Marlowe imparts that sense of doom so connected with the potential arrogance of human ambition. As a reminder, Dedalus was affixed wings with wax by his father Icarus only to lose them and fall when Dedalus flew too high and had them melted by the light of the sun.

Similarly Faustus is -- in almost Christmas Carol type fashion -- visited by the personified seven deadly sins and Lucifer himself...itself then a unique device uniquely and effectively executed.

Throughout Marlowe makes us witness to Faustus' growing sense of doom at the irrevocability of his contract with Lucifer.

Sadly, to the modern reader much of the horror of his Faustian bargain is lost to us. For the most part, we moderns don't have the immediate fear of Lucifer that our forebears had. For us today, evil does not lurk in the shadows but is rather all too much before us as we proceed through our days and take note of current events.

Still the same the play was a landmark piece and an inspiration to Shakespeare who had before him an example of the genuis he had to compete with and the standard he had to maintain.

The Price of Fame...........2006-09-29

Tells the tale of the unfortunate Doctor John Faustus - who in return for 24 years of fame and fortune sells his soul to Lucifer. Faustus is a learned gentleman, his pride tells him that he can learn no more from books and the limit of knowledge that they contain. He needs to escape the bounds of the known world and so turns to the world of magic.

During one of his rituals he calls upon the underworld to aid him - Mephistopheles duly comes to Faustus' beckoning as any good demon would in their relentless search for souls (Europe happens to be Mephistopheles stomping ground); however Faustus, in his naive pride, believes that Mephistopheles is there as a result of his conjuering - demons are at his beck and call! Mephistopheles plays it whatever way Fautus wants it, to ensure capturing his soul. They strike a pact - 24 glorious years of fame and fortune for Faustus, with Mephisto as his servent, after which his soul belongs to Lucifer. To make the contract binding Faustus writes out the pact and signs in blood - Mephisto isn't taking any chances.

A number of scenes are depicted - the main one being at the Vatican. Faustus is invisible and steals food and wine from under the Pope's nose, followed by putting to sleep a couple of Cardinals and stealing their clothes, he frees Bruno who is to be put to death for impersonating the pope.

So the story develops - Faustus is the guest at the tables of the figureheads of Europe where he further increases his reputation by bringing to life such people as Helen of Troy. He is introduced to the Seven Deadly sins - Pride, Covetousness, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth & Lechery.

After Twenty and Four years of fame Faustus' time is drawing to a close and he cannot postpone the inevitable. Mephisto, Lucifer and Belzebub appear to collect their payment - the soul of Faustus. At the midnight hour they crack back the gates of hell to reveal his destiny - bodies on endless treadmills, unfortunates being thrown around on pitch forks, souls damned for eternity. Faustus tries to repent but it's too late and his implorations to God are halfhearted. The devils rip his body apart before casting it aside - it has no use for them - their only currency is the soul.

Recommended

Marlowe's Masterpiece. .......2006-07-24

If you saw "Shakespeare In Love," you know this was the play of Marlowe's that was getting so much attention. (For that matter, I found this play better than "Romeo and Juliet," even though "Romeo and Juliet" was to become the big play at the climactic moment.) Moving on, we meet Dr. Faustus, and he decides that the legitimate knowledge of this world is not good enough. So, he decides to cross the line of 'this far and no further' by making an unholy deal. It is interesting that even Mephistophilis (the unholy agent of the devil) is drawn as a figure of sorrow and even tries to warn Faustus about what he is getting himself into. But Faustus is unreceptive to the truth and ignores Mephistophilis's warning. In a scene of shocking horror, Faustus even mocks Mephistophilis for trying to warn him of the dangers involved: "Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude" (1.3.85). Faustus makes an unholy pact and sells his soul for books that will offer knowledge beyond the point of 'this far and no further,' as well as significant magical powers. It is interesting that even after Faustus makes the pact, he is presented with several opportunities to escape his fate. But he can not give up the fruits of the pact. (His powers, having Mephistophilis at his command, etc.) Later, we see meet the 7 deadly sins. And Faustus's delight at them shows us his degeneration. In the 3rd and 4th acts, Faustus seems to let go of his quest for knowledge (for the most part) and indulges in practical jokes of an evil nature. There are some who feel that the 3rd and 4th acts are way too silly and that they drag the play down. But, I don't think this is the case at all. I can not help but think that Marlowe was emphasizing how worthless the fruits of the pact really were. (Nothing we could ask the devil for could equal the soul which Christ gave us.) Furthermore, in my opinion, we shouldn't be so surprised at Faustus's degeneration. He has made a pact with evil, and evil is basically degeneration through the service of one's self, depite how amoral and sick that service may be. It is our good side that encourages us to better ourselves, hopefully at least in part for the sake of others. The 5th act begins, and Faustus has one final chance to avoid his fate, but he resigns himself to damnation if he can 'enjoy' Helen of Troy. If I were a betting man, I would bet that Marlowe is emphasizing that sex often overrides our rational thoughts. (How many romance plays seem to defy reason?) The final scene where Faustus realizes that it is too late and hell awaits, is a scene of pure terror almost unparalled in literature. He moves from requests that can not be granted to the most imaginative escapes. The play ends with an appropriate warning to stay behind the line of 'this far and no further.'

