Goethe’s dramatic poem Faust is a monumental work of literature that takes the reader on a journey “from Heaven through the World to Hell.” In exquisite and memorable verse, it tells the story of a Medieval scholar who—frustrated with the limitations of human knowledge—enters into a bargain with the Devil in order to experience “all that is the lot of human kind.”
Goethe’s dramatic poem Faust is a monumental work of literature that takes the reader on a journey “from Heaven through the World to Hell.” In exquisite and memorable verse, it tells the story of a Medieval scholar who—frustrated with the limitations of human knowledge—enters into a bargain with the Devil in order to experience “all that is the lot of human kind.”
In the course of his striving Faust progresses from suicidal despair to “highest joy,” from wretched ignorance to “highest wisdom . . . the best that mankind ever knew.” Faust is a work of timeless beauty and philosophical significance in which Goethe presents the human soul’s aspiration to cast off the shackles of the Middle Ages and emerge into the glorious daylight of the Enlightenment.
The recommended text for this course is the abridged English translation by philosopher Walter Kaufmann, which gives all of Faust Part I and the most important sections of Faust Part II. In Kaufmann’s own words, his edition is for “those who would like to enjoy Goethe’s Faust—as opposed to those who want to be able to say that they have read it, all of it.”
