Editing Faust (section)

===Mann's ''Doctor Faustus''===
[[Thomas Mann]]'s 1947 ''{{lang|de|[[Doctor Faustus (novel)|Doktor Faustus: Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn, erzählt von einem Freunde]]}}'' adapts the Faust legend to a 20th&nbsp;century context, documenting the life of fictional composer Adrian Leverkühn, as analog and embodiment of the early 20th&nbsp;century history of Germany and of Europe. The talented Leverkühn, after contracting venereal disease from a brothel visit, forms a pact with a Mephistophelean character to grant him 24&nbsp;years of brilliance and success as a composer. He produces works of increasing beauty to universal acclaim, even while physical illness begins to corrupt his body. In 1930, when presenting his final masterwork (''The Lamentation of Dr.&nbsp;Faust''), he confesses the pact he had made: Madness and syphilis now overcome him, and he suffers a slow and total collapse until his death in 1940. Leverkühn's spiritual, mental, and physical collapse and degradation are mapped on to the period in which [[Nazism]] rose in Germany, and Leverkühn's fate is shown as that of the soul of Germany.