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Available
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Publication
Penguin Classics (1950), Paperback, 208 pages
Description
"Goethe is the most famous German author, and the poetic drama Faust, Part I (1808) is his best-known work, one that stands in the company of other leading canonical works of European literature such as Dante's Inferno and Shakespeare's Hamlet. This is the first new translation into English since David Constantine's 2005 version. Why another translation when there are several currently in print? To invoke Goethe's own authority when speaking of his favorite author, Shakespeare, Goethe asserts that so much has already been said about the poet-dramatist "that it would seem there's nothing left to say," but adds, "yet it is the peculiar attribute of the spirit that it constantly motivates the spirit." Goethe's great dramatic poem continues to speak to us in new ways as we and our world continually change, and thus a new or updated translation is always necessary to bring to light Faust's almost inexhaustible, mysterious, and enchanting poetic and cultural power. Eugene Stelzig's new translation renders the text of the play in clear and crisp English for a contemporary undergraduate audience while at the same time maintaining its leading poetic features, including the use of rhyme."--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member nwhyte
It really took me ages to grind through this, and I'm not sure that it was worth it. Rather ambitiously I got hold of the Wordsworth edition which includes not only Part I and Part II of Faust, but also an earlier draft of Part I (the Urfaust) just in case you are sufficiently interested to know
Part I is the more digestible version (and the Urfaust even more so). Heinrich Faust, a scholar who is trying to reconcile the life of the mind with the lusts of the flesh, signs a deal with Mephistopheles (who9 first appears, and I am not making this up, in the shape of a poodle) to get whatever he wants, notably the pretty girl Gretchen. There are various rustic and studenty comic interludes, but it all goes wrong and she is executed for infanticide (I think; it's a bit obscure).
I think that either part would be pretty much impossible to stage. The characters do very little but wander up and down declaiming verse, and some of the directions are surely unimplementable (the well-trained poodle, as noted above. I assume that Goethe wrote it for intellectual house parties to recite to each other while lounging around the formal gardens sipping white wine.
Despite the fact that I really didn't enjoy Faust much, I did have some fun spotting themes that have carried through to later literature. Quite a lot of Part I reminded me of Buffy, with the students, young lurve, supernatural powers and diabolical figures tempting our lead character.
I suppose I should read (or, better, somehow watch) the Marlowe version to get another perspective on the story. (And then reread Michael Swanwick's take on it.)
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what the original version might have looked like.Part I is the more digestible version (and the Urfaust even more so). Heinrich Faust, a scholar who is trying to reconcile the life of the mind with the lusts of the flesh, signs a deal with Mephistopheles (who9 first appears, and I am not making this up, in the shape of a poodle) to get whatever he wants, notably the pretty girl Gretchen. There are various rustic and studenty comic interludes, but it all goes wrong and she is executed for infanticide (I think; it's a bit obscure).
I think that either part would be pretty much impossible to stage. The characters do very little but wander up and down declaiming verse, and some of the directions are surely unimplementable (the well-trained poodle, as noted above. I assume that Goethe wrote it for intellectual house parties to recite to each other while lounging around the formal gardens sipping white wine.
Despite the fact that I really didn't enjoy Faust much, I did have some fun spotting themes that have carried through to later literature. Quite a lot of Part I reminded me of Buffy, with the students, young lurve, supernatural powers and diabolical figures tempting our lead character.
I suppose I should read (or, better, somehow watch) the Marlowe version to get another perspective on the story. (And then reread Michael Swanwick's take on it.)
