Brian M’s Reviews > Devil's Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain > Status Update

The first decent chapter of the book. Barely passable and a completely surface level interpretation of the Faust play by Goethe. Shouldn’t have taken 175 pages to get to this point and I am still let down. The only interesting aspect of the chapter was the tie in to the history of the gestapo and the idea of “lebensraum”. A measly 3 pages of the chapter filled with personalized cartoonish rhetoric.

Opinion hasn’t changed about the book now we are going to get into Goethe my wheelhouse. This will make or break my true opinion very close to dnfing

This is a slop book - most pretentious prose for a popcorn history book I’ve ever read. Actually spiking my cortisol to levels unheard of. This first chapter regarding Simon Magus is an absolute stretch and the argument he tries to employ is utterly boring. You have 200 more pages to do something interesting but so far all I’ve learned is the names of 7 gnostic heretical denominations. Wow thanks bro