Doctor Faustus

Thomas Mann · 1875–1955 · Germany

Originally Doktor Faustus (German)

Why it matters

A composer trades his soul for twenty-four years of demonic musical genius, and his biography becomes Mann's reckoning with how his own Germany sold itself to fascism. The Faust myth remade as a nation's autopsy, Nietzsche audible on every page.

At a glance

Dense musicological and philosophical digression carries as much weight as the plot.