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Doctor Faustus

by Christopher Marlowe, Sylvan Barnet (editor)

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 22,643 ratings · 510 reviews

Faustus, a brilliant scholar, sells his soul to the devil in exchange for limitless knowledge and powerful black magic, yet remains unfulfilled. He considers repenting, but remains too proud to ask God for forgiveness. His indecision ultimately seals his fate.

Faustus' story serves as a warning to those who would sacrifice righteous living for earthly gain. But Marlowe's pl...more

Mass Market Paperback, 210 pages

Published February 1st 2001 by Signet Classics (first published 1590)

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Mar 06, 2012 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: why-not-call-it-poetry

Selling Your Soul: A Short PowerPoint Presentation

Good morning. I recall reading an article about Tony Blair

where the columnist said that one of the surprising things about selling your soul is that the price usually turns out to be so low. There is, indeed, a tendency to think that it's a question of getting an advantageous deal. Here, Faust has landed himself a terrific package, even better than the one Keanu Reaves gets in The Devil's Advocate.

The top item is Sex With Helen Of Troy. Let me q...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Forrest rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While I tease my daughter incessantly about the true identity of Shakespeare, I have to admit that while a lot of evidence points towards Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare being the same person, I can't, in all honesty, hold up the play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus as a Shakespeare-worthy text. Yes, the magical element present in so much of Shakespeare's work is here, yes, there is a good dose of humor, and, yes, the writing itself is, well, Shakespearean. But Doctor Faustus' humor i...more While I tease my daughter incessantly about the true identity of Shakespeare, I have to admit that while a lot of evidence points towards Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare being the same person, I can't, in all honesty, hold up the play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus as a Shakespeare-worthy text. Yes, the magical element present in so much of Shakespeare's work is here, yes, there is a good dose of humor, and, yes, the writing itself is, well, Shakespearean. But Doctor Faustus' humor is less bawdy than that of Shakespeare's plays, by and large, and the melodrama is overwrought. Also, Doctor Faustus is, by the end, downright pedantic, and while Shakespeare had no fear of moralizing, his sermons were quite a bit more restrained than the typical medieval (or Renaissance) "Everyman" dramas.

Still, if one can recognize the religiously-condescending tone as a product of its age, there is a lot to like here. I'm particularly enamored of Doctor Faustus' dark sense of humor that demeans, rather than destroys, his enemies. With the power granted him through the devil, Mephistopheles, one might expect Faustus to simply run rampant over the earth laying waste to all those who find themselves in his path. Instead, Faustus shows a (twisted) humor by planting stag horns on those that have tried to kill him in order to shame them in front of their fellow man. He could have just snuffed them out of existence, with Mephistopheles' help, but loves to use magic to taunt his enemies rather than eliminate them.

And this may be why Faustus is simultaneously so darned likeable and abhorrent. He has access to infinite power, yet squanders it on such things as making the Pope and his cardinals play the fool. He's like a child with far more power than he knows what to do with. And, like an indecisive child who can hardly help his own bad behavior, he figures out, in the end, through the good grace of Helen of Troy, that he has gone too far for his regret to save him from the price he has agreed to pay for his fun. Rather than feeling that Faustus gets his just desserts, I'm inclined to feel a bit of sympathy for the guy whose blasphemy and denial of God seemed more like a joke than a true refutation of divinity. Then again, I would likely have been burned at the stake for saying so back in Marlowe's, or is it Shakespeare's day?(less)

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Mar 23, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, gods-myths-heroes, in-by-of-england, in-theater, reviewed, tam-lin, fey

Do you pick up books that you hope will speak to an event in your life? Something to help you think through something that's happened? I do. All the time. Sometimes I don't realize I've done it until I am in the middle of the book and it is just the right thing for the situation. Sometimes, it's deliberate but that's harder, since it will be that much worse if the book fails you. Am I the only one who does this? The book for the plane when leaving home for six months. The book I read on 9/11. Bo...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Simona Bartolotta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lingua-inglese

Adoro ridurmi all'ultimo con i compiti per le vacanze -a meno che non si tratti di quelli di latino-, infatti questo libro scolastico l'ho detto solamente cinque giorni prima dell'inizio della scuola.
Conoscevo la storia, naturalmente, e questo libricino, che della vera storia contiene, in definitiva, un sunto dei sunti, mi ha fatto venir voglia di prendere in mano l'edizione integrale.
Sarà fatto al più presto -se sopravvivo al latino che mi attende!

