Faustus References

THIS DOCUMENT PROVIDES VARIOUS AIDS FOR READERS OF JOHN WOOD’S TRANSLATION OF THOMAS MANN’S DOCTOR FAUSTUS: CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER SUMMARY 1 CHRONOLOGY OF ADRIAN LEVERKÜHN’S LIFE 5 SOME OF THE REFERENCES IN DOKTOR FAUSTUS 6 VARIOUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ALBRECHT DÜRER 20 CONTENTS OF THOMAS MANN’S DR. FAUSTUS Chapter I: The narrator, Serenus Zeitblom (SZ), introduces himself. Begins writing in May of 1943, 2 years after Adrian Leverkühn’s death. He is uncertain about his qualifications for writing AL’s biography. He loved AL, but the latter was surrounded by coldness. Chapter II: SZ continues self-description. He was born in 1883 in Kaisersaschern on the Saale River near Merseburg, where AL later attended school. AL belonged to the Protestant majority; SZ Catholic. AL a humanist, a friend of reason, fine arts, the world of the human spirit. He is retired from teaching classical languages at a Gymnasium. He and his wife, Helene, have two sons and a daughter. Although musical — he plays the viola — he is wary of music’s demonic side. Chapter III: AL’s family descended from farmer’s and craftsmen. His parents Jonathan and Elsbeth have a farm, Buchel, in Weißenfels, near Kaisersaschern. A brother is also a farmer. His sister is Ursel. Jonathan reads the Luther-Bible but is also interested in mystical science. He studies fantastical, ambiguous creatures, such as beautiful but poisonous butterflies and seashells apparently inscribed by nature. One butterfly, Heatera esmeralda, protects itself by looking like a leaf. Another interest is the problematic boundary between organic and inorganic beings. Chapter IV: AL’s mother. The milkmaid Hanne, who teaches the children how to sing rounds. Thoughts on AL’s later concept of art. Chapter V: SZ contemplates Germany and war. AL, while in his village school, is recognized as gifted and sent to Gymnasium. Chapter VI: School in Kaisersaschern. AL lives with his uncle, Nikolaus Leverkühn, who sells musical instruments and builds violins. Kaisersaschern is described as having strong vestiges of medieval times, as well as a number of odd characters. Chapter VII: AL is so intelligent that he masters schoolwork without effort or interest (except for a fascination with math). Uncle gives him a harmonium, on which he experiments with musical relationships: “Music is ambiguity as a system.” Chapter VIII: Wendell Kretzschmar, AL’s music teacher. Gives lectures on 1 Beethoven’s Piano sonata no. 32 and the composer’s relationship to the fugue. He also tells the story of Johann Conrad Beißel, of the Ephrata Cloister, and his system of musical composition, with “master” and “servant” notes. Kretzschmar characterizes the present age is one of homophonic-harmonic-melodic music, as opposed to the older (and superior) polyphonic-contrapuntal kind (a positive form of “barbarism”). Chapter IX: Kretzschmar’s interest in English literature. AL studies musical history and attempts to reconcile homophonic and polyphonic musical composition. Interest in the Lied. Chapter X: AL decides to study theology “out of pride.” Chapter XI: AL begins his university study in Halle, the historical center of pietism. The older and newer streams of Christianity are criticized. Theology necessarily becomes demonology. Chapter XII: AL’s room has a picture of the magic square from Dürer’s “Melancholia.” Lectures on Pythagoras. Prof. Ehrenfried Kumpf, redolent of Luther, lectures on the necessary presence of the devil in Christianity. Chapter XIII: Prof. Eberhard Schleppfuß on the sexual nature of the devil, as well as his vital role in the divine plan. The story of Heinz Klöpfgeißel and Bärbel. Chapter XIV: SZ’s reflections on numerology. A discussion among the theological students of the “Winfried” fraternity. Especially Deutschlin represents a proto-fascist tendency. Chapter XV: AL’s mother wary of Kretzschmar’s influence. A discussion of music, which is seen as theology plus mathematics. Is originality possible? AL decides to study music in Leipzig. Chapter XVI: Leipzig 1905. Letter from AL to SZ in self-consciously jocular style. He reports on a visit to a whorehouse where he meets, but does not sleep with, Esmeralda. Further reflections on the history of music. Chapter XVII: SZ’s reflections on Adrian’s (empty) relationship to sex and love. Tells of his own affair with a cooper’s daughter. Chapter XVIII: Adrian composes a tone poem, “Meerleuchten,” but no longer believes in symphonic music, which which he compares to a root-canal operation (restoring a dead tooth). Developing interest in polyphonic vocal music. Chapter XIX: AL tracks down Esmeralda in Hungary and, despite her warning that she has syphilis, sleeps with her. The two physicians he visits come to mysterious ends before they can treat him: one dies suddenly, the other is arrested. The tone row h (= “B” in the German notational system)-e-a-e-es (= E-flat) becomes a standard feature of 2 his future compositions. Chapter