Faust, Part One (Bantam Classics)

Goethe’s masterpiece and perhaps the greatest work in German literature, “Faust has made the legendary German alchemist one of the central myths of the Western world. Here indeed is a monumental Faust, an audacious man boldly wagering with the devil, Mephistopheles, that no magic, sensuality, experience or knowledge can lead him to a moment he would wish to last forever. Here, in “Faust, “Part 1, the tremendous versatility of Goethe’s genius creates some of the most beautiful passages in literature. Here too we experience Goethe’s characteristic humor, the excitement and eroticism of the witches’ Walpurgis Night, and the moving emotion of Gretchen’s tragic fate.

This newly revised edition, which offers Peter Salm’s wonderfully readable translation as well as the original German on facing pages, brings us “Faust in a vital, rhythmic American idiom that carefully preserves the grandeur, integrity, and poetic immediacy of Goethe’s words.

About the Author

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and poet. He became popular after releasing his first novel titled The Sorrows Of Young Werther. He also worked as a member of the Privy Council of the Duke for ten years. Later, he also started taking part in theatres by associating himself with dramatists. He was titled as one of the six most prominent personalities in the field of writing, along with Shakespeare and Plato. A number of poems written by Goethe have been made into musical compositions by several renowned musicians like Mozart, Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf.