Reviews

Doktor Faustus. Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn erzählt von einem Freunde by Thomas Mann

iuliana_reads's review against another edition

2.0

The ordeal is over. I finished this today. This was so boooooring, this is my opinion though

soavezefiretto's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Still one of the pinnacles of literary mastery. Flawed, of course, and yet absolutely perfect. Absolutely modern and timelessly classic. I laughed and cried and felt everything. Some passages about the rise of intellectual fascism, starting even before WWI, and others about the fall of Germany through the works of Leverkühn are chilling and could be said about our times word for word. 

franlifer's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

3.5

pupcorn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

msgtdameron's review against another edition

4.0

This is a very hard read. The nuances of Adrians life and the parallel to the rise and fall of Fascism is at times subtle and at times in your face. To me the most interesting section is in the middle.

Around page 220 and going to 247 Adrian and the Devil have a talk. The whole discussion is trying to get Adrian to make the Faustian bargain. The same Faustian bargain that Mann says Germany made when they voted the NAZI party into office and Hitler as Chancellor. This can be further looked at in the current political situation we have here in the U.S..

This is what makes these middle pages so interesting. They ring with the same points that the current GOP is espousing to the masses now and since 2016. Our current POTUS is very like Adrian and his lust for perfection except in the POTUS case it is lust for power. How much of OUR soul are we, the people of the U.S., willing to give to the GOP for them to satisfy there lust?

gabriela_rus's review against another edition

4.0

Reading Thomas Mann always felt like fighting a giant. Hard but also accomplishing. I felt frustrated by the theoretical parts - to read about music and not hear it? That was not a good experience for me.

I liked his allegorical construction of modern vs. old Germany, innovative genius vs. conservation, the good and calm vs. the bad and hyper excited etc. etc. The conversation with the devil and the Faustian story would have been uninteresting was it not for the parallel with nazist Germany.

The storyline of Serenus was sometimes annoying. This witness who knows everything was too obviously just a vehicle, an instrument in the writers technique as a real presence.

A gay story in the 1940s? Wow, that was unexpected and not bad at all, discreet, kept the tension on a high level and made you wonder about its significance in the Germany-allegory. Sexual liberation of the inhibited German?

I also enjoyed the stories of the secondary characters.

epictetsocrate's review against another edition

4.0

Ţin să afirm cu toată hotărârea că nu dorinţa de a scoate în evidenţă propria-mi persoană mă îndeamnă să spun mai întâi câteva cuvinte despre mine însumi şi despre firea mea, până a nu începe să aştern pe hârtie viaţa celui care a fost Adrian Leverkühn – o primă şi fără îndoială provizorie biografie a prietenului iubit, genialul muzician, atât de cumplit încercat, mai întâi înălţat apoi prăvălit de un destin potrivnic. Numai presupunerea că cititorul – mai bine-zis: viitorul cititor; deoarece pentru moment nu există nici cea mai modestă perspectivă ca scrierea mea să poată vedea lumina tiparului – dau poate, dacă, printr-o minune, ea ar părăsi această fortăreaţă ameninţată din toate părţile care este Europa noastră şi ar duce oamenilor de afară un zvon din taina solitudinii noastre; – dar rog să mi se îngăduie să iau fraza de la început: numai gândul că, probabil, cititorul va dori să ştie câte ceva despre narator mă determină să pun înaintea acestor mărturii câteva note referitoare la persoana mea – desigur, pe deplin conştient că tocmai în felul acesta s-ar putea să-i trezesc îndoielile, să-l determin să-şi pună întrebarea dacă se află pe mâini bune, vreau să spun: dacă eu, prin ceea ce reprezint, sunt omul potrivit pentru o asemenea menire la care mai curând mă îndeamnă inima decât mă îndreptăţeşte vreo afinitate a firii.

joth1006's review against another edition

5.0

Tung tankeroman i snygg översättning. Tog mig jättelång tid att läsa, och i förstone var jag inte övertygad, men någon vecka efter jag läst klart den kunde jag sluta tänka på den.

souljaleonn's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

rmlulich's review against another edition

2.0

Well-written, at the language level. A complete ramble, story-wise. Not to my taste.