After reading "The Sound and the Fury" for our classics spin challenge, I thought I will never get through Faust in time if that gets chosen, so I started it right away.
The story is said to be the greatest work of German literature and I can well believe that. 250 years have passed in the meantime but I don't believe that there has been a single book that is as well-known around the world than this.
Even though my edition had more than a thousand pages, I got through it faster than I thought. I mentioned it a lot of times, I am no fan of reading plays, it's not so easy to follow through. However, I didn't find this too bad. Maybe because, growing up in Germany, I've come across descriptions and fragments of the story before. And I found a lot of aphorisms, metaphors, symbols and sayings that we use in German often, quite often. Goethe is our Shakespeare, he has moulded the language more than anyone.
The story itself, well, what can I say? It shows the view of women at the time, of the religion and beliefs of people. The morale of the time is depicted just as well as the internal struggles of the protagonist. And even for non-Germans, the play shows so much of people that would be valid anywhere.
My edition didn't just have the Faust that we know today but also the Urfaust, his early work. It shows all versions in parallel which helps in seeing what he changed and what he added. Totally interesting.
I can well believe that Goethe needed about sixty years to write the whole tale, starting with the Gretchen story and then passing on to Helena. Part I was first published as "Faust. A Tragedy".
All in all, I am really happy I finally read this.
Book Description:
"Goethe's Faust is a classic of European literature. Based on the fable of the man who traded his soul for superhuman powers and knowledge, it became the life's work of Germany's greatest poet. Beginning with an intriguing wager between God and Satan, it charts the life of a deeply flawed individual, his struggle against the nihilism of his diabolical companion Mephistopheles.
Part One presents Faust's pact with the Devil and the harrowing tragedy of his love affair with the young Gretchen. Part Two shows Faust's experience in the world of public affairs, including his encounter with Helen of Troy, the emblem of classical beauty and culture. The whole is a symbolic and panoramic commentary on the human condition and on modern European history and civilisation.
This new translation of both parts of Faust preserves the poetic character of the original, its tragic pathos and hilarious comedy. In addition, John Williams has translated the Urfaust, a fascinating glimpse into the young Goethe's imagination, and a selection from the draft scenarios for the Walpurgis Night witches' sabbath - material so ribald and blasphemous that Goethe did not dare publish it."