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LibraryThing member gbill
Faust is Goethe’s masterpiece and the heart of his life’s work. He started thinking about it and writing it when he was bored with his studies at University and at the time he quickly cranked out “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, but by contrast he did not complete Faust (Part 1) until
This is not the origin of what has been popularized in so many different ways over the centuries in “selling your soul to the devil” stories, but one of the better versions and certainly a standard reference for the others. It’s the story of not just the condition of Faust’s everlasting soul as he ponders the abyss of suicide, but the condition of man on planet Earth. Jacques Barzun summarizes it well in the introduction to this edition:
“…the torment comes from the awareness that man is at once wretched and great. He is wretched because he is a limited, mortal creature; he is great because his mind embraces the whole universe and knows its own wretchedness. No ordinary satisfaction can quench Faust’s desires; forever he sees and wants something beyond. The ultimate bliss would be to feel at one with nature, through knowledge not merely intellectual but emotional also, virtually instinctive; whereas all learning serves but to make Faust more self-conscious and isolated, till he scarcely feels that he lives. Clearly, this defines the situation of modern civilized man, whose increasing knowledge makes him more and more self-critical, anxious, beset by doubts, and hence more and more an alien in the natural world that is his only home.”
Epic and grand in scope. Man’s soul, his passions, his fate. Not quiiite as brilliant as I had hoped for from its reputation, but Part 1 is in the “must read” category.
Quotes:
On beauty:
“Often the perfect form appears
Only when ripened slowly many years.
What glitters lives an instant, then is gone;
The real for all posterity lives on.”
On living life:
“Yes, of this truth I am convinced –
This is wisdom’s ultimate word:
Only he deserves this life in freedom
Who daily earns it all anew.”
On transience:
“Here shall I satisfy my need?
What though in thousand volumes I should read
That human beings suffered everywhere,
And one perchance was happy, here or there?
Why grin, you hollow skull, except to say
That once your brain, perplexed like mine,
Yearning for Truth, pursued the light of day,
Then in the dusk went wretchedly astray?”
On the passing of youth. :-(
“Then give me back those years long past
When I could still mature and grow,
And when a spring of song welled fast
Out of my heart with ceaseless flow,
When all the world was veiled in mist,
When every bud a miracle concealed,
And when I gathered myriad flowers
Crowding the valley and the field.
Though naught was mine, I had enough in youth,
A joy in illusion, a longing for the Truth.
Give back the surge of impulse, re-create
That happiness so steeped in pain,
The power of love, the strength of hate –
Oh, give me back my youth again!”
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decades later, when he was in his fifties. He continued on with Part 2 right up until death at 82.This is not the origin of what has been popularized in so many different ways over the centuries in “selling your soul to the devil” stories, but one of the better versions and certainly a standard reference for the others. It’s the story of not just the condition of Faust’s everlasting soul as he ponders the abyss of suicide, but the condition of man on planet Earth. Jacques Barzun summarizes it well in the introduction to this edition:
“…the torment comes from the awareness that man is at once wretched and great. He is wretched because he is a limited, mortal creature; he is great because his mind embraces the whole universe and knows its own wretchedness. No ordinary satisfaction can quench Faust’s desires; forever he sees and wants something beyond. The ultimate bliss would be to feel at one with nature, through knowledge not merely intellectual but emotional also, virtually instinctive; whereas all learning serves but to make Faust more self-conscious and isolated, till he scarcely feels that he lives. Clearly, this defines the situation of modern civilized man, whose increasing knowledge makes him more and more self-critical, anxious, beset by doubts, and hence more and more an alien in the natural world that is his only home.”
Epic and grand in scope. Man’s soul, his passions, his fate. Not quiiite as brilliant as I had hoped for from its reputation, but Part 1 is in the “must read” category.
Quotes:
On beauty:
“Often the perfect form appears
Only when ripened slowly many years.
What glitters lives an instant, then is gone;
The real for all posterity lives on.”
On living life:
“Yes, of this truth I am convinced –
This is wisdom’s ultimate word:
Only he deserves this life in freedom
Who daily earns it all anew.”
On transience:
“Here shall I satisfy my need?
What though in thousand volumes I should read
That human beings suffered everywhere,
And one perchance was happy, here or there?
Why grin, you hollow skull, except to say
That once your brain, perplexed like mine,
Yearning for Truth, pursued the light of day,
Then in the dusk went wretchedly astray?”
On the passing of youth. :-(
“Then give me back those years long past
When I could still mature and grow,
And when a spring of song welled fast
Out of my heart with ceaseless flow,
When all the world was veiled in mist,
When every bud a miracle concealed,
And when I gathered myriad flowers
Crowding the valley and the field.