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Dec 27, 2010 Amber Tucker rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Elizabethan lit students

Recommended to Amber by: Dr. Nichols, Drama 1701

Shelves: as-a-matter-of-courses, christmas-or-spring-break, disappointments

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS if, for some reason of your own, you do not know what happens to Faustus in the end.

Can I just note that Mephistopheles is a really smooth name? I know Marlowe didn't invent it, but still.

Cool names aside, I have to say that I was expecting rather more from this play - unfairly? It is only 56 pages long, small pages at that. But whatever I hoped to find here, it wasn't delivered. Dazzling prose? Not a chance (or not much - I have admitted my overgeneralization as...more THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS if, for some reason of your own, you do not know what happens to Faustus in the end.

Can I just note that Mephistopheles is a really smooth name? I know Marlowe didn't invent it, but still.

Cool names aside, I have to say that I was expecting rather more from this play - unfairly? It is only 56 pages long, small pages at that. But whatever I hoped to find here, it wasn't delivered. Dazzling prose? Not a chance (or not much - I have admitted my overgeneralization as per review comments). I've just come off a term of Shakespeare. Marlowe's can do nothing for me after that. Riveting action? OH NO! FAUSTUS TOOK THE POPE'S WINE AND RAN AWAY!!! Steamy romance? If you count the conjuring of Helen of Troy so that wrinkly old Faust can sleep with her. Well... nah.

Skillful characterization? For the time, probably. The protagonist, so I hear, is transformed from a mere "naughty trickster" of the German folktale into a more sympathetic character, and that's true to an extent. As the play progresses, you certainly see the Doctor losing confidence in his chosen life of "sin", more and more easily twisted back by the nasty wasty fingers of Mephisto, Lucifer, etc. Poor old guy. He was relatively young and stupid when he set himself up for this which is, I guess, part of Marlowe's point. My dissatisfaction lies in the fact that his condemnation of the character seems half-hearted. He has Faustus do nothing genuinely wicked; during his recurring chances to be 'saved,' there is precious little in the language of the altercations to convince me that Faustus has any substance of character whatsoever, good or evil (as per Elizabethan definition, which are all I was looking for). It's all too rushed, and thus only pseudo-serious. So could I really care about him? It sounds cold-blooded, but I couldn't.

Dr. Faustus felt to me like a Grimm's fairy tale. It's written for adults, perhaps, but best suited to frighten kids into stiff Christian unseen-unheardness. Faustus is like a child himself, clever and bored: medicine is too easy, law is too easy, divinity is WAY too easy. So he goes looking for some fun. And he gets it. Twenty-four years of self-indulgent mischief. He never grows up. For that, he goes to Hell.

If Faustus goes to Hell, all the idiots who hired him to conjure for them damn well should, too. Talk about suspension of disbelief. If he was trying to do this, I admire Marlowe for pointing out the (willful?) ignorance of those who summon and praise Faustus for his feats. They don't see the evil in him (hmm. Neither do I). They don't try to save him. They're no better than he is.

What nags me about giving this just three stars is sensing how much more could be done with it on-stage. As I read, I imagined wonderful spooky verbal effects during passages of otherwise-flat language. Scenes like the Doctor's snitching-nibbles-from-the-Pope could be made very amusing. Alas, I am rating the book and not the performance. I look forward to studying it next term, and hopefully updating this review from a more knowledgeable vantage point.(less)

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Apr 26, 2012 Andrew Breslin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know about you, but my idea of a good time is to sneak into a gathering of Elizabethan literary scholars and just provoke the living shit out of them. I like to get them feuding about whether Shakespeare was a genius of surpassing magnitude, standing well above Marlowe and the rest in raw poetic brilliance, or simply the only one among the group who attended a marketing class. It's fun to re-open the perpetual debate on Edward de Vere's alleged authorship of the Bard's plays, then sit ba...more I don't know about you, but my idea of a good time is to sneak into a gathering of Elizabethan literary scholars and just provoke the living shit out of them. I like to get them feuding about whether Shakespeare was a genius of surpassing magnitude, standing well above Marlowe and the rest in raw poetic brilliance, or simply the only one among the group who attended a marketing class. It's fun to re-open the perpetual debate on Edward de Vere's alleged authorship of the Bard's plays, then sit back and watch the Stratfordians and Oxfordians have at it like Hatfields and McCoys, but with more teeth. And of course there's always the big question: Ben Jonson or Thomas Kyd: who would win in a fight?