"This word damnation terrifies not him".......2006-01-31

Christopher Marlowe is awsone. What other Renaissance writer was a freakin' spy? I mean, I like Shakespeare's plays and all, but as a person he's boring unless he's being played by Joseph Fiennes. I often pit two historical figures against one another in my mind, and I wonder what would happen if these two fought. If Shakespeare and Marlowe fought, Marlowe would bust out his super secret digital watch-that's secretly a laser-and he'd slice Shakespeare in half. Maybe `Speare would have a deadly quill like the Joker had in Batman, but a deadly quill versus a laser? I think we know who would win. I know the digital watch/laser is a bit silly because they didn't have digital watches back then, but at the very least he'd have an hourglass with a secret laser.

Reading Dr. Faustus I realize what a shame it is Marlowe died so early. Marlowe's ability to combine drama and comedy was light years ahead of Shakespeare's. It wasn't until the second half of Shakespeare's career that he started writing dark comedies, but Marlowe was interjecting his humor with a dark twist right away with plays like Dr. Faustus and The Jew of Malta. If Marlowe hadn't dies so early (in a fight over who was going to pay the bill no less-freakin' cool!) then maybe there would have been two playwriting giants in London competing against one another. Just imagine the masterpieces that would have ensued. I bet they would have made King Lear look like A Comedy of Errors.

This is the second time I've read Dr. Faustus, and I had forgotten how anti-Catholic it is. The story takes place mostly in Wittenberg, Germany where Martin Luther wrote his famous 95 theses. The location already sets up the tenuous relationship between Protestants and Catholics. This relationship, obviously biased against Catholics, is further represented in the good angel and bad angel that appear to Dr. Faustus several times. The good angel repeats over and over to Dr. Faustus that he can repent at any time and come back into good graces, while the bad angel keeps on telling him it's too late. The obvious analogy is that the good angel represents the Protestant idea of justification by faith. Not surprisingly, one of the groups of people who Marlowe is rumored to have spied on were Catholics intent on overthrowing what they saw as England's Protestant government. Furthermore, the first thing Dr. Faustus does when he makes his famous bargain is to play a practical joke on the Pope.

Please, if you're Catholic don't let this turn you away from reading this beautifully written play. At times the mixture of slapstick comedy and high brow allusions are a bit uneven, but that was the nature of the beast back then. Marlowe had to play to the peasants as well as royalty.

The trick Marlowe plays on the audience is even greater than the trick played on Faustus. Marlowe actually gets us to care about Faustus by the end of the play. This is either a trick to show us how close every one of us is to making a Faustian bargain, or it's a trick to show us how unfair these religious traditions were. After all, what did Faustus do that was so wrong? He goes into the deal with plans for making himself a despot, and ends up using all of his power to fetch grapes for debutants and summon Helen of Troy so that others may see her beauty. (Dr. Faustus has "phenominal cosmic power," and all he can manage is playing a few practical jokes and impressing people with out of season fruits.) He's never punished for his bad acts, but rather because of who he pledged his allegiance to. Over the course of twenty-four years Faustus has actually become a somewhat better person if only because he recognizes his sins. His greatest crimes are nothing more than playing practical jokes on peasants. He's not perfect, but he's also not deserving of eternal damnation.

I see Dr. Faustus as a critique of religion. Others may find that it only reinforces their beliefs, and that's what makes the text so good. The Faustian bargain finds its way into literature time and again, but it means something different to each author; likewise, Dr. Faustus means something different to each reader.

Doctor Faustus and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)

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WOW
Yes, the English Renaissance CAN be humorous!

