The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Christopher Marlowe, 1604

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An ambitious scholar turns from established learning towards magic and the promise of extraordinary power.

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Length: 17 scenes
Reading time: About 52 min
Words: 12,286

About the book

The opening Chorus introduces Faustus as a gifted student whose appetite for knowledge has carried him beyond satisfaction with ordinary achievement. Alone in his study, he stands at the point where intellectual ambition becomes a desire to command forces outside human limits.

Marlowe makes that desire a theatrical argument, bringing spiritual choices into spoken debate and visible action. The play asks what power is worth and what a person imagines it will supply, giving grandeur and danger to the gap between aspiration and judgment.

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This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Christopher Marlowe died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original editor’s note, dramatis personae.

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

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