Get your scholars good and liquored up, to lubricate the evening's intellectual exchange. Soon they'll be hurling invective, recriminations, and, with any luck, rare 18th century editions of John Fletcher. And when the dust settles and all those who have not been beaten into an over-educated paste agree on the obvious: that Jonson would kick Kyd's ass, and that the entire Oxfordian school is a bunch of elitist snobs, the remaining conscious academics might groggily opine as to whether Shakespeare's contemporaries were every bit the genius he was, but with bad PR. And I'm chiming in to say that while they may have been very good, Bill is still the best.

Dr. Faustus is, even after over four centuries, still an entertaining and thought-provoking play. In contrast, I myself expect that in another few decades I will be fertilizer. So it's stood the test of time very well indeed, but I'll never read it again, nor would I be especially excited if a theater-troupe were planning a production in my area, except for the opportunity to dress up all diabolical and really fuck with people leaving the show. Ha. That would be fun. But unless I actually knew someone in the performance, I don't think I'd buy a ticket.

It's a great story, of course. Classic. Deep. Timeless. This was centuries before modern liberal scientists jettisoned their principles and took jobs with the Pentagon, or Kurt Cobain signed a record deal with a major label. The deep metaphorical significance of selling one's soul still resonates today. But Marlowe didn't invent the story any more than Shakespeare invented his. Both of them were adept at taking what were already classic tales back in the 16th century, and giving them a modern retelling. And once Shakespeare retold a tale, nobody ever had the chutzpah to try to tell it again, even in German. But get that Marlowe defender in a room with a Goethe scholar, and then subtly raise the question of who best told the Faust tale. Oooh, there's gonna be a fight. Excellent. This is more fun than putting incompatible insects in a jar.

So, for the record, in my own ever-humble opinion, for what it's worth, just speaking for myself here: I thought this was very good, but not sublimely magnificent. That's my position and I'm sticking to it. You might disagree. I have a full bottle of whiskey, which I'm willing to share. Want to fight about it?

(less)

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Jan 01, 2013 Katy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook

Book Info: Genre: Play/Classical works
Reading Level: Adults
Recommended for: all
Trigger Warnings: IT BE OF THE DIVVEL!! (well, not really, but you know... it does express some views that might upset religious people. Details below)

Disclosure: This was my “random read” for November; unfortunately I could not manage it until now. I actually have two copies of this, both of which I picked up free: one from The Internet Archive and one from Project Gutenberg. I’ve chosen the Gutenberg edition to read...more Book Info: Genre: Play/Classical works
Reading Level: Adults
Recommended for: all
Trigger Warnings: IT BE OF THE DIVVEL!! (well, not really, but you know... it does express some views that might upset religious people. Details below)

Disclosure: This was my “random read” for November; unfortunately I could not manage it until now. I actually have two copies of this, both of which I picked up free: one from The Internet Archive and one from Project Gutenberg. I’ve chosen the Gutenberg edition to read, as the Internet Archive one is an OCR and they’re often riddled with errors. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: One of Western culture's most enduring myths recounts a learned German doctor's sale of his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe transformed the Faust legend into the English language's first epic tragedy, a vivid drama that abounds in psychological insights and poetic grandeur.

My Thoughts: My apologies for taking so long to do my November Random Read! This is not for everyone, as it is a play (I mean, Marlowe is a famous playwright, after all), and a lot of people don’t have the patience to read in that format. However, I have done plenty of drama and I enjoy reading plays and thinking about how I would perform them.

This play presents an idea that I presume was probably pretty heretical at the time, but which I think is probably true. It is during the initial conversation between Faustus and Mephistophilis, which runs (in part), thus:

Faustus: How come it, then, that thou are out of hell?
Meph.: Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.

This states baldly that Earth is a part of Hell, an idea I have espoused for years. People are so terrified of Death because they’re afraid of Hell. Well, there’s no need to be! We’re living it in every day, right here.

Unfortunately, the edition I have is apparently defective, because at a bit under half-way through the story the device froze up and I could not continue, although I could open other books with no problem. So I was unable to finish the story. However, I did enjoy what I read. I shall have to try to seek out another edition that will hopefully work. In the meantime, however, I believe I should probably go on and read something for which I owe a review. However, I do encourage folks to seek out these sorts of classics and read them. I want to find the oldest version I can find of the original story and read that first, I think, before I make another attempt on this play, because I feel there is a lot of background that I am missing. Until later, then!(less)

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Feb 16, 2013 Cheryl Cowtan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Does access to unlimited knowledge and pleasure make you strong in character and faith? Christopher Marlow answers this question in his morality play Dr. Faustus. Faustus is a scholar who is consumed by the desire to experience life to the fullest and know more than his 16th century society can teach him. He turns to Lucifer to fulfill his needs, trading his soul for the ability to work magic and for access to worldly knowledge. The play features many characters who attempt to influence Faustus,...more

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May 30, 2013 Androo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For those of you unfamiliar with the name Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus is perhaps is most well-known play...something a certain William Shakespeare would have read and would have been influenced by Marlowe's vigorous blank verse lines with great ranges of expression.