Though naught was mine, I had enough in youth,
A joy in illusion, a longing for the Truth.
Give back the surge of impulse, re-create
That happiness so steeped in pain,
The power of love, the strength of hate –
Oh, give me back my youth again!”
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LibraryThing member thorold
It's a strange notion, "reviewing" a text that is one of the pillars of German national identity and has had untold hectolitres of ink spilled over it by critics in the last couple of centuries. Maybe the most appropriate question to ask in a place like this is "What does Faust I have to offer the
Two main things, I think: amazing language and a cracking good yarn.
Like Hamlet or the KJV in English, reading Faust through is a bit like joining the dots between dozens of quotations you already know. The language has a very direct appeal to the reader: you don't have to be an expert in 19th century German verse to make sense of it (though I'm sure you would get more out of it if you were). After a few pages you entirely forget what a strange notion it is to be reading a verse drama, and just enjoy the sound of the words.
The story isn't as "big" and "epic" as you might imagine. The core story of Gretchen's seduction and fall is told in a very intimate, naturalistic way, and even the big Walpurgisnacht scene is essentially a series of little cameos rather than a big spectacular.
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casual modern reader?" Two main things, I think: amazing language and a cracking good yarn.
Like Hamlet or the KJV in English, reading Faust through is a bit like joining the dots between dozens of quotations you already know. The language has a very direct appeal to the reader: you don't have to be an expert in 19th century German verse to make sense of it (though I'm sure you would get more out of it if you were). After a few pages you entirely forget what a strange notion it is to be reading a verse drama, and just enjoy the sound of the words.
The story isn't as "big" and "epic" as you might imagine. The core story of Gretchen's seduction and fall is told in a very intimate, naturalistic way, and even the big Walpurgisnacht scene is essentially a series of little cameos rather than a big spectacular.
Show Less
LibraryThing member VicCavalli
Part One of Faust was one of the few books in my life that forced me to put on a pot of coffee and give up a night's sleep to finish it. The young Goethe simply nailed it. When I then got a hold of Part Two (written by the much older Goethe) and sat down with it, I was stunned. His style had
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completely changed; I never would have guessed it was by the same author. I'm not judging Goethe or the work as a whole, that would be arrogant and ridiculous given his stature as a writer, but simply noting that the experience of reading those two parts of Faust raised serious questions about critical editorial / literary analysis research which makes claims about authorship. It also convinced me that as a writer I should finish what I start. The idea of a long work being as organic and unified as a grapefruit--as John Gardner puts it--instinctively appeals to me. Show Less
LibraryThing member miquixote
What does Faust mean? Tough to find too many books more open to interpretation since Columbus landed on American soil. Obvious comparisons with Adam and Eve and the serpent: except the sinner/first one to bite the apple/knowledge-seeker here is a man (yup, feminists have jumped all over that one).
The cultural war (or class war?) is far from over...so read it!
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interpretations still up for grab: is the sinner a rebel? overly ambitious? is wanting knowledge a deadly sin (ie. pride) -- should Faust be punished? ; or maybe the socialist interpretations are right and Mephistoles symbolizes dissidence -- truth seekers may just be rejecting oppression...down with the elites, closed minds and limited worldviews! Is Mephistopheles the tempter, trying to destroy Faust or is he freeing him? This book was also the center of a cultural war of interpretation in Germany between the Nazis and the spirit of the Weimar....we all know who won that battle... What Goethe was really trying to say, you'll have to decide for yourself...The cultural war (or class war?) is far from over...so read it!
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LibraryThing member multifaceted
I'm not sure what to think of the tone of the book over all, as I come away from it with a feeling that Faust is being condemned to the devil for seeking too much knowledge. I feel like there is also something of the old "doctor wanting to be god" joke in here, as well.