XX: Rüdiger Schildknapp, scholar of English, translator, and poet, helps AL with his opera, Love’s Labor’s Lost. AL also composes Lieder based on texts from Dante, Blake, and Verlaine. Chapter XXI: SZ’s reflections on the war, fascism, barbarism, and the limits of his own narrative possibilities. AL’s trip to Basel with Kretzschmar to hear “Meerleuchten” performed. Key reflexions on the nature of art. Lieder based on poems by Brentano. Chapter XXII: AL’s sister, Ursula, is married. Her 4th child will be the angelic Nepomuk (also known as Echo). SZ seeks to combine the archaic with the revolutionary within the strictest possible form. First mentions of a 12-tone system. Chapter XXIII: Munich around 1910. The Rodde sisters, the seductive violinist Rudolf Schwerdtfeger. AL and Schildknapp take a bike trip to Pfeiffering, meet the Schweigestills, whose farm resembles Buchel (AL’s parents’ farm). Chapter XXIV: AL and Schildknapp go to Italy, SZ and wife visit. Chapter XXV: AL and the devil make pact. Chapter XXVI: SZ reflects on the various chronological levels of his narrative: the historical time, the time of composition, and the time of its reading. Expectations of the Normandy invasion. AL moves to Pfeiffering, SZ to Freising. Chapter XXVII: Love’s Labor’s Lost is finally finished and premiered in Lübeck. Klopstock’s “Frühlingsfeier” (Festival of Spring). AL reports on his bathysphere adventures and exploration of the cosmos. Composition of the symphonic “Wunder des Alls”. Chapter XXVIII: Munich in 1913-14. Breisacher and von Riedesel. Cultural pessimism and decay. Chapter XXIX: Helmut Institoris is to marry Inez Rodde, who loves Rudi Schwerdtfeger. Chapter XXX: World War I. SZ serves briefly. Comparison of the two world wars. AL untouched by events, composes “Gesta Romanorum,” played by marionettes (alluding to Heinrich von Kleist’s “On the Marionette-Theater,” about the nature of consciousness). In both politics and art: desire for a “breakthrough”. Chapter XXXI: during WWI AL is taken care of by two women, Meta Nackdey and Kunigunde Rosenstiel, in addition to Else Schweigestill. The story of Gregorious. Discussion of AL’s compositions. AL proposes a redeeming musical breakthrough that will bring music to all the people, while SZ argues for an elitist appreciation. 3 Chapter XXXII: Helmut Institoris and Inez Rodde marry and set up an exemplary household. Simultaneously she has an on-going affair with Rudi Schwerdtfeger. SZ serves as her confidant. Her mother moves to Pfeiffering. Chapter XXXIII: 1944, Normandy invasion by the Allies. Bombing of German cities. Nazis as barbarians. Munich in 1919: collapse, workers’ revolution. AL sick. Andersen’s story of “The Little Mermaid.” Rudi Schwerdtfeger ingratiates himself with AL, wants a violin concerto. Chapter XXXIV: 1919: the collapse of the German state and of the era of bourgeois humanism. AL reads mystics and works on “Apocalipsis cum Figuris,” based on Dürer’s woodcuts. Continuation of XXXIV: debates in the apartment of Sixtus Kridwiss about the future of culture. Proposal of a “rebarbarizarion,” precursor of Nazism. Conclusion of XXXIV: aestheticism as precursor of barbarism. “Apocalipsis cum Figuris” as the synthesis of the highest intellectualism and barbarism. Chapter XXXV: Clarissa Rodde kills herself with poison. Inez, her affair with Rudi over, joins a group of women who regularly take morphine. Chapter XXXVI: Weimar Republic. Frau von Tolna, a rich Hungarian widow, is AL’s patron. He and Rudi spend 12 days in her castle in feudal circumstances. Rudi performs AL’s violin concerto in Vienna. Chapter XXXVII: Saul Fitelberg, impresario, tries to recruit AL for the world of the music business. A Polish Jew, he represents the larger world of culture and society, especially in Paris. He offers to spread his magic cloak (a theme from the traditional Faust story) and take AL out of his isolation. AL declines. Chapter XXXVIII: Discussion of AL’s violin concerto. Discussion at the home of the industrialist Bullinger about serious, heavy music vs. light and sensual. How Rudi Schwerdtfeger “seduced” AL. Chapter XXXIX: Adrian avenges the “seduction” through an attraction to Marie Godeau, who might possibly redeem him from his isolation. Chapter XL: AL, Rudi, Schildknapp, SZ, Helene, Marie and an aunt make an excursion in the environs of Munich. A discussion about Ludwig II (“Mad Ludwig”). Chapter XLI: AL asks Rudi to speak for him with Marie and convey his proposal of marriage to her. Rudi is himself attracted to her but agrees. The last time that AL and Rudi see each other. 4 Chapter XLII: Rudi carries AL’s message to Marie but then speaks for himself (perhaps AL intended this all along). Marie and Rudi become engaged and plan to move to Paris. He gives a farewell concert, but after that, in a trolley car, with SZ as a witness, Inez Institorus shoots him out of jealousy. Chapter XLIII: Reflections on Germany’s descent, but SZ’s continued love for his country.

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