![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Leverkühn's life unfolds in the context of, and in parallel with, the German cultural and political environment which led to the rise and downfall of Nazi Germany. His madness - his daemonic inspiration - leads to extraordinary musical brilliance but he feels the progress of his neuro-syphilitic madness leading towards complete breakdown. He is subsequently visited by a Mephistophelean being (who says, in effect, "that you can only see me because you are mad, does not mean that I do not really exist"), and, renouncing love, bargains his soul in exchange for twenty-four years of creative genius. He strikes a Faustian bargain for creative genius: he intentionally contracts syphilis, which deepens his artistic inspiration through madness. He is a solemn trickster who is never altogether earnest about anything, especially his. Would you ever enter into a pact with the Devil to sell your soul and body in return for becoming a great musical genius like Beethoven?Īspiring musical composer Leverkühn's extraordinary intellect and creativity as a young man mark him as destined for success, but his ambition is for true greatness. Mann is, first, a supremely gifted storyteller, adept at the slow windup and the rapid turn of the screw. ![]()
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