But I get the feeling that,
Because, to me, Faust isn't just about someone who makes a deal with the devil to make his life better. Rather, it's about someone whose thirst for knowledge is never slaked, who seeks to know everything and what it's like to be everyone. Or, should I say, Faust seeks to be omniscient. (And I have to wonder, is that necessarily a bad thing? Would the world be worse off if we knew just what it was like to be the millionaire in his mansion, or the low class beggar in the city?) But to get back on track: at the same time, he realizes he is merely only a human, and he is burdened, depressed, and frenzied by the knowledge that he probably can never know everything--and there is something so full of humility, so pathetically human about his situation.
This leads him to not just "make a deal" with the devil, but to acquiesce to Mephistopheles as a sort of last resort. Why not, if there is no other way he can gain omniscient knowledge, anyway? Of course, Mephistopheles makes him become enamored with a woman, and this love transports Faust, and makes him finally feel like he has gained everything he's ever wanted. Where am I going with this? I don't know, because I don't quite know what Goethe was going for, either.
But Faust's words say it all the better:
"And here, poor fool! with all my lore
I stand, no wiser than before"
But I get the feeling that,
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over time, Faust will come to be one of my favorite characters, along with Voltaire's Candide and Camus' Meursault. And there is definitely something "absurdly" tragic about Goethe's character, as well. Because, to me, Faust isn't just about someone who makes a deal with the devil to make his life better. Rather, it's about someone whose thirst for knowledge is never slaked, who seeks to know everything and what it's like to be everyone. Or, should I say, Faust seeks to be omniscient. (And I have to wonder, is that necessarily a bad thing? Would the world be worse off if we knew just what it was like to be the millionaire in his mansion, or the low class beggar in the city?) But to get back on track: at the same time, he realizes he is merely only a human, and he is burdened, depressed, and frenzied by the knowledge that he probably can never know everything--and there is something so full of humility, so pathetically human about his situation.
This leads him to not just "make a deal" with the devil, but to acquiesce to Mephistopheles as a sort of last resort. Why not, if there is no other way he can gain omniscient knowledge, anyway? Of course, Mephistopheles makes him become enamored with a woman, and this love transports Faust, and makes him finally feel like he has gained everything he's ever wanted. Where am I going with this? I don't know, because I don't quite know what Goethe was going for, either.
But Faust's words say it all the better:
"And here, poor fool! with all my lore
I stand, no wiser than before"
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LibraryThing member MrsLee
A man, perhaps what we would today call a scientist, but then was an alchemist, becomes disillusioned with life. As in the book of Job, God allows Satan (Mephistopheles), to have a crack at him. Sadly, this being the First part only, I'm not sure of the outcome of this experiment.
Having heard of
Having heard of
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Faust referred to through the years, I thought it was high time I read the original source. I did not expect to be as drawn into the story as I was. For one thing, it was written in German, which I do not read. The translator, Peter Salm, did a fine job of making the tale readable while still keeping a sense of the poetry. The extensive footnotes at the end of the book were very helpful in understanding the historic words, places and peoples. I would have to be a scholar of the times to understand every bit of satire and humor within the tale. As it was, I had a glimmer of understanding, which was enough to help me enjoy it. Show Less
LibraryThing member brakketh
Holding off on further review until finished Part II. Currently finding it a little challenging to read but sticking with it as a seminal work (see for example the use of Faustian as a tag).
LibraryThing member antao
(original review, 2004)
I’m planning on spending a few weeks on Goethe’s Faust in multiple translations and as much of the German as I can manage, supplemented by hundreds of pages of notes and commentary.
I first read the book while in high school in the totally un-annotated Bayard Taylor
One thing I recall from that ML edition is that a few lines were Bowdlerized with dashes. For example, this song sung by Faust and Mephistopheles with two witches:
FAUST ( dancing with the young witch)
A lovely dream once came to me;
I then beheld an apple-tree,
And there two fairest apples shone
They lured me so, I climbed thereon.
THE FAIR ONE
Apples have been desired by you,
Since first in Paradise they grew;
And I am moved with joy, to know
That such within my garden grow.
MEPHISTOPHELES ( dancing with the old one)
A dissolute dream once came to me
Therein I saw a cloven tree,
Which had a————————;
Yet,——as 'twas, I fancied it.