You may view it as a morality play, a struggle of redemption versus pride, or any other sort of 'deal with the devil' branch that we have explored in the last millennium.

That being said, though Marlowe's work is powerful, those w...more

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May 03, 2013 Diletta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Il voto basso giustifica solo la mia voglia di un'introspezione psicologica maggiore. Effettivamente mi aspettavo una maggiore attenzione al lato emozionale, ai risvolti della mente. Non che ne sia privo, anzi. Solo che essendo così ricco di temi e motivi talmente interessanti mi ero fatta un'idea leggermente diversa. Questo non toglie che, essendo appunto un'opera teatrale della fine del '500, sia meravigliosamente affascinante. Il desiderio di potere di Faust lo spinge al peccato, alla voglia...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Bjorn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have to say... I get why Shakespeare is the one who's most remembered today.

Not that there's not brilliant bits in here. Any time the plot takes a pause from pranks and commentary on 16th century politics and focuses on Faustus and Mephistopheles is often sublime, and the humour occasionally works too - this bit really cracked me up, from where Faustus first summons the devil:

FAUSTUS: Sint mihi Dei Acherontis propitii! Valeat numen triplex Jehovae! Ignei, aerii, aquatani spiritus, salvete! Ori...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Hannah Taylor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I saw an adaptation of this play yesterday; they retained the original beginning and end, but modernized the middle section, resulting in a very bizarre, somewhat disjointed narrative that detracted from Marlowe's powerful messages. I am exceptionally glad I read the original afterwards - it was actually a highly enjoyable read, though the language itself is not particularly dazzling. Dr. Faustus is more than a man's wager with the devil, or an individual struggling with eternal damnation after...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, this was fascinating! Not the play itself per se, but the experience of reading it. I've read Goethe's Faust and lots of Shakespeare and it was really interesting to see how Marlowe compares.

Here's my analysis: although he uses some similar constructions and his verbage is similar, Marlowe's plot and character development is very, very different from Shakespeare's. Shakespeare will give you a whole five-act arc. Marlowe dives right in. If this play were a color it would be a consistent vivi...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Aarohi Sudan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Clearly this novel is famed for it's speculative nature of the 'Evil' or 'Dark" magic.The novel manages to empower the heroic aspiration of 'Renaissance man" if that's what Marlowe was out to do.

The storyline is pretty attractive for those who are Big time Harry Potter and The Secret Circle readers.Sure it is but then the play brings out some twists.

"Selling his soul to the devil for ruthless power?!"

According to me,we should try to see how many morality conventions Marlowe debunks and how Docto...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Andrew Bass rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My Shakespeare professor last year referenced Dr. Faustus repeatedly during the semester, mostly to make connections to Marlowe's influence on Shakespeare. By about the 30th mention, I made it a point to read this over my holiday break.
Dr. Faustus is an intellectual from Wittenberg (Martin Luther, anyone?) who has grown bored of book learning and wishes to delve into the black magic realm. He conjures Mephistopholis, Lucifer's servant in Hell, and proposes a deal with the prince of darkness: In...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Mădă rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-myth-of-faust

It was not boring at all. Captivating. Although I had the impression from time to time that the description of the action was a bit rushed... but maybe even this wants to emphasize the fact that those 24 years in which Faust was in control of supernatural powers passed too fast. Even the reader gets this impression, not only Faust.
One of the things that I found interesting was the contradictory behaviour of the character. Especially in the beginning and in the ending. He wants to sign a concord...more

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Aug 29, 2012 James Nicolay rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is quite impossible to read Marlowe’s play without making direct comparisons of the style, language, themes, structure of the drama to Shakespeare’s. While both Marlowe and Shakespeare are regarded as the most popular dramatists in Elizabethan era, I find it intriguing, with my knowledge of Shakespearean tragedies, that Marlowe has quite diverse and distinct style. But with these observations spring forth a lot of questions as well.

First of these questions is the genre of “Doctor Faustus”; w...more It is quite impossible to read Marlowe’s play without making direct comparisons of the style, language, themes, structure of the drama to Shakespeare’s. While both Marlowe and Shakespeare are regarded as the most popular dramatists in Elizabethan era, I find it intriguing, with my knowledge of Shakespearean tragedies, that Marlowe has quite diverse and distinct style. But with these observations spring forth a lot of questions as well.

First of these questions is the genre of “Doctor Faustus”; while the complete name of the play is “The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus”, does this mean that the play is a tragedy or a history? What is more confusing is that there are quite a number of elements which make the play comic for me as well, especially that scene where Faustus requests for Mephistophilis to come back onstage in the form of a Franciscan Friar. While that bit is funny, unlike Shakespearean comedies which end up in marriages, this one doesn’t have a happy ending. True, even “Romeo and Juliet” have its funny moments despite being a tragedy, but if I were to treat “Doctor Faustus” as a tragedy, I actually find the tragedy elements of this play lacking. It doesn’t have the full development of tragic characters such as Macbeth and Hamlet, and there’s hardly any death---yes, the ending of Faustus being dragged by the demons could be the death detail, but still it does not amount to the catharsis that one feels for the tragic deaths of major Shakespearean characters. Finally, when the play is treated as a historical play, it is also confusing to treat it as such because while the play is based on the real Faust, German astronomer and necromancer who died in 1540, he is not an important historical figure unlike the kings of Shakespearean history plays; it’s also worth to note that some tragedies of Shakespeare are based on real historical figures such as Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, but the plays which deal with these figures are not categorized as of history genre. So, how does one read “Doctor Faustus”? Is it possible to read it without any regard for a dramatic genre?

The structure is also as confusing as the genre. While Shakespeare consistently divides his plays into five acts, the division of Doctor Faustus is very confusing as there are no formal “act divisions”. Yes, there are some elements borrowed from the Greek dramas, such as the use of chorus, and this may be used as a tip that it should be read like a Greek play, but the Greek dramas are also very structured well as each episode is punctuated by odes from the chorus. There are some transitions in “Doctor Faustus” which are marked by the entrance of the chorus, while some are marked by the entrance of other characters. Is the uneven or unconventional division of plays purposely done by Marlowe? Could it be also that this is part of the play’s overall meaning or dramatic effect?

There’s also the use of poetic and prosaic language in the play that is used quite differently. Shakespeare makes his characters speak in prose in order to mark if the person is educated or not, like how the Porter in “Macbeth” speaks in prose; in “Julius Caesar”, the speech of Brutus before the famous Mark Antony’s speech (Friends, Romans, countrymen...) is delivered in prose and this is maybe because his speech is directed to the uneducated and appeals more to the emotions of the common people. In “Doctor Faustus”, the prose is used by many characters such as Wagner, Faustus’ assistant, Lucifer, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Pope, the Emperor, and, sometimes, even Faustus himself. The fact that even Faustus himself speaks in prose (as seen in the scene with the Emperor), there doesn’t seem to be a clear explanation for the sudden use of prose. What could explain this switching of language style?

As regards the theme of “Doctor Faustus”, while it can be taken as an allegory or a play with religious message, the tragic flaw of Faustus is not as well-expored as the tragic flaws of the major Shakespearean tragic heroes. While Macbeth’s ambition brings him to his downfall, the play establishes his human flaw of ambition vis-a-vis the supernatural forces surrounding him as well as the influence of his wife. There are many factors that made his ambition a frightening and a beautful thing. Faustus’ tragic flaw of hunger for learning is not supported and explored very well by the initial part of the play. We are immediately introduced to a Faustus with unquenchable thirst for knowledge, but there is nothing heart-tugging or sympathetic about his struggle. Of course, one way to make sense of this is to see the play as one that explores the fate of the Renaissance Man who, like Faustus, seems to have bottomless pang for learning and being a man who is good at everything. Could it be that Marlowe does not subscribe to the idea of the Renaissance Man? Is he attacking the educational system of Elizabethan times? With his use of Latin in many of the lines of the play, is he mocking the characters by making them sound ridiculous and impenetrable by the unscholarly members of the audience?

With these questions, still I believe that Marlowe’s play is very striking and to some point, actually, it is quite modern. With his unconventional style and language, Marlowe has achieved in “Doctor Faustus” something that probably Shakespearean fans and scholars are missing: it’s the ability to surprise the audience with such a horrific story which could not end in any other way, to introduce dramatic deviations from the conventions of his time, to criticize the ideal man of his time, and to make fun of the highest officials of the government and religious institutions.(less)

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Aug 07, 2012 Clayton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Let me preface this review by saying I'm not as big a Dr. Faustus fan as a lot of people are. Dramatically speaking, I think it's one of Marlowe's weakest plays, and it really doesn't do justice to the Faust legend. Marlowe's cynicism is stamped all over it, and there's really not much of a story without some vestige of hope behind it. Give me Goethe any day.

