description: Thomas Mann's last great novel, first published in 1947 and now rendered into English by acclaimed translator John E. Woods, is a modern reworking of the Faust legend, in which Germany sells its soul to the Devil. Mann's protagonist, the composer Adrian Leverkühn, is the flower of German culture, a brilliant, isolated, overreaching figure, his radical new music a breakneck game played by art at the very edge of impossibility. In return for twenty-four years of unparalleled musical accomplishment, he bargains away his soul - and the ability to love his fellow man.Leverkühn's life story is a brilliant allegory of the rise of the Third Reich, of Germany's renunciation of its own humanity and its embrace of ambition and its nihilism. It is also Mann's most profound meditation on the German genius - both national and individual - and the terrible responsibilities of the truly great artist.
language: English
title: Doctor Faustus: the life of the German composer Adrian Leverkuhn as told by a friend
titlecomplete: Doctor Faustus: the life of the German composer Adrian Leverkuhn as told by a friend
characters: Serenus Zeitblom, Rudi Schwerdtfeger,, Adrian Leverkühn, Rüdiger Schildknapp
genres: Germany, 20th Century, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Music, Literature, German Literature, Classics, Fiction
ratings_count: 12003
awards: awardedAt: 694252800000
name: Премія імені Максима Рильського
publisher: Secker & Warburg (London)