Reviews for Faust, Part 1: Translated by Randall Jarrell, Vol. 1

The average rating for Faust, Part 1: Translated by Randall Jarrell, Vol. 1 based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-12-28 00:00:00 Jace Ahboah Faust: First Part (Goethe's Faust #1), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Peter Salm (Translator) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts usually known in English as Faust, Part One and Faust, Part Two. Faust is considered by many to be Goethe's magnum opus and the greatest work of German literature. The principal characters of Faust Part One include: Heinrich Faust Mephistopheles, the Devil Gretchen, Faust's love (short for Margarete; Goethe uses both forms) Marthe, Gretchen's neighbour Valentin, Gretchen's brother Wagner, Faust's attendant Faust, Part One takes place in multiple settings, the first of which is Heaven. The demon Mephistopheles makes a bet with God: he says that he can lure God's favourite human being (Faust), who is striving to learn everything that can be known, away from righteous pursuits. The next scene takes place in Faust's study where Faust, despairing at the vanity of scientific, humanitarian and religious learning, turns to magic for the showering of infinite knowledge. He suspects, however, that his attempts are failing. Frustrated, he ponders suicide, but rejects it as he hears the echo of nearby Easter celebrations begin. He goes for a walk with his assistant Wagner and is followed home by a stray poodle. In Faust's study, the poodle transforms into Mephistopheles. Faust makes an arrangement with him: Mephistopheles will do everything that Faust wants while he is here on Earth, and in exchange Faust will serve the Devil in Hell. Faust's arrangement is that if he is pleased enough with anything Mephistopheles gives him that he wants to stay in that moment forever, then he will die in that moment. ... تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز یازدهم ماه می سال 1991میلادی بخش نخست با مقدمه‌ ای در باب بهشت آغاز می‌شود؛ خداوند بنا به خواهش شیطان به او اجازه می‌دهد، تا درستی و راستی فاوست، خدمتگزار خدا را آزمایش کند؛ مفیستوفلس، با فاوست سالخورده معامله‌ ای می‌کند؛ اگر فاوست برای یک لحظه با این معامله موافقت کند، روح از تنش پرواز خواهد کرد؛ فاوست دوباره جوان می‌شود، و با مفیستوفلس به مسافرت می‌پردازد، تا از تمام لذایذ زمینی برخوردار گردد؛ در زمین عاشق دختر ساده‌ ای به نام «مارگارت» می‌شود، سپس به او خیانت می‌کند، و مسئول سقوط و مرگ او می‌شود؛ مفیستوفلس گمان می‌کند، که روح «مارگارت» را اسیر خواهد کرد، ولی صفای عشق او نسبت به «فاوست» و خودداری او از نجات یافتن از چنگال مرگ، سبب نجات او می‌شود؛ بخش نخست نمایش به پایان می‌رسد ولی «فاوست» هنوز در دنیای شهوات و هوس‌ها، آن لحظه پر شکوه هستی را که در آرزوی به چنگ آوردنش است، نیافته است...؛ تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 05/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Review # 2 was written on 2014-06-25 00:00:00 Steve Dougherty I reread Faust yesterday, and it left me wondering ... pondering ... again ... as so often! Why don't we talk more about Gretchen? And I mean Gretchen as a subject, not as a toy to be used by Faust and Mephistopheles in their joint midlife crisis distractive game? Why don't we talk more about the amazing achievements of the modern world, in which a brother like Valentin wouldn't get to call his sister a whore for having a lover? Why don't we talk more about the bliss of choice? Gretchen today could have her dark affair with a middle-aged charismatic narcissist and then raise a child on her own. She doesn't have to die (or marry to become Dorothy to Casauban or Effi to Innstetten either!). Let us celebrate the end of Gretchen's life as a social evil and the beginning of Gretchen as a sexual being without guilt, shame and doom? The world will never be free from Faustian egomaniacs, but they may face women who speak up and expect more than Gretchen ever could for herself. Gretchen lived too early, too much. Just some thoughts on reading Faust yet again! This is not a review. More a continued discussion with myself on a play that keeps challenging me since high school. I cannot attempt to write a review of Goethe's Faust. It is a much too personal experience, growing with each time I reread it. Since high school, I have been thinking at least five times: "This is the perfect Goethe moment, his work is written for ME, NOW, it can't get any better, deeper, or any more satisfying." Well, apparently it can. After maybe three or four years, I picked up Faust again, and found that I had finally grown up enough to identify with his most famous quote, the one I had reverently learned by heart as a student. Banging my head against the wall today while marking papers, trying to figure out how to explain the developments in the world to my own children and the adolescents I am in charge of, I looked up and literally felt Mephisto's presence in the room. Unable to get rid of the feeling, I looked at my shelf with my all time favourites, picked up my Faust, with its almost broken spine, and opened it to read ... ... my own life ... ...the struggle to find answers, the longing for knowledge and understanding, the futile hope that my teaching will make a difference, and the creepy, scary thought that it might all be meaningless, because the majority of our planet is sold, body and soul, to devilish shallowness and indifference. ... It almost sets my heart burning ... "Now here I am, a fool for sure! No wiser than I was before: Master, Doctor's what they call me, And I've been ten years, already, Crosswise, arcing, to and fro, Leading my students by the nose, And see that we can know - nothing! It almost sets my heart burning." "Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor! Und bin so klug als wie zuvor; Heiße Magister, heiße Doktor gar Und ziehe schon an die zehen Jahr Herauf, herab und quer und krumm Meine Schüler an der Nase herum - Und sehe, daß wir nichts wissen können! Das will mir schier das Herz verbrennen." As hopeless as the message and the rest of the Faust plot is, it gave me solace to share this moment, yet again, with the master of masters, Goethe. Now here I am, a fool for sure!