Faust, Part II - Softcover

Goethe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140449027 ISBN 13: 9780140449020

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2009

Synopsis

In this sequel to Faust, Mephistopheles takes Faust on a journey through ancient Greek mythology, conjuring for him the insurpassably beautiful Helen of Troy, as well as the classical gods. Faust falls in love with and marries Helen, embodying for Goethe his 'imaginative longing to join poetically the Romantic Medievalism of the germanic West to the classical genius of the Greeks'. Further to the themes of redemption and salvation in this great drama, are Goethe's eerie premonitions of modern phenomena such as inflation and the creation of life by scientific synthesis.

About this title

Review:

" One of those great works of literature into which a writer has been able to combine his ranging preoccupations and understanding as he worked."
-A. S. Byatt, from the Preface

From the Back Cover:

'The corpse is prone and when the spirit flies
I show her my entitlement, blood-signed'

After the sorrowful loss of his beloved Gretchen, the soul-sold Faust is tempted by the demon Mephistopheles with the grandest distractions of politics and power. Eager for new sensations, Faust calls for a vision of the unsurpassed beauty of Helen of Troy, and then, overwhelmed, for her to be brought back from the underworld and delivered to him bodily. But even this does not bring contentment, or satisfy his appetite for fresh experience. Completed a few months before Goethe's death, the concluding part of his masterpiece is a rich and allusive work, weaving together a wealth of diverse philosophical ideas and influences, reworking the medieval myth of Dr Faustus and speculating upon the search for truth in the Age of Enlightenment.

David Constantine's major new translation includes a preface by A. S. Byatt on Goethe's Faust and other representations of the character throughout literature. This edition also includes an introduction by Constantine, chronology, notes, a synopsis of each scene and further reading.

Translated with an introduction and notes by David Constantine
With a preface by A. S. Byatt

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0140449027
• ISBN 13: 9780140449020
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 285