Klaus Mann wrote his Mephistopheles in less than six months. He began the novel in early 1936, and by May of that year the manuscript was ready. Soon after, it appeared as a preprint in a Paris newspaper. The novel tells the tragic story of the moral decline of actor Hendrik Höfgen. For his artistic career and thirst for power, he was ready to pay any price, even if it meant betraying his former comrades and, most importantly, himself. But when it seemed that the goal had been achieved, Hefgen realized with horror that he had made an irreparable mistake - he had sold his soul to the devil himself.