Faust: A Tragedy (Norton Critical Editions) 2nd (second) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1998) Paperback

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Goethe’s Faust reworks the late medieval myth of a brilliant scholar so disillusioned he resolves to make a contract with Mephistopheles. The devil will do all he asks on Earth and seeks to grant him a moment in life so glorious that he will wish it to last forever. But if Faust does bid the moment stay, he falls to Mephistopheles and must serve him after death. In this first part of Goethe’s great work, the embittered thinker and Mephistopheles enter into their agreement, and soon Faust is living a rejuvenated life and winning the love of the beautiful Gretchen. But in this compelling tragedy of arrogance, unfulfilled desire, and self-delusion, Faust heads inexorably toward an infernal destruction.

Unknown Binding

About the author

A master of poetry, drama, and the novel, German writer and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe spent 50 years on his two-part dramatic poem Faust , published in 1808 and 1832, also conducted scientific research in various fields, notably botany, and held several governmental positions.

George Eliot called him "Germany's greatest man of letters... and the last true polymath to walk the earth." Works span the fields of literature, theology, and humanism.
People laud this magnum opus as one of the peaks of world literature. Other well-known literary works include his numerous poems, the Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and the epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther .

With this key figure of German literature, the movement of Weimar classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries coincided with Enlightenment, sentimentality (Empfindsamkeit), Sturm und Drang, and Romanticism. The author of the scientific text Theory of Colours , he influenced Darwin with his focus on plant morphology. He also long served as the privy councilor ("Geheimrat") of the duchy of Weimar.

Goethe took great interest in the literatures of England, France, Italy, classical Greece, Persia, and Arabia and originated the concept of Weltliteratur ("world literature"). Despite his major, virtually immeasurable influence on German philosophy especially on the generation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, he expressly and decidedly refrained from practicing philosophy in the rarefied sense.

Influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works inspired much music, drama, poetry and philosophy. Many persons consider Goethe the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered about painting, perhaps his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that people ultimately would remember his work in optics.

Reviews

[Sebastian Swallow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable, especially once you get stuck in. Didn’t realise how wide-ranging Goethe’s version is - humorous, touching, witchy, and of course a plethora of profound poetic insights. The extended “Classical Walpurgis Night” with its parade of Greek and Roman mythological figures was a particular highlight. The (naughty) Norton edition is phenomenal - translation is very poetic, which feels fitting for this work, and the interpretative notes are incredibly useful in getting to grips with the deeper meaning of the drama (and to understanding the more obscure parts!). It’s a long journey, but incredibly rewarding.

[Swandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

feeling so crashed out doing research im reading faust for leisure

the metrics and rhymes are so gooooood

strong vine energy here

also the silver cover ate it's gonna look amazing with my taekwondo mae adi's. the pages inside are thin BIBLICAL STYLE which is elevating the reading experience

random thoughts:
-faust really said 'i studied medicine and i am none the wiser'. same brőther, same.
-yissss salamanders undines incubi and spirits i love the elements
-i knew poodles were evil
-騎牛揾馬... the real tragedy
-im so glad i read the tempest before this so that the name ariel no longer evokes the imagery of a redhead with a fish tail
-i cannot, however, remove the association between gretchen and we wear pink on wednesdays
-poor girl
-the.... proctophantasmiac....? pray tell more (ok thank you Interpretive Notes on page 383, I have learned enough)
-'critics have been embarrassed by this intermezzo' c'mon let a guy dream
-what the chancellor said about authority still stands, we all want to eat the rich but we are metaphorically speaking in the devil's jejunum already
-you mix dirt with WHAT to make a lil man??
-. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁classical. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁walpurgis. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁night. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁
-lemures, not to be confused with lemurs, the nocturnal lower primate. YES. this is why we read classics
-i have imagined mephisto as harleep from bg3. he should resemble his son's doppleganger more or less.
-i will forever be grateful to midnight mass (mike flanagan) and gravity's rainbow for making easter special. 6 years of christian school failed that, but a vampiric priest and a nuclear bomb did it for me. thanks.
-clouds and rainbows. i could cry
-Rapacious and grab-swag. need i say more?
-I would die for Care...
-'He only earns freedom and existence / Who must conquer them each day' !!!!!

A quasi-unholy marriage of the divine comedy, shakespeare, and paradise lost, how can I not love it when this book make me want to howl at the moon... the apollonian era is so over it's walpurgis night time

I'm a bit too worn out to finish the 'praise from contemporaries' section, this edition is so long, another time.

[Tyler H]

Pretty incredible. I’m almost more in awe of the level of the translation. He keeps the same meter and rhyme of the German through 12k lines!!! And it all sounds great! Was a fantastic read, the Classical Walpurgis Night was like a fever dream. My favorite parts were Fausts monologues and the parts in heaven. The critical edition is really good too, tons of notes and helpful material.

I can’t believe they sell only the first part of this, if I had only read that I would’ve thought it was good but the second part is really crucial. It IS harder to read than the first so there’s that and the first is a really good self contained story but Goethe spent nearly his entire life on this and reading it as a whole shows that. This must have been an incredibly labor intensive work, the poetry is phenomenal from start to finish and the themes and ideas are epic in scope.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great companion to Faust - think of it as a combination of a walkthrough and a series of critical essays. It focused me on key verses by surrounding them in explanatory prose, and contextualized the intellectual impact, showing connections to other movements and thinkers. The Norton Critical Edition was my third attempt at penetrating Faust, and it proved to be a strong sally into the work, pushing me to move from the content to the context, into the meta-narrative of how Goethe wrote Faust and how other intellectuals read it.