Should have read classics discussion

This is the group read for March. I just got my copy and I'm rather intimidated by it. Hopefully, it reads easier than it looks.

I'm wondering how many people are planning to read it. It's a challenging book, though enormously important and valuable reading. I haven't read it in nearly a half century, and would only re-read it now if there were going to be a reasonably robust discussion with some people committed to reading it.

I can't find that it was ever voted on, so I don't know how many people supported it as a selection. Is there robust interest in reading and discussing it? Will people come forward to commit to a valuable discussion?

I have started it and it is quite a daunting read. I would love to have a discussion, but I'm thinking this one will take me longer than a month to read. Honestly, it rather scares me, but I would also love to finish it. Would you be willing to give it a chance if it was only me reading it? I don't know if anyone will join us or not.

I'm crazy busy this month, but I would love to jump in on any discussion. I just can't do as close a read as I would like to.

Saw a production of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus recently. So many great takes on this story.

I was wondering if this could be a two month read? Perhaps a three month?

Does everyone have both parts of the play? I noticed that some editions only have the first part. I happen to have both of the parts in my edition. I happen to be a fan of paranormal books, yes I know, and this book is mentioned quite frequently. I have been curious about it and decided to nominate/make it the book this month. I guess I was feeling imperious during nominations.

In reading the dedication, I was excited to note that I have heard some of this before. "Ye bring with you glad days and happy faces. Ah, many dear, dear shades arise with you; Like some old tale that Time but half erases, First Love draws near to me and Friendship too."

I wish I could jump in, but it's unfortunately unrealistic at the moment. I loved Goethe's poems, some of which we had to do in school.

Lisa wrote: "I was wondering if this could be a two month read? Perhaps a three month?"

I'm all for extending it.

If it is alright, I say we give this until the end of May. Maybe, that will give Hillary, Longhare, and myself enough time to finish it.

Lisa wrote: "If it is alright, I say we give this until the end of May. Maybe, that will give Hillary, Longhare, and myself enough time to finish it."

Suits me. Should you set up a reading schedule? Or several threads so we don't get the whole book mashed up in one thread over three months?

Good idea! My book has it broken down into parts. The first part goes from Night, Faust in his study to A prison. It is about 100 pages. The second part is split into the different acts. There are 5 Acts. How about doing the Dedication up through the Witch's Kitchen (62 pages) from March 11th-March 25th. Then finish up Part 1 which is around 52 pages from March 25th-April 8th. Act I and Act II (80 pages) from April 8th - 29th and then finish with Act III-Act V (85 pages) from April 29th - May 13th. This would give us some time at the end of May to either add time to reading parts or just finish up and have a toast in our honor. How does that sound?

Works for me.

Longhare wrote: "Works for me."

And me. I'm hoping to get good news on my eye prognosis soon so I can get spend more time reading than I can at the moment.

Perfect, I will get it set up in the discussion threads.

Everyman wrote: "Longhare wrote: "Works for me."

And me. I'm hoping to get good news on my eye prognosis soon so I can get spend more time reading than I can at the moment."

Good luck with everything and I hope that you get back to reading soon!

Everyman, if your eyeballs are awol, I think you may be excused to cheating a bit. You can actually listen to a reading of Faust on LibriVox for free. I like to have a book rattling itself off to me while I'm drudging away on some task that requires my eyes but not my brain.

Everyman, I wish you the very best of prognoses possible.

Hilary wrote: "Everyman, I wish you the very best of prognoses possible."

Thanks, and also to Lisa and Longhare.

I got my copy of Faust from the library the other day. Big Book. Breaking it up into sections and taking longer with it sounds good to me.

I majored in German, but, when it came to Goethe, we did the short version known as Urfaust rather than the full version of Faust, along with some poetry and "The Sufferings of Young Werther" (which I found to be overly melodramatic). I liked Urfaust a lot and have been meaning to tackle the long version for a couple of decades now, but never quite got around to it. This gives me a good excuse. I grabbed the free German edition for kindle, but I'll probably be reading the translation instead, as my German needs way too much WD-40 at this point in my life and Goethe is a bit challenging to read in any language. Looking forward to discussing this one.

I've been using the Gutenberg.org Bayard translation. Love free books! I tried listening to the Librivox audio, but without the text I found it very hard to understand half of what they were saying. I was able to listen to the audio while reading the text, and that was a pretty good combo. Loved it. The pre-show chit-chat in Heaven was a nice riff on the story of Job. The first scene is very similar to Marlowe's in action, but more poetic and philosophical.

Is it too late to jump in?

Laura wrote: "Is it too late to jump in?"

Not at all, this read goes on until the end of May! The more the merrier!