The Oxford Handbook of Faust in Music ed. by Lorna Fitzsimmons and Charles McKnight (review)

Abstract

second part of this chapter focuses on adaptations, or “appropriations” as Deats calls them, of the Faust legend, including titles like The Devil and Daniel Webster, Alias Nick Beal, Damn Yankees, Bedazzled and its subsequent sequel, Oh, God! You Devil, Crossroads, and Angel Heart. Her epilogue to the book mentions the media coverage of the 2016 presidential election in the US, which featured many allusions to the Faust legend, and speaks briefly about the durability of this text. The Faust Legend: From Marlowe and Goethe to Contemporary Drama and Film would serve any BAor MA-level course focused on the Faust Legend as an overview text to accompany an in-depth look at either Marlowe’s or Goethe’s text. Both its chronological focus and its inclusion of post-Goethe materials make this text accessible to students at these levels and it offers a thorough enough overview for an introductory course.