Devil's Contract
  • Published: 13 August 2024
  • ISBN: 9781685891046
  • Imprint: Melville House
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $59.99

Devil's Contract

The History of the Faustian Bargain

Formats & editions
EBook
9 Jul 2024
Hardback
13 Aug 2024
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"Lively . . . excoriating, eloquent . . . We are all Faustians now." — James Wood, The New Yorker

A devilishly fascinating tour of the Faustian bargain through the ages, from brimstone to blues and beyond . . .

"Lively . . . excoriating, eloquent . . . We are all Faustians now." — James Wood, The New Yorker

A devilishly fascinating tour of the Faustian bargain through the ages, from brimstone to blues and beyond . . .

From ancient times to the modern world, the idea of the Faustian bargain—the exchange of one's soul in return for untold riches and power—has exerted a magnetic pull upon our collective imaginations.

Scholar Ed Simon takes us on a historical tour of the Faustian bargain, from the Bible to blues, and illustrates how the impulse to sacrifice our principles in exchange for power is present in all kinds of social ills, from colonialism to nuclear warfare, from social media to climate change to AI, and beyond. In doing so, Simon conveys just how much the Faustian bargain shows us about power and evil . . . and ourselves.
  • Published: 13 August 2024
  • ISBN: 9781685891046
  • Imprint: Melville House
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $59.99
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Praise for Devil's Contract

PRAISE FOR DEVIL'S CONTRACT:

"Ed Simon explores the history of the Faustian myth. . .enjoys its heresies and dangers, its madcap adventures, the magical-realist wildness; and, since he has read extremely widely, he relishes sharing all of that narrative wealth with his lucky readers ... Lively ... excoriating, eloquent ... We are all Faustians now." —James Wood, The New Yorker

"Provocative... persuasively argues for Faust as a cornerstone—possibly an epitaph—of modernity." —Wall Street Journal


"I truly admire the hell out of this book. It's a thrilling yet erudite investigation into ... the way the sinister transaction, however mythic, has been incorporated into literature, culture—and contemporary human nature." —Ron Rosenbaum, author of The Shakespeare Wars

“Wild, entertaining, absorbing, learned, witty, acute ... prophetic and charged with an unsettling moral clarity.” —David Bentley Hart, author of That All Shall Be Saved

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