I have read, in German, several other books by Mann. I haven't had an easy time with any of them, but I did get through them well enough. Doktor Faustus is a much more difficult novel to read, and I struggled through it, partly, I think, because in it Mann expects the reader to have an extensive knowledge of music and musical theory. Even so, some takeaways:
1. Leverkühn, the music genius in the novel, becomes eminently successful thanks to a pact with the Devil, much as Goethe's Faust does. In the end, as in Faust's case, Leverkühn pays heavily for the contract he had made 24 years before.
This leaves us (me at least) with the thought: Is someone's work still to be admired when the creator of this work is a bad man?
Also,
Mann, I think, wants us to see in Leverkühn a sort of reflection of the GERMAN or of the German nation, and, an in the case of Leverkühn, leaves with the thought: Is German culture (ie, the Germany of the past, to be disliked because of its nastiness during Hitler' s time?
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