Mephisto
Klaus Mann author Robin Smyth translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:7th Dec '95
Should be back in stock very soon
A searing indictment of evil in Hitler's Germany. Hendrik Hofgen is a man obsessed with becoming a famous actor. When the Nazis come to power in Germany, he willingly renounces his Communist past and deserts his wife and mistress in order to keep on performing. His diabolical performance as Mephistopheles in Faust proves to be the stepping-stone he yearned for: attracting the attention of Hermann Göring, it wins Hofgen an appointment as head of the State Theatre. The rewards - the respect of the public, a castle - like villa, a uplace in Berlin's highest circles - are beyond his wildest dreams. But the moral consequences of his betrayals begin to haunt him, turning his dreamworld into a nightmare.
“Imagine an America in which an increasingly ruthless authoritarian regime has laid its hands not only on the judiciary and the environment and the Postal Service, but on all media and all educational and artistic institutions. Then imagine trying to function as an artist. That’s the sort of world [Mephisto] is navigating. It’s difficult to picture such a state of affairs coming to exist in America; but, after the last four years, it’s not impossible.” ―Margaret Atwood, The New York Times Book Review
ISBN: 9780140189186
Dimensions: 197mm x 128mm x 19mm
Weight: 228g
272 pages