On the other hand, it's verse is beautiful and often surprisingly inventive. At its best, the verse is as lovely as anything in Shakespeare...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Bridgette Redman rated it 5 of 5 stars

As a member of a fundamentalist church, I've heard my share of fire and brimstone sermons. Rarely though, have they moved me the way this 400-year-old story of Christopher Marlowe's did.

Marlowe, a popular contemporary of Shakespeare, chose for his play a classic tale of a man of overweening pride who purchases supreme power, wealth, and knowledge on a credit card that he claims will never come due.

The language in the play makes one proud to be an English speaker. It is poetical, it is powerful...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Esdaile rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-it, renaissance-drama, my-library

I was very surprised that I had not included this play on my "read" list. I played the part of Lucifer in a school production and that is how I remember the names of the Seven Deadly Sins to this day! A lot of this play is just hijinks/horseplay and the hijinks and horseplay are good rollicking fun but the best of it is magnificent. The final speach of Faustus belngs to one of the greatest set pieces of literature. Oh that ghastly irony taken from Horace Lente lente currite noctis equi has given...more I was very surprised that I had not included this play on my "read" list. I played the part of Lucifer in a school production and that is how I remember the names of the Seven Deadly Sins to this day! A lot of this play is just hijinks/horseplay and the hijinks and horseplay are good rollicking fun but the best of it is magnificent. The final speach of Faustus belngs to one of the greatest set pieces of literature. Oh that ghastly irony taken from Horace Lente lente currite noctis equi has given me a taste to get to know the Classics which Time may not permit to fulfil. I wonder if this irony inspired Marvel's Time's winged Charilot in "to His Coy Mistress". When Faustus inquires about Hell, the dialogue is intensely "modern" and existential. Hell is within Mephistopheles "Why this is hell, nor am I out of it. ", hell is within us." That is modern knowledge. The images of chilchood in the Renauissaynce begin to acquire real form and the hell we make for one another on God's earth is far worse than anything dreamned up by poets. I cannot quite make up my mind as to the exctent to which this play acts as a warning Summum peccati mors es but Faustus fails to continue the quotation. The reward of sin is Death but but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Faustus fails to quote the second part of the sentence. Is that because Marlowe had lost faith or because he wanted to show Faustus in willing error? In the last speech, Faustus could have been saved had he only turned. The final warning is warning and yet yet Marlowe himselöf seems to be an "overreacher" as Harry Levin called him. Two hundred years later Germany's greatest poet used the Marlowe play as the basis for his "Faust", the most famous dramatic poem of all time. The first lines of F"Faust" read almost like a translation of Marlowe. I have read several editions of Goethe's Faust and only one mentions Goethe's debt to Marlowe. (An edition of Goethe published in the mid-thirties as it happens).
"Ah Faustus, now hast thou but one bare hour to live." That is true for all of us. This is Marlowe's crowning glory, the quintessence of Renaissance hope and danger and the dramatic embodiment of what Oswald Spengler unforgettably termed the "Faustian soul".(less)

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Oct 16, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, drama, honorable-mentions

I have a strange fascination with stories involving Satan, Hell, and the like. I love seeing authors' different spins on the underworld. Dante's Inferno presents a more traditional view, No Exit shows it from an existential perspective, and so on. Dr. Faustus, however, mostly lets the reader make what he or she will given the minimal stage directions and descriptions. Whenever the Seven Deadly Sins or Lucifer ventured onto the stage, they weren't explicitly described, and that was probably my fa...more

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May 23, 2011 John rated it 2 of 5 stars

Though Marlow was born the same year as Shakespeare, he really can't be considered in the same league as The Bard. Doctor Faustus is not a good play, but it is a gutsy one (for the time), and probably a lot more interesting to study than to read. I've never seen a play attempt to be this scary before, but it's far too cheesy and the writing too weak (though there are a couple of great passages) to continue to produce its intended effect in this day and age. Faustus himself is one of the most unl...more

