Famous Translations (Illustrated Edition) --- Faust

Author: Goethe
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2004-04-01
Features: Goethe's Faust takes the ancient German legend of an alchemist selling his soul to the devil for knowledge and youth and subverts its meaning, demonstrating vast, profound, and sublime aspects of human life, singing an anthem of relentless human striving that has echoed across the world to this day. At the beginning of the main text, there is a thematic "Prologue to Paradise" that sets the tone for the entire play. Faust draws on the ancient German legend of an alchemist selling his soul to the devil for knowledge and youth, subverting its meaning to demonstrate vast, profound, and sublime aspects of human life, singing an anthem of relentless human striving that has echoed across the world to this day. At the beginning of the main text, there is a thematic "Prologue to Paradise" that sets the tone for the entire play. Faust is not a work that can be thoroughly understood after reading a few chapters. Beyond its profound and extensive content, which includes knowledge from philosophy, theology, mythology, literature, and music, it also features complex forms, incorporating various elements such as lyrical, descriptive, narrative, and philosophical aspects. It includes forms like tragic hope, medieval mystery plays, Baroque allegorical plays, masques popular during the Renaissance, Italian commedia dell'arte, and new techniques from the British stage and modern topical plays—and these diverse genres nearly employ every known Western meter.