Faust

Author: Goethe
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Goethe's Faust takes an ancient German alchemist's tale of selling his soul to the devil for knowledge and youth and turns it on its head, demonstrating a vast, profound, and sublime human experience, singing an anthem of relentless human striving that echoes throughout the world to this day. At the beginning of the main text, there is a preliminary curtain raiser that outlines the central theme, setting the tone for the entire play. Faust is not something that can be understood by reading just one or two chapters. Beyond its profound and extensive content, encompassing knowledge from philosophy, theology, mythology, literature, and music, there is also its complex form, which includes various elements such as lyrical, descriptive, narrative, and didactic. It features a hopeful tragedy, medieval mystery plays, Baroque allegorical plays, masquerades popular during the Renaissance, Italian craft plays, and even new techniques for the English stage and modern satirical plays—these diverse genres have almost adopted every known Western meter.