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Nov 02, 2010 Genna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare, was one of the brightest poets of his age. In his Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, he introduces the reader to the title character, a proud man who has learned all there is to learn in medicine and philosophy and still yearns for more. He decides that black magic will be his next frontier, and calls upon a demon named Mephastopholis to teach him the secrets to the dark arts. The demon obliges, and Faustus agrees to give his soul to the devil af...more Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare, was one of the brightest poets of his age. In his Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, he introduces the reader to the title character, a proud man who has learned all there is to learn in medicine and philosophy and still yearns for more. He decides that black magic will be his next frontier, and calls upon a demon named Mephastopholis to teach him the secrets to the dark arts. The demon obliges, and Faustus agrees to give his soul to the devil after 24 years of glory with Mephastopholis. Faustus turns his back on God and reason with this deal, and in the end all of the knowledge, fame, and glory he gains is lost because of his selfish desires to be essentially greater than God. Marlowe creates a thoroughly unlikeable character in Faustus, who ignores repeated offers for forgiveness in favor of complaining and making up excuses as to why he would rather continue with the sinister deal he had made than save his soul. I learned, as a writer, that it is important to keep your character consistant in personality and actions: Faustus never wavers from his original intent, and never lets go of his pride even at the end when his life is slipping away. I also learned a lot about form in prose. Like Shakespeare, Marlowe used poetic language in the form of prose to create a magical, engulfing story that is a lesson and a form of entertainment for the reader or play goer. I also think Marlowe did a fantastic job with using religious symbolism well, and using it to shape his character rather than change his character's mind. Faustus stood apart from other religiously pious characters, and as a writer I found the character of Faustus very compelling despite my dislike of him. Although none of Marlowe's characters are altogether likeable in this play, he still creates a very interesting world for his readers, and I did not want to turn away from it. I think that's the most important thing I took away - a play, novel, or poem can have an unlikeable cast of characters and still be poignant and enthralling.(less)

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May 12, 2010 Garrett rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 22, 2010 Allan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: plays

I must say that of the two Marlowe versions, one where Faustus is dragged to Hell with little hope and the later version where his friends bury his remains offering him some measure of hope at salvation, I got to say I prefer the former. Maybe it's the same part of me that actually likes the ending to Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell , but I think the beauty of Marlowe's lyrical style is highlighted by simple yet poignant contrast when Faustus ends in his life in damnation without hope of salvatio...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Dorina Hawkes rated it 2 of 5 stars

Overall, rather disappointing. The fact that this book caused a bit of an outrage (for its time) with the whole 'sell-his-soul-to-the-devil' thing is what really got me interested. Then looking at the length (or lack thereof) of this book I started to wonder if it could really be all I expected.

This play was a quick read, relatively easy to read (might want to have some knowledge of Latin, and be fluent in Shakespearean-style poetry) but it was rather boring. I just wasn't "attached" the any of...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Michi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: plays, brit-lit-1

The elements of Doctor Faustus are timeless: an ambition-driven man sells his soul to the devil to gain knowledge and power. This ancient motif first entered the realm of literature in Germany in the late 16th century and was developed into a drama by the Englishman Christopher Marlowe around 1604. Marlowe’s drama in turn inspired Johann Wolfgang Goethe to write Faust, perhaps the most celebrated literary work of the German-speaking world. Faustus reappears in 1947, in German novelist Thomas Man...more The elements of Doctor Faustus are timeless: an ambition-driven man sells his soul to the devil to gain knowledge and power. This ancient motif first entered the realm of literature in Germany in the late 16th century and was developed into a drama by the Englishman Christopher Marlowe around 1604. Marlowe’s drama in turn inspired Johann Wolfgang Goethe to write Faust, perhaps the most celebrated literary work of the German-speaking world. Faustus reappears in 1947, in German novelist Thomas Mann’s last great work Doktor Faustus.

While Mann’s version of the Faustus tale is a modernist novel of the post-World War Two world, Marlowe’s play was written and performed for an early 17th century audience. For the people of that time demons and devils were real entities rather than abstract concepts. For the modern reader they are demons within, “inner devils”, and hell is as a state of mind rather than a real place. Marlowe provides evidence to support this view, as this dialogue between Faustus and Mephastophilis shows:

[…] Faustus: Tell me, where is this place that men call hell?
Mephastophilis: Under the heavens.
Faustus: Ay, but whereabouts?
Mephastophilis: Within the bowels of these elements, where we are tortured and remain for ever. Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed in one self place; for where we are is hell, and where hell is, there must we ever be […]

How did Marlowe’s original audience interpret this? There is a striking similarity between Mephastophilis’ description and a famous quote by Jean Paul Sartre: “Hell is other people”. It seems to be a surprisingly short step from Doctor Faustus to Sartre’s play No Exit (which was first performed in 1944) and the Sartrean concept of hell.

