Faust: Part One (Wonders of the World S.): Pt.1 - Softcover

Goethe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140448233 ISBN 13: 9780140448238

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2002

Synopsis

'Let's plunge ourselves into the roar of time, The whirl of accident: may pain and pleasure, Success and failure, shift as they will - It's only action that can make a man.' Based on the fable of a man who traded his soul for superhuman powersand knowledge, FAUST became the life work of Germany's greatest poet, Goethe. It is a dramatic poem charting the life of a deeply flawed individual and his fight against despair and the nihilism of the Devil.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Part of the beautifully presented 'Wonders of the World' series. Translated by Randall Jarrell.

'But why translate Faust? Isn't a good translation of it impossible, and aren't there already fifty or so bad ones? Yes; English-speaking readers become acquainted with Faust, usually, in translations that are rhymed doggerel in a grotesque, stilted, archaic language that no one ever spoke and that no one but translators ever wrote. This is particularly unfortunate because Faust is unique. In one sense, there is nothing like it; and in another sense, everything that has come after it is like it. Spengler called Western man Faustian man, and he was right. If our world should need a tombstone, we'll be able to put on it: HERE LIES DOCTOR FAUST.' Randall Jarrell.

About the Author:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) wrote a number of dramatic works including GOETZ VON BERLICHINGEN, WERTHER a tragic romance, EGMONT, another tragedy, IPHIGENIE AUF TAURIS and TORQUATO TASSO.

Randall Jarrell (1914-65) wrote poetry, fiction and criticism. He was a professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0140448233
• ISBN 13: 9780140448238
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336