Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe · 1564–1593 · England
Why it matters
A scholar sells his soul for twenty-four years of unlimited knowledge and power, then watches the clock run down onstage in real time. The Faust myth's first great dramatic form, and blank verse discovering it could carry damnation.
At a glance
tragedydrama
Difficulty 5/10medium pace120 pagesShort and gripping; Elizabethan verse and comic subplot conventions are the only hurdles.
Deep dive
Why Faustus spends his unlimited power on party tricks instead of remaking the world, and what that choice says about what the play actually thinks of him.