Questioning the reality of hell is not the only heretical element in Doctor Faustus. Marlowe seems to mock the pope and the clergy (also Protestantism since Faustus studied in Wittenberg). He also strikes out at the aristocracy and the scholars, who ask him to perform trivial tricks. The comic scenes seem to disguise some of these attacks but the borders between comedy and tragedy are blurred.

Faustus is not a suitable character for a traditional tragedy. He is neither a king nor a nobleman, nor in fact a noble man. His hamartia seems to be so great that it actually defines his entire character: a man who seeks omnipotence, an antihero. Faustus is torn between the extremes of good and evil, he is not only longing for power, wealth and respect, but also for clarity and purity. As a result of his studies he sees the world in shades of grey, what he wants, however, is black or white. Having chosen the “wrong” path, Faustus descends lower and lower but cannot brake free of his Christian faith. He always returns to Christ and God and begs for forgiveness, allowing the Christian audience/reader to sympathize with the character.
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Sep 23, 2012 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just because something is old does not mean it is good. For anyone interested in the basic story, seek out Goethe's version instead. Marlowe makes it clear early on he doesn't believe anything he is saying with this play. Whether he is appealing to the mystical/superstitious appetites of his day, availing himself of the opportunity to ridicule Catholicism (or supernaturalism in general), or just trying to make some quick cash to finance some gambling or spying ... well, it doesn't matter, really...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Sammy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Faustus", like all Marlowe's plays, is a fascinating exercise but far from a satisfying one. This seems like a cheap and somewhat naive review to give to one of the most well-known works of the Western canon, but there you go.

After the uneven poems-cum-plays of "Dido" and "Tamburlaine", Marlowe achieved comedic success with "The Jew of Malta", even though it too runs on far too long. "Faustus", which followed, certainly doesn't have THAT problem, and it continues Marlowe's streak of dominating,...more "Faustus", like all Marlowe's plays, is a fascinating exercise but far from a satisfying one. This seems like a cheap and somewhat naive review to give to one of the most well-known works of the Western canon, but there you go.

After the uneven poems-cum-plays of "Dido" and "Tamburlaine", Marlowe achieved comedic success with "The Jew of Malta", even though it too runs on far too long. "Faustus", which followed, certainly doesn't have THAT problem, and it continues Marlowe's streak of dominating, fascinating leading men. Faustus is one of those roles which is a delight for an actor, as he quite literally sees all of human history, and what lies beyond, but the play is a challenging work. First of all, Marlowe was a pioneer, working in a medium that was far from fully-formed. "Faustus" is a significant step away from his early plays, which are glorified poems at times, and it's only in Faustus' (justified) opening and closing monologues that we get something too lengthy for the stage.

The story itself - the learned man giving up his future life for present glory - would be replayed again and again in both Western and Eastern dramas, and it's not hard to see why. Faustus' most beautiful moments include, of course, his "Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?" speech, and his final realisations that he is truly damned. The rest of the play is never quite certain what it wants to be. The comic interludes are (pardon the pun) damn funny, even if they sometimes feel like they wandered in from another play. The Representational elements in Faustus' good and evil angels are - understandably - removed from some modern productions. The play, intriguingly, chooses to portray very little of Faustus' 24-year orgy, instead showing us only the beginning and ending of his deal with Lucifer. It's an enjoyable production, but an uneven one. While Marlowe had managed to tame his language for the stage, he created something lacking in subtlety and still a long way from the bravura productions that Shakespeare was about to start writing for the London stage.

This review - in retrospect - is less than coherent, and I apologise. I don't want to seem like a complete dolt for so blithely dismissing "Faustus". It is a fascinating play done well, and has at its core a character whose desires and fate will probably remain relevant and terrifying as long as we live. As in all of Marlowe's work, moments of pure beauty rise to the surface and the comedy was archetypal for what was to follow with other authors. Yet to me, it still feels slight. It has neither "The Jew of Malta"'s dramatic unity nor "Edward II"'s sheer breadth of character. Instead, it is Marlowe's most crowd-pleasing mature play. A pioneer for its time, and still of merit to the Western canon (whatever you believe that to be) but - sad to say - since eclipsed.(less)

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Jan 06, 2013 Joel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a much easier read than I expected. In my edition, it's only 150 pages and that's counting the notes on each left-hand page. The story is quite straight-forward. (view spoiler) The archaic language (and bits of Latin) can be difficult but, in my edition, all the difficult stuff is glossed.

I'm not sure why this is classic. Not that I didn't enjoy it....more

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About Christopher Marlowe

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. The foremost Elizabethan tragedian next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his magnificent blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own mysterious and untimely death.
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