THE OLD ONE
I offer here my best salute
Unto the knight with cloven foot!
Let him a—————prepare,
If him—————————does not scare.
I imagined something really obscene was being masked there, but it turns out to be a double entendre only slightly more risqué than the “apples” in the first exchange. Here’s Arndt’s uncensored rendering:
FAUST [ dancing with the YOUNG ONE]
In a fair dream that once I dreamed;
An apple-tree appeared to me,
On it two pretty apples gleamed,
They beckoned me; I climbed the tree.
THE FAIR ONE
You’ve thought such apples very nice,
Since Adam’s fall in Paradise.
I’m happy to report to you,
My little orchard bears them too.
MEPHISTOPHELES [ dancing with THE OLD ONE]
In a wild dream that once I dreamed
I saw a cloven tree, it seemed,
It had a black almighty hole;
Black as it was, it pleased my soul.
THE OLD ONE
I welcome to my leafy roof
The baron with the cloven hoof!
I hope he’s brought a piston tall
To plug the mighty hole withal.
I am reminded in re-reading it how much in common Faust has with the fantasy books that were my staple reading at the time I first encountered it Tolkien, Peake, E. R. Eddison. I was reminded of this by some of the comments today about "The Buried Giant" (disclaimer I’ve not read any Ishiguro). For centuries literature and fantasy were almost synonymous – only in the 18th century did it start to require a kind of warning label.
Just about all the operas are adaptations of Faust Part 1, though Arrigo Boito, as I recall, included an episode with Helen of Troy. The dual language Anchor Books edition with Walter Kaufmann’s translation, which seems to be the most commonly available in my neck of the woods, includes only bits of Part 2 from the first and last acts. This may make sense insofar as the edition is intended for students of German, but really makes a hash out of Goethe’s intentions for the work as a whole. I’m really enjoying wrestling with the complexities of Part 2; my recent readings in Greek tragedy helps – Goethe writes a very credible pastiche of the form in the first half of Act 3. [2018 addenda: In Portuguese, our most distinguished Germanist, João Barrento, has already published his Magnum Opus, Faust’s full translation. I haven’t read it yet, but I will].
In acquiring various versions of Faust over the years I’ve been mainly interested in those that are complete – the portions editors are the most likely to cut are those that I think would gain the most from multiple viewpoints.
I’m planning on spending a few weeks on Goethe’s Faust in multiple translations and as much of the German as I can manage, supplemented by hundreds of pages of notes and commentary.
I first read the book while in high school in the totally un-annotated Bayard Taylor
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translation from Modern Library – one of the texts I’m currently reading. I’m still pretty fond of Taylor’s version – with some exceptions generally preferring him to Walter Arndt in the Norton Critical Edition. Taylor’s a relatively local boy – born in Kenneth Square, PA where the town library carries his name.One thing I recall from that ML edition is that a few lines were Bowdlerized with dashes. For example, this song sung by Faust and Mephistopheles with two witches:
FAUST ( dancing with the young witch)
A lovely dream once came to me;
I then beheld an apple-tree,
And there two fairest apples shone
They lured me so, I climbed thereon.
THE FAIR ONE
Apples have been desired by you,
Since first in Paradise they grew;
And I am moved with joy, to know
That such within my garden grow.
MEPHISTOPHELES ( dancing with the old one)
A dissolute dream once came to me
Therein I saw a cloven tree,
Which had a————————;
Yet,——as 'twas, I fancied it.
THE OLD ONE
I offer here my best salute
Unto the knight with cloven foot!
Let him a—————prepare,
If him—————————does not scare.
I imagined something really obscene was being masked there, but it turns out to be a double entendre only slightly more risqué than the “apples” in the first exchange. Here’s Arndt’s uncensored rendering:
FAUST [ dancing with the YOUNG ONE]
In a fair dream that once I dreamed;
An apple-tree appeared to me,
On it two pretty apples gleamed,
They beckoned me; I climbed the tree.
THE FAIR ONE
You’ve thought such apples very nice,
Since Adam’s fall in Paradise.
I’m happy to report to you,
My little orchard bears them too.
