To unlock his full creative potential, Adrian Leverkühn makes a lethal pact with nature and intentionally contracts syphilis.

A brilliant young composer, Adrian believes that the disease-induced madness will fuel his genius. But while his music reaches new heights, his mind and morality begin to unravel. Manns interpretation of the Faustian legend is a story of madness and sanity, genius and corruption, intellectual attainment and Germanys moral fall.

Arguably the great German novel New York Times