Reader Faustus: A Novella in Verse

The "Faust" legend is as old as time, as is the proverbial "deal with the devil." In M. G. Turner's "Reader Faustus" this idea is brought into a modern context, as a young poet chooses to sell his soul in exchange for the power to read every book ever written. While Turner's "novella in verse" hearkens back to Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1601), Goethe's Faust (1808), and Mann's Doctor Faustus (1947)-Reader Faustus zeroes in on today's zeitgeist, in which people feel burdened to consume endless content, and who see Faustian bargains all around them, in politics, technology, science, and the arts. Readers of the macabre will surely enjoy this new offering, a veritable museum of Faust, from the author of "Dreams of the Romantics."