#Classic Dr Faustus

January 19, 2026 –

8.79% “Long convoluted sentences that demand the reader’s attention at all times!”

January 21, 2026 –

11.59% “Ch 4: With this level of detail…this book is going to take forever!”

January 21, 2026 –

22.43% “Read ch 5-8: I will NOT give up and concentrate on every word.. Mann overwhelms the reader with endless chapters about the blend of solid music theory and reflections on musical beauty. I had to ask “AI” where did his musical knowledge come from? Mann immersed himself in musical specialist literature and intensive collaboration with T. W. Adorno, who was both a philosopher, musicologist and composer. Unbelievable!”

January 22, 2026 –

30.84% “Read ch 10-11-12. Don’t read too much of this book at a one time…it can overwhelm you. While this is not my favorite of Thomas Manns works, it might be his most important and personal.
Audio narrated by Scottish stage David Rintoul is the best way to read Dr Faustus. I keep an online version available just to check some passages. Rintoul does a masterful job bringing this very complicated material to life.”

January 23, 2026 –

39.25% “Read ch 13-14…dense digressions during Adrian’s theological seminars are smth you just have to get through. There is a lot of “blah, blah” but Mann wants to show us how Adrian is absorbing his studies but foreshadows at the end of ch 14 that A. is about to make a huge U-turn…towards his music. How theology, music, Adrian and the devil all mix together we can only guess!”

January 24, 2026 –

47.66% “Read ch 15-16-17 (90 min audio) – Ch15 was a metaphysical rant about art. Adrian (A) feels it is dependent upon the personality of the times. Heavy stuff before breakfast! Ch16 A. moves to Leipzig for music study sends letter to narrator Servenus (S) a/b apartment, city etc. Ch17 was S’s analysis of letter. TIP: A’s Faustian pact with devil symbolises Germany’s cultural descent into fascism. 29 more chapters to go!”

January 25, 2026 –

56.07% “Ch 20-21-22: What? Ch 20 is a dialogue b/t A. and the devil. I didn’t hear him come into the room. So beware, this is just a hallucination. Ch 21 What? SZ suddenly has a wife…so flash forward to 1943. Did not see that coming. Ch 22 Everything is a debate b/t A and the narrator (SZ): marriage, nature, music. Exhausting to read and probably just as exhausting to write!”

January 26, 2026 –

61.68% “Ch 23-24: Rather easy to read chapters….not “debates” ! Adrian has moved to Munich. Goes for a walk in the country and finds a lovely house perhaps rent it in the future? Ch 24 Narrator (SZ), his wife, Adrain and his friend Schildknapp vacation in Italy. (SZ) remembers that Adrian has been infected with syphilis years before…and begins to see his friend change: he abhors contact with others “Touch me not”!”

January 27, 2026 –

65.42% “You have to get through ch 1-24 …but the pivotal chapter 25 describing the devil, Adrain and the “demonic pact’s negation” is worth it! Devil explains the conditions, changes outward appearance 3 x (spooky) and seals the deal with: “Time you have taken from us, a genius’s time, …full 24 years. When they are finished…then you shall be fetched !”

January 29, 2026 –

76.64% “Ch 26-27-28-29 are relatively boring after the “Devil Chapter (25).
Adrian composes an opera, symphony and there is a love triangle brewing:
Dr. Helmut Institoris, Inez and Rudolph Schwerdtfeger (violinist). This is not the easiest book to read…I never see it on reading lists…now I know why.”