Doctor Faustus
A Faustian Pact of Musical Genius, Spiritual Corruption, and Germany's Descent into Cultural CatastropheBy Thomas Mann
Length24h 18m
About this audiobook
Thomas Mann's *Doctor Faustus* (1947) is a complex Künstlerroman and national allegory centered on Adrian Leverkühn, a brilliant composer who exchanges his soul for artistic genius and ultimately pays for it with madness and death. Narrated by his humanist friend Serenus Zeitblom, the novel interweaves biography, theological speculation, musical theory, and historical commentary, drawing on the Faust legend, Nietzschean thought, and the technical innovations of modernist composition. Leverkühn's descent parallels Germany's moral and political corruption, making the book both an inquiry into artistic modernism and a devastating meditation on the cultural origins of Nazism. Its deliberately intellectual prose, shifting registers, and embedded musical structures reflect the fractured consciousness of twentieth-century Europe. Mann wrote the novel during his American exile after the catastrophe of National Socialism, when questions of German guilt, cultural responsibility, and the relationship between genius and barbarism had become inescapable. His engagement with German Romanticism, classical humanism, psychoanalysis, and contemporary music—especially Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone method—shapes the book's formidable intellectual architecture. Though Mann presents an imagined composer, the narrative channels his own lifelong concern with decadence, irony, artistic isolation, and the ethical obligations of culture. This is an essential book for readers drawn to ambitious historical fiction, philosophical novels, and studies of art under political pressure. Demanding yet richly rewarding, *Doctor Faustus* invites sustained attention while offering an unforgettable portrait of a civilization that transforms its highest cultural aspirations into instruments of destruction.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.1 (20.3K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, StoryGraph, Amazon
GenreGeneral Fiction
Length24 hrs 18 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJan 1, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Der ZauberbergThomas Mann39h 6m4.3 (82.3K)$24 · $0.00
BuddenbrooksThomas Mann28h 42m4.3 (49.7K)$30 · $0.00
Lotte in WeimarThomas Mann15h 42m3.9 (5.4K)$18 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Mario und der ZaubererThomas Mann2h 16m3.9 (18.2K)$6 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Wie Jappe und Do Escobar sich prügeltenThomas Mann37m3.6 (60)$2 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: TristanThomas Mann1h 54m3.8 (3.3K)$6 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Die vertauschten KöpfeThomas Mann3h 58m3.8 (1.7K)$9 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Das EisenbahnunglückThomas Mann25m3.6 (42)$2 · $0.00
Mario und der ZaubererThomas Mann27m3.9 (27.5K)$5 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: AnekdoteThomas Mann12m3.7 (12)$2 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: LuischenThomas Mann44m3.4 (95)$4 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Unordnung und frühes LeidThomas Mann1h 39m4.0 (4.8K)$3 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: WälsungenblutThomas Mann1h 18m3.8 (529)$3 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Der KleiderschrankThomas Mann25m3.8 (67)$2 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Der Weg zum FriedhofThomas Mann27m3.4 (55)$6 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Das WunderkindThomas Mann26m3.7 (555)$2 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Beim ProphetenThomas Mann24m3.8 (152)$2 · $0.00
Der junge JosephThomas Mann10h 34m4.4 (406)$1 · $0.00
Königliche HoheitThomas Mann10h 58m$1 · $0.00
Thomas Mann: Short Stories & NovellasThomas Mann35h 31m$1.99 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du BoisHonoree Fanonne Jeffers29h 49m4.5 (58K)$8 · $0.00
Going PostalTerry Pratchett11h 23m4.5 (189.9K)$29 · $0.00
Glen AffricKarine Giebel22h 51m4.5 (3.2K)$46 · $0.00
The Book Of NegroesLawrence Hill15h 45m4.5 (107.3K)$33 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
Lieutenant Hornblower (Annotated)C. S. Forester11h 41m4.5 (2.9K)$2 · $0.00
You may also like
A Chill in the AirIris Origo4h 20m4.2 (1.2K)$20 · $0.00
Mr Britling Sees It ThroughH. G. Wells15h 51m3.9 (1K)$30
The Four Horsemen of the ApocalypseVicente Blasco Ibanez16h 33m4.0 (4K)$2.30
Oblivion or GloryDavid Stafford10h 41m4.1 (322)$20
History of the United States (Vol. 1-7)Charles A. Beard, Mary R. Beard23h 4m4.0 (1.5K)$1.99 · $0.00
The General of the Dead ArmyKadare, Ismail7h 53m4.1 (5.7K)Free
Mr. Britling Sees It ThroughH. G.15h 40m3.8 (1.7K)$3.50 · $0.00
Henderson the Rain KingSaul Bellow14h 25m3.9 (20.5K)$25
The KennedysPeter Collier, David Horowitz20h 6m4.1 (739)$32
Malay SketchesAlfian Sa'at4h 6m3.9 (1.3K)$9 · $0.00
Mr. ManiA.B. Yehoshua16h 3m4.0 (1.9K)$33 · $0.00
Dark Tales (Illustrated Edition)Nathaniel Hawthorne24h 22m4.0 (1.8K)$2 · $0.00
John Lennon: The LifePhilip Norman12h 51m4.3 (13.3K)$33 · $0.00
Sons of CamelotLaurence Leamer7h 2m4.0 (290)$24 · $0.00
Put Out More FlagsEvelyn Waugh8h 46m3.9 (7.8K)$1 · $0.00
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture (Annotated)Ruth Benedict11h 36m4.1 (8.8K)$2 · $0.00
The Hungry Stones, and Other StoriesRabindranath Tagore5h 13m4.1 (1.8K)$2.30
Chasing The LightOliver Stone14h 26m4.0 (3.4K)$33 · $0.00
Guarding GableNat Segaloff5h4.4 (11)$15
The Toy ShopMargarita Spalding Gerry46m$2 · $0.00