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Study Guides Sign Up Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann - Traces the decline of a well to do German merchant family over four generations through its middle class customs as the family succumbs to modernity and a destructive artistic tendency. Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer, Adrian Leverk¸hn, as Told by a Friend by Thomas Mann - A theological student turned composer makes a pact with the devil for 24 years of musical genius in exchange for his soul and the ability to love his fellow man. A symbolic commentary on the destructive course Germany took to World War II. Provincial Letters by Blaise Pascal - A series of letters Pascal wrote under a pseudonym that viciously satirize the controversy over 'proximate power' in salvation and the Jesuit practice of casuistry. The letters expose the absurdities of casuistry that allow priests to kill, the subtle word games the Jesuit played to condemn belief in proximate power, the abuse of theologian authority and the often spiteful and unjust accusations the Jesuits made against their opponents. The letters became wildly popular due to their satire of church authority. The letters are considered a model for French prose due to their wit and vivacity. The Castle by Franz Kafka - A land surveyor struggles to live in a village without a clear position in society while trying to wring an answer from the inscrutable authorities of the village castle as to why he was summoned there. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann - A young bourgeois man visits his cousin in a mountain sanitarium where he 'falls ill' and struggles with the opposing forces of rationalism, faith, aestheticism, and common sense embodied by the other patients before rushing into World War I. The novel depicts the various cultural and intellectual currents swirling around in the soul of pre-World War I Europe. The Trial by Franz Kafka - A bank clerk is arrested one day and searches through the absurd machinations of the legal system to discover the nature of the charges. He never finds out and is killed 'like a dog.' Thoughts by Blaise Pascal - Written during the last years of Pascal's life, this collection of short essays and aphorisms were the working notes for a work of Christian apologetics which aimed to use psychology and history rather than metaphysical argument. They provide the fullest account of Pascal's religious thought - man's frailty and hopelessness without God, his abhorrence of boredom and enslavement to meaningless distraction, man's glory with God, the authority of the Bible, prophecy, and faith. Includes the famous Wager of Faith. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett - Two pathetic clownish figures suffer through an endless wait for the enigmatic Godot amusing themselves with gallows humor, religious allusions and clown tricks. In one act repeated twice.
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