by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(original review, 2004)I’m planning on spending a few weeks on Goethe’s Faust in multiple translations and as much of the German as I can manage, supplemented by hundreds of pages of notes and commentary.I first read the book while in high school in the totally un-annotated Bayard Taylor translation...
A masterpiece.
Bayard Taylor’s translation of FAUST is one of the very few recommendable public domain translations of any classic, period. As a very successful poet back in his day, Taylor used his expertise to stay true to Goethe’s original without feeling overwrought or stilted in turn. According to the intro...
Goethe is an amazing writer. Faust despairs and wants the death because he can not understand the truth.Dissatisfied with knowing all there is to know about everything, Faust sells his soul to the devil to learn, experience and understand more. It's classic, it's brilliant and full of wisdom and ete...
This Kindle edition contains only part I, but it says nowhere that the other one is missing. Even worse, it's not available. Same thing with most of the other free editions, including the one on Project Gutenberg, illustrated and not. Be careful. If it ends with [spoiler] Gretchen/Margaret dying, it...
This is the latest classic in my ongoing quest to read the world's great literature. First, it's a great story, with layers of meaning. I enjoyed the interplay between Mephisto (the devil) and Dr. Faust. Second, it's a great morality play, illustrating how envy and greed lead to a bitter end. Well w...
This play in verse is considered Goethe's masterpiece and I had high hopes for it. I greatly enjoyed the Sorrows of Young Werther and was looking forward to the master at the peak of his powers. Instead, I was disappointed. I was reading in translation, but the translator had been careful to keep...
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