OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Doctor Faustus and Other Plays

I bought this edition primarily to read "Doctor Faustus" which I thought was rather flat and clichéd and without a lot of deep character development. I then accidentally stumbled on "The Jew of Malta" which I think is a masterpiece.Although the degree of Barabas' greed and villainy are almost comically exaggerated, the tragic relationship between Jew and Gentile, and the historical antecedents of European anti-Semitism are heart-breakingly encapsulated in his interactions with the outside world. As a Jew, Barabas feels that he has been left to "in the ocean thus to sink or swim" and in return has turned his back on society. His exclusion makes him defiant and his money is what insulates him from his inability to develop relationships with the wider society and is what he thinks will protect him from the common vagaries of life like illness and poverty - but also from those more specific to minorities, such as expropriation and exile. His motto is to be void of affections such as "compassion, love, vain hope and heartless fear"... to "be moved at nothing...pity none." When he is told that the Turks could invade Malta he tells himself, "let 'em combat, conquer, and kill all, so they spare me, my daughter and my wealth." What else could be expected from someone forced to live on the fringes of society? Thus, Barabas tell himself that "loving neither" Christian or Turk "will I live with both...this is the life we Jews are used to lead", although ultimately Barabas is not entitled to live with either. Even in death, Barabas is excluded from civil society, or as the Governor of Malta says, "the Jew's body, throw that o'er the walls to be a prey for vultures and wild beasts."Of course, Barabas' defiance and pathological greed can only lead to disgust and further exclusion from society. He is denied justice while his property is confiscated on the grounds that its necessary to "save the multitude and better one want for a common good than many perish for a private man." And yet, as an outsider Barabas has rarely been able to benefit from the "common good" and the arbitrariness of law is a really veil for society's retribution toward the non-believer and the "sufferance of their (i.e., the Jews') hateful lives." Even the lowest rung of society can suddenly be sanctimonious when it comes to hatred of the Jew, or as the pimp says, "to undo a Jew is charity, not sin."One final quibble with this particular edition: although the footnotes are generally helpful, they are not repeated from the A-Text of Doctor Faustus to the B-Text which makes reading the latter version confusing.

It was in great conditions for being a second-hand item. The notes on the margins will be really helpful at the time of studying the book, so thanks John for making them.

I am assuming that the readers of the review of this product already know the plot of the play by Marlowe, I think this is taken by the A text that is to say the first version of the play generally accepted to be the most accurate as far as I know.this is the fully dramatized version in 1 CD but contrarily to what the description says, in the download version at least and I don't think the two versions are different, this version is not unabridged.the download version - which is described as unabridged is not so, it does refer to the A text of the play but there are at least two episodes missing from the full dramatization of this version.the download is advertised as being 55 minutes in listening length and this CD lasts 54 minutes and 48 seconds, 12 seconds shorter, that might account for the Audible announcements at the beginning and at the end.regarding the missing parts, please bear in mind I only read the printed version once so I am not able to give full details but the scene where Faustus falls asleep and the man pulls his leg to wake him up is missing and after Ellen of Greece the scene with the old man who invites Faustus to repent is missing, actually all references to the old man are missing.my advice is for the current price - at the time I bought it the price was a bit more than £11 - if you want the dramatized version I suggest you buy the stage on screen DVD. the actors here are very good but overall since this is not the unabridged version I do not see the point of this CD, actually I was hoping to get the unabridged audio book of the play, the dramatization is very good but as I said before it's not unabridged.

Good book. I have given 3 stars rating because one corner of the book was damaged. Very bad packing.

Slightly damaged cover due to poor packaging. could have given 5 stars , poor packaging halted me. Overall Satisfied.