Full Description
One of the great classics of European literature, Faust is Goethe's most complex and profound work. To tell the dramatic and tragic story of one man's pact with the Devil in exchange for knowledge and power, Goethe drew from an immense variety of cultural and historical material, and a wealth of poetic and theatrical traditions. What results is a tour de force illustrating Goethe's own moral and artistic development, and a symbolic, cautionary tale of Western humanity striving restlessly and ruthlessly for progress. Capturing the sense, poetic variety, and tonal range of the German original in present-day English, Stuart Atkins's translation presents the formal and rhythmic dexterity of Faust in all its richness and beauty, without recourse to archaisms or interpretive elaborations. Featuring a new introduction by David Wellbery, this Princeton Classics edition of Faust is the definitive English version of a timeless masterpiece.
Contents
INTRODUCTION xi FAUST: A Tragedy DEDICATION 1 PRELUDE ON THE STAGE 3 PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN 9 PART ONE NIGHT (Faust's Study I: Easter Eve) 13 OUTSIDE THE CITY GATE (Easter-Day Walk) 23 FAUST'S STUDY (II: Easter Night) 32 FAUST'S STUDY (III: Pact and Student Scene) 40 AUERBACHS WINE-CELLAR IN LEIPZIG 53 WITCH'S KITCHEN (Rejuvenation) 60 A STREET (I: Margarete Accosted) 67 EVENING (Margarete's Room I) 69 PROMENADE (Street II: Mephistopheles' Report) 72 THE NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE (The Story of Schwerdtlein) 73 A STREET (III: False Witness) 77 (Martha's) GARDEN (I: Promenading Couples) 79 A SUMMERHOUSE (Martha's Garden II) 82 FOREST AND CAVE (Faust's Conscience) 83 GRETCHEN'S ROOM (II: Margarete at Her Spinning Wheel) 87 MARTHA'S GARDEN (III: Faust's Credo) 88 AT THE WELL (Gretchen and Lieschen) 91 BY THE RAMPARTS (Gretchen's Prayer) 92 NIGHT (Street IV: Valentine's Death) 93 CATHEDRAL (Mass, with Organ and Choir) 97 WALPURGIS NIGHT (Faust on the Brocken) 99 WALPURGIS NIGHT'S DREAM (Intermezzo) 108 AN EXPANSE OF OPEN COUNTRY (Faust's Rage) 112 NIGHT: OPEN FIELDS (The Gibbet) 114 PRISON (Margarete's Death) 114 PART TWO, in Five Acts Act I A PLEASANT LANDSCAPE (Faust's Recovery) 121 AN IMPERIAL PALACE THE THRONE ROOM (Council of State) 124 A GREAT HALL (Masquerade and Faust's Masque) 132 A GARDEN (Benefits of Paper Money) 154 A DARK GALLERY (The Mothers) 158 BRIGHTLY LI T ROOMS (Waiting for Faust) 162 KNIGHTS' HALL (The Rape of Helen) 163 Act II A HIGH-VAULTED, NARROW GOTHIC ROOM (Faust's Study IV) 169 LABORATORY (Creation of Homunculus) 175 CLASSICAL WALPURGIS NIGHT 180 The Pharsalian Fields 180 (Erichtho and the Aeronauts 180 * By the Sphinxes 181 * Peneus and Nymphs 186 * Faust, Chiron, and Manto 187 * Again by the Upper Peneus: Seismos' Mountain 191 * Mephistopheles and the Lamiae 196 * Anaxagoras, Thales, and Homunculus 200 * The Phorcides 202) Rocky Inlets of the Aegean Sea 204 (Nereus 206 * Proteus 209 * Galatea 214 * Homunculus merges with the sea 215) Act III (Helen: Classico-Romantic Phantasmagoria. An Intermezzo) BEFORE MENELAUS' PALACE AT SPARTA (Helen's Flight) 216 INNER COURTYARD OF A CASTLE (The Wooing and Defense of Helen) 231 A SHADED GROVE (The Life and Death of Euphorion) 241 Act IV HIGH MOUNTAINS 254 (Margarete Remembered 254 * Faust's Great Plan 256 * The Emperor in Danger 258 * Mephistopheles' Three Mighty Men 260) ON A FOOTHILL (Defeat of the Anti-Emperor) 261 THE ANTI-EMPEROR'S TENT (Rewards of Victory) 272 Act V A BROAD LANDSCAPE (Baucis and Philemon) 279 FAUST'S PALACE BEFORE THE PALACE 281 (Faust's Discontent 281 * The Destruction of Baucis, Philemon and Their Guest 285) FAUST ON THE BALCONY 286 (Mephistopheles' Report 286 * Four Gray Women in the Courtyard 287) WITHIN THE PALACE (Care, and the Blinding of Faust) 288 THE LARGE OUTER COURTYARD 290 (Faust's Death and Interment 292 * Mephistopheles Defeated 295) MOUNTAIN GORGES (Faust's Vision of Heaven and His Reunion with Margarete) 299 Chronology of the Composition of Faust 306 Goethe's Faust and the Present Translation 307 Bibliographical Note 314 Explanatory Notes 315
