About this title: Mann's modern retelling of the Faust legend is the story of the artist Adrian Leverkühn, a musical genius who sells his soul to the devil but is also a metaphor for Germany's seduction by evil.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: A. A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 1948
Description: Good in fair dust jacket. Price clipped. vi, 510 p.; 22 cm. Owners name on flyleaf. Edges of pages yellowed. Dust jacket clipped on front and back. Dust jacket has tears and worn around edges. read more
Description: Very Good. 067973905X Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please email us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1992-03-31
ISBN-13:9780679739050ISBN:067973905X
Description: Fair. The cover has been creased; cover is worn; the pages in this book are yellowed Every heavytail order includes with a sweet! We carefully hand clean and reinspect each and every item we ship. Our quality control process ensures items to be in the condition described or better. Heavytail is determined to earn your repeat business through old fashioned customer service. We love international orders. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf, Alfred
Date Published: 1948
Description: Good. No dust jacket. 510 pgs lightly tanned on edges in gd reading condition; black cover w/blind embossed lettering on front has some wear. read more
Edition: Vintage Intl ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780679739050ISBN:067973905X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. curled corners; usual signs of wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 510 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: A. A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 1948
Description: Very good. No dust jacket. Black boards & spine have very little wear, with 1 lt scuff on front, & some rubbing wear to gilt on spine; pg edges just a little dust staining; txt block pages very lightly age-tanned, & otherwise clean; book is square &... vi, 510 p.; 22 cm. read more
Edition: Book Club
Binding: hard
Publisher: Knopf, New York
Date Published: c1948
Description: George Salter dj. very good++, good+ chipped dj, gold-stamped black cloth, tight. 510 pgs, No names, clean text. DJ photo of author by Karsh. Fiction. read more
Description: Mann, Thomas w/trans. by H. T. Lowe-Porter., Vintage Books "Vintage International", nd (1992), c1948, 1st printing by this pub., illus. soft cover, remainder mark on bottom edge o/w fine, 510 pp, 8vo. read more
Edition: Vintage Intl ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780375701160ISBN:0375701168
Description: New. No dust jacket as issued. Text in English, German. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 544 p. Vintage International (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
"4,5 stars Doctor Faustus is an exploration of genius, musical form and "German spirit", presented as a biography of a groundbreaking composer, Adrian Leverkühn. It's a companion reading to works of Franz Kafka, albeit extremely different in style. The narration is delightfully mannered as a memoir of a stately, old-fashioned Serenus Zeitblom, commenting on his friend's background and career, with sometimes limited understanding thereof, in often long, superbly structured sentences. Zeitblom is writing at the time when the war entered its final stage, providing a reason to punctuate the story with observations on Germany's recent past, blood-stained present and uncertain future. His seemingly self-doubting, layered voice might well rank as one of the most memorable in 20th century fiction.
Mann revisits some of his usual themes and makes a wonderful use of strategies he has attempted before -- a thorough reworking of a myth and an orchestration of a powerful metaphor for the state of affairs in Europe. Whereas in the allegorical narrative of The Magic Mountain characters were, perhaps too ostentatiosly, representations of grand ideas engaged in philosophical struggle, this time they are all convincingly flesh and blood. The plot is more prominent and considerably more involving as well. Still, there's plenty of Mann's trademark intellectual discussions scattered generously throughout the novel: on music and art in general, on religion, society and impending terror. The story's mephistotelean figure has the looks of Theodor W. Adorno (or at least so it seems), which is both a tribute and a clue. Prior knowledge of, say, Nietzsche's works or Schoenberg's music could be of some help but one resource you're really likely to need is a musicology book. Music is discussed a lot and I think I learned a thing or two about music theory, though most of it was simply beyond my reach.
In the end, Doctor Faustus feels character-driven no matter how intellectual it tends to be and how many parallels are found for Adrian's Leverkühn's tale. These include historical events and lives of prominent figures of German pre-war culture ranging from Dürer to Wagner and beyond. What's the heart of the matter however, is ultimately Adrian's pride.
Subject matter is heavy, references are numerous, yet the novel is digestible for the most part, and the reader is repeatedly rewarded with brilliant narration and vivid supporting cast. Plus, Doctor Faustus includes the most amazing descriptions of music both actually written (you will practically hear Beethoven's Op. 111) and fictional ever conceived. I'm also pretty sure that moments when the evil creeps in, are among the most chilling I have ever read.
One more thing. I'm a Nabokov fan and I don't believe that enjoying Lolita or Pale Fire excludes taking pleasure in Mann's good old hanseatic prose whatsoever, just because they say you cannot like both. I say it's not true. And I wonder, would Nabokov, who often dismissed Mann's work, have changed his mind, had he known that early chapters provide an idea similar to his own views on das Geistige in nature (see The Gift). And wouldn't it have pleased him, had he learned that a certain species of butterfly reccurs many times in Mann's novel?
I think Doctor Faustus is a hell of a good story. Some chapters will echoe in your mind for a long, long time."
"I decided to keep going with Mann until I had read all of his books. This one was good, but not as good as The Magic Mountain. Mann is very descriptive and occasionally I'll skip over sections that go on for too long. He has a very poetic style though.The reader can get a feel of the German character in his stories."
"L'un des plus grands romans de Thomas Mann, composé aux Etats-Unis de 1943 à 1947, et dont la trajectoire trouve un écho flamboyant et tragique dans l'histoire contemporaine, le triomphe et l'apocalypse de l'Allemagne hitlérienne.
Brassant les mythes, renouant avec le démoniaque, paraphant son véritable testament spirituel d'artiste, Mann nous livre la biographie imaginaire d'un artiste qui, comme Nietzsche, braverait la folie pour porter la souffrance d'une époque dans son orgueil de créateur et, comme Schsnberg, serait l'inventeur de la musique sérielle.
" Jamais, disait-il, je n'ai autant aimé un personnage imaginaire."
"Dry. Mann writes several engaging passages concerning his characters and plot which hold the reader's attention. They are very good. But most of this book is him expostulating about music theory, German religious history and other random subjects in the most complex language possible. The book seems almost hostile in how much it requires the reader to work to follow tangents that really do not make the story progress. It made me very mad. I actually punched the book. Maybe I'm over-emotional. Mann must have done years of research to discuss his topics so thoroughly. But--and this is only my opinion--if a reader wants to learn about Beethoven or theology, he would probably do better to pick up a non-fiction tome. A novel has the opportunity to make a reader interested in subjects they don't otherwise care about by relating to their human content. An author can challange a reader to look up some words s/he doesn't know. That's exciting in a way. But this book...I don't know. It's so cerebral and so meandering. I don't mean to say a book should always invite a reader in. I respect Beckett for doing the opposite of that. Mann seems to have so much more to say about the peripheral content of his book. Maybe I'm just upset that an author who clearly can make you care, decided instead to hang a lot of idiosyncratic self-indulgence on a story that is, in itself, totally captivating. Anyway, the second-to-last chapter is probably the book's best--meaning it relates to characters and action, which makes me sound like a tradionalist. New forms are great, even forms-as-content. But I don't think this book did that either. It just dawdled."
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