MEPHISTOPHELES [ dancing with THE OLD ONE]
In a wild dream that once I dreamed
I saw a cloven tree, it seemed,
It had a black almighty hole;
Black as it was, it pleased my soul.
THE OLD ONE
I welcome to my leafy roof
The baron with the cloven hoof!
I hope he’s brought a piston tall
To plug the mighty hole withal.
I am reminded in re-reading it how much in common Faust has with the fantasy books that were my staple reading at the time I first encountered it Tolkien, Peake, E. R. Eddison. I was reminded of this by some of the comments today about "The Buried Giant" (disclaimer I’ve not read any Ishiguro). For centuries literature and fantasy were almost synonymous – only in the 18th century did it start to require a kind of warning label.
Just about all the operas are adaptations of Faust Part 1, though Arrigo Boito, as I recall, included an episode with Helen of Troy. The dual language Anchor Books edition with Walter Kaufmann’s translation, which seems to be the most commonly available in my neck of the woods, includes only bits of Part 2 from the first and last acts. This may make sense insofar as the edition is intended for students of German, but really makes a hash out of Goethe’s intentions for the work as a whole. I’m really enjoying wrestling with the complexities of Part 2; my recent readings in Greek tragedy helps – Goethe writes a very credible pastiche of the form in the first half of Act 3. [2018 addenda: In Portuguese, our most distinguished Germanist, João Barrento, has already published his Magnum Opus, Faust’s full translation. I haven’t read it yet, but I will].
In acquiring various versions of Faust over the years I’ve been mainly interested in those that are complete – the portions editors are the most likely to cut are those that I think would gain the most from multiple viewpoints.
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LibraryThing member jonfaith
Dear friend, all theory is gray, and green the golden tree of life.
What else to say? Towering as an archetype, akin to Hamlet, the Inferno and White Whale -- this tale of pact has been absorbed into a our cultural bones, like an isotope. It is more telling to consider that I listened to Tavener
I will say that I should've read my Norton critical edition, well actually, my wife's copy -- the one I bought for her in Columbus, Ohio ten years ago. I went with a standard Penguin copy and I'm sure many of the historic references were lost for me.
No one should consider that I regard Faust as emblematic of power politics in the US or a possible Brexit across the water. I'm too feeble for such extrapolation.
What else to say? Towering as an archetype, akin to Hamlet, the Inferno and White Whale -- this tale of pact has been absorbed into a our cultural bones, like an isotope. It is more telling to consider that I listened to Tavener
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while reading this. I recently gave Pandora a spin but found that I owned more Schnittke than was afforded by my"station" but if I leave such, will I miss those Penn Station ads?I will say that I should've read my Norton critical edition, well actually, my wife's copy -- the one I bought for her in Columbus, Ohio ten years ago. I went with a standard Penguin copy and I'm sure many of the historic references were lost for me.
No one should consider that I regard Faust as emblematic of power politics in the US or a possible Brexit across the water. I'm too feeble for such extrapolation.
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LibraryThing member dylkit
I did wish my German was up to reading it in the original.. I think the translation loses something, the rhymes seem so forced...
LibraryThing member kslade
I just read part 1 but it is a classic like Shakespeare. "The eternal feminine leads us upward."
Faust sells his soul for wealth, fame, etc. but finally escapes his fate at the end.
Faust sells his soul for wealth, fame, etc. but finally escapes his fate at the end.
LibraryThing member djh_1962
Goethe's Faust doesn't work on the page. And doesn't work on stage in the two productions I've seen. Arguably its most successful dramatic realisation is Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust. Having read Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe I thought I would try a more modern translation from the
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painfully archaic Victorian version I read a long time ago. The Oxford World Classics version has a solid introduction and helpful notes by the translator, David Luke, but his verse translation if anything renders the drama even more ponderously than I recall. So read it in German, I suppose, if my German ever manages to make that an even vaguely realisable option. I cannot help but feel though there is a mythical status about this work which is not earned. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original language
German
Original publication date
1808
Physical description
208 p.; 7.6 inches
ISBN
0140440127 / 9780140440126