Doctor Faustus: With The English Faust Book

Description

This edition of the 'A' text, with supporting documents that include selections from The English Life of Faustus, contemporary testimonies to Marlowe's 'atheism', and passages from the 'B' text, offers a startling new context in which to understand this play, its comedy, and its tawdry representation of demonic magic. In this light, argues Wootton, Marlowe's Faustus both reflects the centrality of comedy to the Faust legend and plays an ambiguous role in a crucial intellectual debate of the playwright's time.

David Wootton is Anniversary Professor of History, University of York.

This is an excellent edition; I really appreciate the clear Introduction and the exceptionally useful notes. I look forward to using this text with a freshman literature class who will really benefit from the helpful textual apparatus. --Charlotte England, Department of English, Salisbury University The inexpensive paperback will allow this student-friendly text to be added to the reading list of a variety of high-school and college courses. Teachers as well as students will find the Introduction here very useful. -- Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance