Mephisto reads like a novel based on real events, but Klaus Mann denies this. What is undisputed, however, is that Mephisto is one of his most important works. The story follows the actor Hendrik Höfgen from 1926 in the Hamburg Artists' Theater to 1936, when he has become the celebrated star of the so-called New Reich, justifying his opportunism. Too late does he realize: he has become a "monkey of power," a "clown for the amusement of murderers." Gröls Classic (Edition Works of World Literature).