Doctor Faustus and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics)
Christopher Marlowe
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192834452

Book Description

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), a man of extreme passions and a playwright of immense talent, is the most important of Shakespeare's contempories. This edition offers his five major plays, which show the radicalism and vitality of his writing in the few years before his violent death. Tamburlaine Part One and Part Two deal with the rise to world prominence of the great Scythian shepherd-robber; The Jew of Malta is a drama of villainy and revenge; Edward II was to influence Shakespeare's Richard II. Doctor Faustus, perhaps the first drama taken from the medieval legend of a man who sells his soul to the devil, is here in both its A- and its B- text, showing the enormous and fascinating differences between the two. Under the General Editorship of Dr Michael Cordner of the University of York, the texts of the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. In addition, there is a scholarly introduction and detailed annotation.

Customer Reviews:

WOW.......2005-10-06

HAVING BEING A SIXTH GRADE STUDENT WHO WAS ASSINGED TO DO A BOOK REPORT ABOUT A CLASSIC NOVEL OR SHORT STORY.I DECIDED TO CHOOSE AN UNCONVENTIONAL NOVEL .I CHOSE THIS ONE BECAUSE IT IS NOT ONLY DISTURBING BUT AMAZING AS WELL IT IS ONE OF THE BEST IF NOT THE BEST NOVEL EVER WRITTEN. MOVE OVER SHAKESPHERE MARLOWE IS COMING FOR YOR CROWN YOU MAY NO LONGER BE THE GREATEST WRITER WHO HAS EVER LIVED ONCE WORD OF THIS REVIEW GETS OUT.

Yes, the English Renaissance CAN be humorous!.......2000-08-28

Christopher Marlowe is a genius. This thorough, Oxfordiancompilation of his best known plays contains Tamburlaine the Great parts one and two, the Tragical History of Doctor Faustus in its original A-text and its later B-text, The Jew of Malta, and Edward II. The beauty of these dramas lies in the fact that they're short but powerful reading pieces. In five acts Marlowe was able to generate a story complete with action, classical allusions, and a bawdy humor one might not expect from otherwise generally classified stuffy English Renaissance drama. This book contains an exhaustive introduction that explains many details of the publication dates of the plays and the differences between versions (Faustus). It also contains a thorough section for notes that further explain the texts. Finally, it contains a glossary of the commonly used words from the texts. The bottom line? This book is a great read--it's funny (I can't begin to stress that enough), and you will appreciate Marlowe's wit and talent just as much as William Shakespeare did. Buy it today!

Science on Stage: From "Doctor Faustus" to "Copenhagen"

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Science on Stage: From "Doctor Faustus" to "Copenhagen"
Kirsten Shepherd-Barr
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691121508

Book Description

Science on Stage is the first full-length study of the phenomenon of "science plays"--theatrical events that weave scientific content into the plot lines of the drama. The book investigates the tradition of science on the stage from the Renaissance to the present, focusing in particular on the current wave of science playwriting.

Drawing on extensive interviews with playwrights and directors, Kirsten Shepherd-Barr discusses such works as Michael Frayn's Copenhagen and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. She asks questions such as, What accounts for the surge of interest in putting science on the stage? What areas of science seem most popular with playwrights, and why? How has the tradition evolved throughout the centuries? What currents are defining it now? And what are some of the debates and controversies surrounding the use of science on stage?

Organized by scientific themes, the book examines selected contemporary plays that represent a merging of theatrical form and scientific content--plays in which the science is literally enacted through the structure and performance of the play. Beginning with a discussion of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, the book traces the history of how scientific ideas (quantum mechanics and fractals, for example) are dealt with in theatrical presentations. It discusses the relationship of science to society, the role of science in our lives, the complicated ethical considerations of science, and the accuracy of the portrayal of science in the dramatic context.

The final chapter looks at some of the most recent and exciting developments in science playwriting that are taking the genre in innovative directions and challenging the audience's expectations of a science play. The book includes a comprehensive annotated list of four centuries of science plays, which will be useful for teachers, students, and general readers alike.

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No work of the devil, this...
Excellent edition of Marlowe's problematic play.

Doctor Faustus (The Revels Plays)
Christopher Marlowe
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0719016436

Book Description

This volume in the "Revel Plays" series, offers reading editions, with modern spelling, of the 1604 and 1616 editions of Marlowe's play, arguing that the two cannot be conflated into one. Included are sources and commentary, literary criticism, style and staging/performance assessments.

