Faust
1800
- good and evil
- drama
- redemption
- devil
- german drama
- translations into english
- english drama
- translations from german
- illustrations
- magicians
The story
A complete annotated translation of Goethe's "Faust," plus extensive interpretive notes, "Faust" illustrations and other visual sources used by Goethe, several pieces of Goethe's correspondence and commentary, eleven contemporary reviews by well-known writers, and ten modern pieces of criticism; also includes a Goethe chronology and selected bibliography.
What it’s like
Dense, verse-heavy and lyrical, with the sensory texture of a study lamp, candlelit scholarship and crowded stage picture: Goethe's language moves between tavern bawdiness, moonlit gardens, witches' kitchens and cloud-borne Alpine vistas, so the reading feels like walking through a sequence of painted tableaux rather than a straight road. The voice is elevated and theatrical, with rhymed doggerel, operatic lyric and sudden flashes of wit, and the annotations and period illustrations in this edition pull you into a slow, library-bound rhythm of reading, pausing and cross-referencing. Its mood is brooding and searching, a steady undertow of longing and irony with moments of tenderness and grief, and its arc follows an restless scholar who bargains his soul for experience and is shaken by what that costs. Intensity is moderate: some tragic deaths, a murder and a harrowing final act of guilt and madness, but no gore and little on-page gratuitous violence, mostly sensual and spiritual rather than visceral. Suits a slow autumn reading, a serious comfort-read for lovers of classic drama, and readers curious about the Faust legend and its German commentary tradition.
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