Reviews for Faust

The average rating for Faust based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-02-14 00:00:00 William Timmerman Mind bogglingly brilliant.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-08-02 00:00:00 Joe Fill Reading about Mary Stuart, the queen of Scots, without letting yourself immersed into the tragedy play by Friedrich Schiller, would render poor enough something of her doomed fate. So, having myself lured into her troubled and turbulent past first by sir Anthony Burgess, with his "A Dead Man in Deptford", and then tenderly embraced by monsieur Alexandre Dumas, pere, into his storytelling by "Mary Stuart, Celebrated crimes", I have fallen (though better said, I have ascended) into the hands of the poetical verses of Friedrich Schiller (I have in mind of course the way words were displayed on the sheet), and let myself swim (I still keep myself afraid of water, but this time it seemed I was on a solid shore, prettily vouchsafed into a prison castle) on the tragic music (again, words-wise) recounting the tragic end of this remarkably beautiful queen, nonetheless a beauty that didn't save her from her cursed destiny. I am for sure not going to read another version on this topic, save for a Romanian version. Pardon. That is to say that this is not going to happen, surely, because it brings into my mind some anecdotes or jokes where there are involved different nationalities, and especially an English, a French, a German, and a Romanian ;) I found the play really entertaining and smoothly flowing for my waking senses, good that the English translation was not very sophisticated, thus it allowed me to have a deep understanding of the wording. I guess the last castle where the queen of Scots was kept prisoner was the most ferocious, because I recall than in previous ones her stay was not so bitterly inflamed. But then again, after so many long, long years in captivity it didn't change a bit of how one felt, totally deserted and left to wait for the final restful peaceful end… But I agreed with sir Amias Paulet, keeper of Mary, that 'in idle hours the […] mind is busy' (he said 'evil mind', I say it's just a troubled mind) After reading the previous works where this character of Mary Stuart queen is thoroughly presented or talked about, I feel that this tragedy play gives me a balance that I sensed it was missing or failing in the others, because here I can hear and read about Elizabeth I of England thoughts, cries, tormented impressions, reflections on what to do, on whom to rely, and why to really go for a final verdict. Against all odds, this play makes somehow an equilibrium between those two conflicting queens, each on her side thinking for yourself that she was right to think and act as has been done, in terms of understanding and accepting the consequences, but then again the past cannot be erased or redone. In this sense the differences between those queens were so insurmountable and no narrow channel allowed any gap closing to be reached in a fair, just manner. It is a play that I could play in my mind's eyes with the same aplomb as if I would have watched it on stage. I was struck with a crafty work, and I have appreciated that the history is not fully applied in the 'stick to the point' manner. I have in mind of course the irregularity allowed in this proceeding by creating the meeting scene between the two queens, who actually had never seen each other, but FS allowed himself to let mix two inconsistent things. As inclination changes, thus ever ebbs and flows of the unstable tide of any reader, this is a story that deserves the worthy attention, if not for the historical facts, at least for the game that the conscience plays on human minds.