Customer Reviews:

No work of the devil, this..........2006-02-16

'Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...' There are so many great lines in this play! The greatness of Marlowe was recognised in his own time (a gentle modern reminder of this came in the film 'Shakespeare in Love', when almost every actor auditioning chose a bit from Marlowe, and all of those defaulted to this play).

It is somewhat ironic that if Shakespeare and Marlowe were writing today, they should most like be charged with plagiarism and copyright infringement; 'The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus' is likewise not an entirely original construct of Marlowe's, but rather derives from an anonymously penned German poem translated into English shortly before Marlowe recast it for his play. The German poet Goethe was influenced by the same anonymous source, and perhaps knew of Marlowe's play during his writing.

Dr. Faustus may have been based on a brilliant professor in Germany a generation or two prior to Marlowe. In any event, the idea of the seduction of the power of knowledge was (and continues to be) inspiring. The idea of selling one's soul to get the object of one's desire is also not a unique concept. Knowledge in the ancient world often always involved the spiritual realm, which had both its light and dark sides (one has but to think of the Star Wars saga to see how such concepts remain firmly rooted in our own time). Faustus becomes a conjurer, and strikes a deal with Lucifer to maintain power and knowledge in return for his soul after 24 years.

Despite the temptations to repent, Faustus in Marlowe's text never manages to break free of the temptations. 'My heart's so hardened I cannot repent. / Scare can I name salvation, faith, or heaven, / But fearful echoes thunder in mine ears: / "Faustus, thou art damned." ' Even recognising this, in the span of this one monologue, Faustus talks himself out of despair with the temptations of knowledge and secret power. Unfortunately for Faustus, he spends so much of his time and power doing ultimately useless tricks that he ends up in a worthless position despite his deal, and pays the ultimate price for his deal with the devil.

Marlowe had great appeal to the play-going audience of his day, and his words were considered very powerful art, indeed. One story bears repeating, dealing with the performance history of the play: 'A legend developed that during a performance in Exeter, in one scene in which Faustus called up devils, the actors counted one more devil than the scene called for and realised that Satan himself was in the their midst. In terror, they stopped the play; the audience bolted from the playing place; and the actors quitted the town the next morning.' Such was the power of Marlowe's rendering, that his language was thought to have magical conjuring power.

This edition is designed both for students as well as for those who might want to do the play in performance for class. There are generous notes for the changes in the text versions (there was a publication of this text in 1604 and again in 1616 with changes and revisions), and this text argues that the two cannot be easily conflated, as is often done. This text also includes many stage-direction and theatrical notes to give a good sense of how the play is performed.

Don't let the devil fool you - this is a good text.

Excellent edition of Marlowe's problematic play........2005-11-14

Professors Bevington and Rasmussen have produced an excellent, critical edition of Christopher Marlowe's most famous, and perhaps, most problematic play, Doctor Faustus. As you are probably aware, there's an "A" and "B" text of this play. The A-text, as the editors explain, was published in 1604, and it may well be the authoritative text. The B-text was published in 1616, and contains some seemingly weird/comic/nonsensical scenes, which most scholars attribute to the efforts of lesser playwrights. The textual debate rages still; the editors have provided both texts (the A-text first, then the B-text).

One of the advantages of this edition is that all the spellings have been modernized, but the syntax has been left alone. Thus, you get a wonderful sense of Marlowe's metre, without the headache of reading through the Elizabethan spellings.

The Introduction of this edition is thorough and insightful. In fact, it is over 100 pages long. Written in a very engaging, and reasonable style, the Introduction gives a thorough account of the religious debate surrounding the play (is Marlowe promoting a n orthodox agenda, or a heterodox one?), the historical background of Marlowe and the legend of Dr. Marlowe, as well as different ways to read the play.

As for the play itself--it's strange and wonderful. The "hero" Faustus brazenly rejects his humanist learning, and turns to pagan magic books to summon the devil, Mephistopheles. In exchange for his soul, Fautus will become the master of Mephistopheles for a period of 24 years. Why 24 years? I don't know. Through a series of parallel scenes, we see Faustus being visited by Good and Evil Angels, and a series of short, counterpoint scenes between the fools which subvert and complicate the main plot in significant ways. Then in a powerful last scene, Faustus is condemned to hell.

In short, if you are interested in Renaissance drama, and you're not looking for just any edition of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, but a critical and accurate edition, then I would recommend this book.

Professor Ramussen teaches at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and Professor Bevington teaches at the University of Chicago.

