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Vaniver comments on To like, or not to like? - Less Wrong Discussion
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I should point out quickly that I found the first half of Faust (the halves were sold as separate books, and I just got the first) to be boring. There's a scholar who wants power and knowledge, and makes a deal with the Devil to achieve them, and what happens? He seduces a young girl down the street (and, since the Devil is involved, things go poorly). How... pedestrian.
How much of that is due more to what you are used to, in part due to the influence of Faust? There's the old joke about the 9th grade student who complains that Shakespeare and the Bible are both full of cliches.
I don't get the impression that this is a significant contributor. I think it's mostly Heinlein's "an intellectual is someone who's found something more interesting than sex" not fitting Faust, despite the setup being an interesting one for that premise.
A tale of a deal with the devil going poorly isn't the part that I thought was pedestrian, but I agree that if that had been my motivator that this would be likely.