Customer Reviews

Faust Part 1 (Pt. 1)

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Whenever anyone wants to write a review on a masterpiece, they will no doubt be contradicted by others who either loathed or loved it. So I must remind you that this review reflects my appreciation of Goethe's Faust. I don't know German so I cannot tell you which translation is `the best' nor do I know enough about Goethe himself to tell you if Prudhoe was true to Goethe's meaning.

With the above in mind... I was pleasantly surprised when I read Faust. From other reviews and from books that mentioned Faust, I thought it would be an impossible read; lengthy and with so many allegories that you needed to know German (or European) mythology before you could even begin to appreciate it. This is not the case; I think the wonder in this book is the many gems of wisdom that can be found throughout.
Take for instance this line where Faust contemplates man's struggle to understand the world around him and find contentment:

" Man reaches Good on earth and the perceives
the better still remains illusion"

or Faust's struggles with the two natures that are in most humans, he says
"two souls, alas are housed within my breast
and one would gladly sunder from the other
one clamors for the world, it's lust
Is shackled to the joys of brute creation
The other struggles to ascend from dust
To infinity of aspiration"

Many more such illuminating lines are within this book. I found the interludes with all the mythical creatures, witches, warlocks etc... taxing. I wish those sections had been shorter so that you didn't have to trudge through those before you came to the real story. I guess that is what prevents me from giving this book five stars. To be fair though, in those outlandish scenes, like toward the end on Walpurgis' night ( a kind of Halloween) there are some funny bits, where Goethe mocks critics, skeptics, dogmatists and a host of other `tics' and `ists'.

The devil in this play, as you most probably are already aware, is not the scriptural devil, he is more like a smart aleck than anything else, and plays the clown too often to be taken seriously. The only admirable character in this play is Gretelchen, who is pure innocence, love and beauty, although one could possibly identify more with the flawed and human Faust.

I have not given a synopsis of the story, it wasn't my intention and I hope I have not given away too much of it. It is a pretty interesting and witty story with the exceptions that I mentioned above. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants something almost on a par with Shakespeare.