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better than the book
Doctor Faustus

Doctor Faustus (Cliffs Notes)

Manufacturer: Cliffs Notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0822004062

Book Description

While the legend of Faustus has been around in some form or another since the New Testament, Marlowe's drama is the first to give it a place in the pantheon of Western literature. The famous deal Faustus makes with the Devil is a theme repeated since time immemorial and continues to provide a meaningful moral lesson.

Customer Reviews:

better than the book.......2005-12-02

"Doctor Faustus" was another book we were forced to read in our AP English class- and it was pretty interesting. But, like always, I learned a lot more from reading the Cliffs Notes than from reading the play.

This edition of the Notes really puts many of Christopher Marlowe's themes into a new light and expounds on the overall plot structure beautifully.

I found the character biographies to be more than adequate and the plot summary on each act of the play very helpful.

Having read Goethe's original novel "Faust", Marlowe's version is a lot better- and is even better once you read the Notes. Another superb job, Cliff.

Doctor Faustus.......2000-04-24

The notes did greatly help AFTER I read the Christopher Marlowe novel, in the capacity that I was able to choose a wonderful topic for a research paper from the further suggestions offered by the book. As with other Cliff Notes that I have purchased over the years, this one aided me in making heads and tails out of much of the language and historical content. I recommed this guide be used hand in hand along with the Novel itself, for both are an easy and enjoyable read.

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Doctor Faustus (Signet Classics)
Christopher Marlowe
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451522281

Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn, as Told by a Friend

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A Reckoning.
A shattering feast of despair
great and dark novel
Artist meets Scientist
Hardly bearable

Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn, as Told by a Friend
Thomas Mann
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 067973905X
Release Date: 1992-03-31

Book Description

Tells the story of Adrian Leverkuhn, a theological student turned composer, who symbolically enters into a pact with the Devil, selling his soul and body in return for twenty-four years of musical genius.

Customer Reviews:

A Reckoning........2006-09-09

"Yes ... we are lost. That is to say: the war is lost, but that means more than a lost military campaign, in fact it means that *we* are lost, lost is our substance and our soul, our faith and our history. It is over with Germany; ... an unnamable collapse, economical, political, moral and spiritual, in short, all-encompassing, is becoming apparent, -- I don't want to have wished for what is looming, because it is despair, it is madness."*

Thus, the narrator of Thomas Mann's last completed and, I think, greatest novel sums up Germany's fate after the barbarities of national-socialism. But this is no mere character speaking: This is Mann himself -- the erstwhile self-proclaimed "Unpolitical Man," condemned to watch the Nazi tyranny's horrors from the distance of his Californian exile, taking up the mighty pen that had gained him his Literature Nobel Prize and, through the voice of a narrator named Dr. Serenus Zeitbloom (in itself, supremely ironic comment on Mann's own circumstances) composing his final reckoning with the country he left when the Nazis came to power, and where he never returned to live, although he finally did leave the U.S. in 1952, driven out by McCarthyism.

According to his diaries, as early as 1904 Mann had the idea of using a composer's temptation by the devil (and thus, updating the Faustian legend, *the* quintessential theme of Germany's cultural history at least since the Middle Ages) to illustrate the corruption of art by evil. Seeing the country's intoxication with the glorious promises of Hitler and his henchmen, seeing all of German society fall under the spell of evil, including the "Bildungsbürgertum," the educated middle class considering itself guardians of Germany's cultural tradition (and for whose acceptance the dark-haired merchant's son without a university education struggled throughout his life, much as they bought his books), reviving that idea first conceived forty years earlier was a logical choice; now further inspired by the personalities of Arnold Schoenberg, whom Mann met in exile and whose twelve-tone scale became that of his novel's protagonist Adrian Leverkuehn, and Friedrich Nietzsche, with whose writings and personal fate Mann had been fascinated early on. Philosophically and musically, the novel is also influenced by critical theorist Theodor Adorno, with whom Mann entertained an in-depth epistolary dialogue.

Blending together musical theory, the decline of humanist philosophy, the rise of fascism and the powers of black magic (most of which Mann had already explored in earlier works like "The Magic Mountain" and, very pointedly, in the 1930 short story "Mario and the Magician"), "Doctor Faustus" is thus simultaneously a comment on the political developments, a warning, an attempt to come to grips with Germany's high-flying, yet so easily destructible philosophical and moral compass - and, masterfully construed though it is, a cry of despair in the face of utter madness. For while the novel is brimming with references to the better part of German (and European) cultural history, from the medieval "Faustus" tale to Goethe, Weber's "Freischuetz," Martin Luther, Protestantism, and Thuringia and Saxony as focal points of all things German, Mann's central point remains the parallel between his country's fate and that of his novel's protagonist, both ending in ruin and madness-induced stupor after their deal with the devil has run its evil course.

