PhD student writes controversial 'Faustus' retelling

The front cover of FAVSTVS.

Novelist L.N. Loch announces the release date of FAVSTVS, a modern, dark academia retelling of Christopher Marlowe’s 1604 play.

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, September 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- FAVSTVS will be available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and other major booksellers on September 22, 2026.

FAVSTVS has almost 3000 saves on Goodreads prior to release, and is already drawing controversy from both sides of the political aisle. The novel follows an accomplished “incel” graduate student who hires the services of a female crimelord to help cover up a sexual assault and write his dissertation.

In a video series designed to promote the book, Loch revealed her desire to explore the emotional fallout of bigotry against women, rather than “teach her reader” political ideas. She stated a desire to defy the stereotype that women are the “fairer sex,” adding “I wanted to not hold [my female characters’] reactions to misogyny to any kind of moral standard…I wanted to write monsters.”

L.N. Loch is a fifth-year PhD student studying Victorian literature. Formerly, she was an Early Modernist focusing on Marlowe.

FAVSTVS is a venomous tribute to Christopher Marlowe which fully embraces the controversial nature of the original play. It follows the rise and fall of an ambitious misogynist ultimately toppled not by a feminist, but by a woman even more terrifying than himself. Advance praise reports “decadent” prose and “unhinged” characters in this edgy addition to the dark academia subgenre.

Further details on the novel can be found on Loch’s website and Substack.
lnloch.com | linktr.ee/lnloch | lnliii.substack.com

Lara Loch
L.N. Loch
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