Faust: a tragedy

496 Pages·2014·2.347 MB·English

by  Faust;Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von;Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

FAUST
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johann wolfgang von
GOETHE
FAUST
a tragedy
parts one & two
fully revised
Translated from the German by
MARTIN GREENBERG
Introduction by W. Daniel Wilson
New Haven and London
Revised En glish translation copyright © 2014 by Martin Greenberg.
Introduction copyright © 2014 by W. Daniel Wilson.
Part One En glish translation copyright © 1992 by Martin Greenberg.
Part Two En glish translation copyright © 1998 by Martin Greenberg.
Complete edition (Parts One and Two and Introduction)
published 2014.
Parts One and Two published separately by Yale University Press in
1992 and 1998.
Translator’s Note fi rst published in the Sewanee Review, vol. 122,
no. 1, winter 2014. Copyright © 2013 by Martin Greenberg.
All rights reserved.
Th is book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
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Set in Minion type by Westchester Book Group.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN: 978- 0- 300- 18969- 8 (paperback)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013956843
A cata logue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of Robert Warshow, boyhood
friend, college mate and dear companion spirit in
manhood, so early, so very early cut off
And to the memory of Herbert Howarth, no
sooner united by understanding, sympathy and
aff ection than snatched away
—Martin Greenberg
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CONTENTS
Introduction by W. Daniel Wilson, ix
Translator’s Note, xix
FAUST: A Tragedy
Part One, 3
Part Two, 169
Notes, 443
vii
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INTRODUCTION
W. Daniel Wilson
Goethe’s Faust is considered not only the most important work of
Germany’s greatest writer, but a seminal text of world literature. Its
legacy is im mense both in Germany and beyond. Th e impact of the
wider Faust tradition, which began with the 1587 chapbook history of
Dr. Johann Faustus and boasted such canonical works as Christopher
Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus (1604), is oft en diffi cult to distinguish from
that of Goethe’s play. But his work defi nitely inspired such seminal
works—t o mention only music and novels— as Schubert’s haunting
song Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel (1814) and Charles Gounod’s
opera Faust (1859), as well as Th omas Mann’s challenging multi- layered
work Dr. Faustus (1947) and Mikhail Bulgakov’s anti- Stalinist novel
Th e Master and Margarita (fi rst published 1967). And its continuing
vitality is expressed in a lively fi lmic reception.
Goethe worked on Faust off and on over sixty years of a long life.
Born in 1749 into the family of an in dep en dently wealthy Frankfurt
patrician, he enjoyed private tutoring and the consciousness of be-
longing to the privileged. His early literary work is part of the fi rst
German youth literary movement, the Sturm und Drang or “Storm
and Stress,” which became an En glish expression for youthful revolt.
Th ese writers took up social themes, but the po liti cal situation in
German- speaking lands, which were not a unifi ed country but hun-
dreds of tiny to large semi- independent territories, precluded po liti cal
action, so the young men had to be content with radical gesturing.
ix