Unlike Goethe, who places his Faust's temptation at his tragedy's beginning, leaving no doubt about the event's physical reality, Mann even narratively lifts Leverkuehn's temptation into the realm of allegory and imagination, by splitting it into two incidents, whose combined effect will only come to fruition in the novel's final part. On neither occasion Zeitbloom, the narrator, is present; for both we thus have only Leverkuehn's own words. Yet, even the first account, a letter describing how the would-be composer is mischievously led to a brothel and falls under the spell of a prostitute, already intimates the evil to come, the venereal disease that will later constitute the outward cause of his madness; and not only does Leverkuehn ask his friend to destroy that letter, he also closes it imploring him to pray for his soul.

Much later in the narrative -- although indicating that it was actually written earlier; thus employing yet another level of (temporal) abstraction -- Mann introduces Leverkuehn's transcript of his exchange with the devil; a dream-like sequence during which shape-shifting "Sammael," in language hearkening back to Goethe and even the Middle Ages, promises Leverkuehn nothing short of "the metamorphosis of a god": that by his name a whole generation of "receptively healthy boys"* will swear, "those who thanks to [his] madness will no longer have to be mad themselves;"* and that, indeed, his name will live forever. Still, at this point we have already witnessed Leverkuehn explaining the foundations of his twelve-tone scale, only to be challenged by Zeitbloom's question whether the strictness of his concept doesn't deprive the composer of all freedom (which Leverkuehn denies, rather seeing the composer as "bound by a self-imposed order, hence free").* And when in an exchange laden with symbolism Zeitbloom then presses whether the formation of harmony wouldn't be left to chance, Leverkuehn's response is, "Rather say: to constellation"* -- thus squarely introducing, as his friend will quickly note, concepts of black magic, which in addition to the dialogue's musical and political references again drive home Leverkuehn's exposure to the irrational and evil, long before the reader actually learns about his interview with the devil.

Doubtlessly among Mann's most intimately personal works, "Doctor Faustus" is also among his most complex ones; and while hardly any of his writings make for a leisurely read, the sardonic "Felix Krull," the near-humoristic "Royal Highness" and even his early masterpiece "Buddenbrooks" are foils to the older master craftsman's rapier that is drawn here. Demanding, certainly -- but also highly recommended!
_______________________________

*Translation mine.
_______________________________

Bob Zeidler, in friendship and grateful memory of an exchange that partly inspired the above. Bob's comments thereon are sorely missed.

A shattering feast of despair.......2006-04-12

"What human beings have fought for and stormed citadels, what the ecstatics exultantly announced -- that is not to be. It will be taken back. I will take it back."

"I don't quite understand, dear man. What will you take back?"

"The Ninth Symphony."

great and dark novel.......2005-08-24

Thomas Mann was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century and this was his last and perhaps his greatest novel. Reading it is a daunting challenge as it merges history with philosophy and religion with music history and composition. This novel requires great concentration. Sustained reading is however greatly rewarded. I am still mulling over much that is in this novel. Written and presented against the backdrop of the closing years of World War II and the horrors of Nazi Germany, the novel is also clearly a statement against Hitler and the Nazis, and Mann from exile was a determined opponent of the Nazis. A very important work of literature on several levels!!

Artist meets Scientist.......2004-05-03

Hardly bearable.......2003-06-26

Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and the Jew of Malta Edward the Second Tamburlaine the Great, Part I and II (Monarch Notes)

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Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and the Jew of Malta Edward the Second Tamburlaine the Great, Part I and II (Monarch Notes)
Peter F. Mullany
Manufacturer: Monarch Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Doctor Faustus: With The English Faust Book

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Doctor Faustus: With The English Faust Book
Christopher Marlowe , and David Wootton
Manufacturer: Hackett Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0872207293

Book Description

This edition presents the 1604 "A-text," along with the 1592 text of The English Faust Book, both in modernized spelling and punctuation, and accompanied by notes. The editor's Introduction discusses Marlowe's life; the social climate in which his play was staged and the religious sensibilities to which it ostensibly appealed; the interpretive significance of variations between the "A" and "B" texts; and the shrewd and subversive uses to which Marlowe put The English Faust Book in dramatizing a story in which "orthodox Christian teaching triumphed, but in which Faustus has all the best lines."

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