Alchemy is the leitmotif of this gripping novel, set against a richly authentic backdrop of 1840s Cambridge. The Maiden Faust presents a new and startlingly original take on the Faust legend made famous by Marlowe, Goethe and Mann. In this forceful, female-centred, narrative the ageing scholar Faust of the Gothic myth is replaced by Philippa Austen, a Cambridge undergraduate in an alternative Victorian England where alchemy holds sway. After Philippa encounters the beautiful but unearthly Martha Stowfell, she strikes a bargain to unpick the threads of her dark history - but at what cost? The reader has to wait to the large page to fully decode the plot of this extraordinary piece of fiction. AUTHOR: Conor Farrington is the author of the 'Olga Pushkin' series (Constable/Little, Brown, 2021-4) which includes books selected for Waterstones Best New Fiction and Goldsboro Premier Book of the Month. His writing has also been featured in publications ranging from The Guardian to The Times Literary Supplement, in addition to academic journals such as Science, The Lancet, and The Political Quarterly. Conor holds a PhD in politics from the University of Cambridge and Masters degrees in politics and philosophy from the University of Edinburgh.
