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Devil's Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain

Devil's Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain

By Ed Simon

"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.

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Book Information

Publisher: Melville House Publishing
Publish Date: 07/09/2024
Pages: 336
ISBN-13: 9781685891046
ISBN-10: 1685891047
Language: English

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July 09, 2024

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Full Description

"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 fto 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.

About the Author

Ed Simon holds a PhD in English from Lehigh University. He is a staff writer for The Millions , and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Poetry, The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Salon, Lit Hub, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Religion Dispatches, Newsweek, Killing the Buddha, The Revealer, The Public Domain Review, JSTOR Daily, Tablet, History News Network, Atlas Obscura, Aeon, The New Republic, and The New York Times , among several others.

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