Faust I

Von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Seit langem schon sucht Faust vergeblich zu ergründen, "was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält". Doch nur ein Pakt mit dem Teufel kann ihm helfen, seinen Wissensdurst zu stillen und das schöne Gretchen zu verführen. Dabei kommt er an den großen Fragen der Menschheit, der Wahrheit, der Liebe und der Verantwortung vor sich selbst, nicht vorbei. Bis heute besticht "Der Faust" durch seine fulminante Kraft und Tiefe und seinen Reichtum an Bezügen. Zu Recht gilt die Tragödie als das bedeutendste Werk der deutschen Literatur.

• Sprache: Deutsch
• Herausgeber: Anaconda Verlag
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1. Juli 2013
• ISBN: 9783730690109

Rezensionen für Faust I

[danielstj · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

An impressive drama. It was filled, and fused, with so many themes, characters, allusions, references, and poetic prowess. This was Goethe near the height of his powers. I read the drama WAY after reading the first portion, but this did not detract from it at all. Rather, it allowed me to make sense of the first part in relation to the second. The drama spans a wide area of time and there is so much going on, so many great lines and developments, that I could not give this drama any less than four and a half stars. The only detriment is that, in its complexity, I found that some of the prestige is lost. I am nowhere as intelligent as Goethe was and everything that he puts into his book, all combined, mixed, like a concoction of literary material, was at times hard to understand. I read this alongside a guide and I presume that, if I hadn't, I would've become lost along the way.Still, an amazing piece of German literature: 4.5 stars!

[brakketh-1 · Bewertung: 3 von 5 Sternen]

The play/poetic structure didn't really engage me. I think I needed a version with more critical notes throughout as many of the allusions, etc. went right past me.

[thorold_1 · Bewertung: 4 von 5 Sternen]

Faust II is a work that has defeated me a number of times in the past: I generally get stuck somewhere in Act II where an apparently endless succession of assorted classical entities come on and do their stuff. However, this time I ploughed on regardless, and got all the way through in three or four sittings. It's worth the effort, because you do start to get a feel for where Goethe is going. It's such a big, complicated work that you certainly can't get everything out of it in one reading. It touches on just about every area of knowledge Goethe had a finger in (to put it another way: everything) - philosophy, mythology, music, geology, economics, painting, hydraulic engineering, religion, war, psychology, civil administration, education,... What struck me most on this reading was what an unexpectedly modern work it is. The classical allusions and medieval trappings of the story give you a vague feeling that it must be very ancient, but actually Goethe completed it in 1831. It's very much part of the modern, industrial, capitalist world. Jane Austen was dead, Walter Scott was dying; steam trains were running in England, and would soon be imported to Germany; Bismarck was at school; Alfred Krupp would have been at school if he hadn't been obliged to take over his late father's steelworks; Dickens was a young court reporter, etc. Especially in Act V, where Faust and Mephistopheles have become capitalist entrepreneurs involved in shipping and land reclamation, it becomes very obvious that Goethe wants the reader to see the play in this context. One of the biggest questions he addresses is where we can find a space for humanity and morality in such a world, where we are no longer bound by the traditional constraints of religion, and where growth of power and wealth are the only indicators we measure ourselves against.

[gbill_7 · Bewertung: 2 von 5 Sternen]

Sequels are never as good as the originals. :-( It may be sacrilege to say it and the books were meant by Goethe to be read as a unified whole, but part two diverges way too far into classical allegory for my tastes. Only for the hardcore. Bring a headlamp and leave a popcorn trail, you might get lost.Just a few quotes:On life; I thought of the mist trail in Yosemite when I read these lines:“And so I turn, the sun upon my shoulders,To watch the water-fall, with heart elate,The cataract pouring, crashing from the boulders,Split and rejoined a thousand times in spate;The thunderous water seethes in fleecy spume,Lifted on high in many a flying plume,Above the spray-drenched air. And then how splendidTo see the rainbow rising from this rage,Now clear, now dimmed, in cool sweet vapour blended.So strive the figures on our mortal stage.This ponder well, the mystery closer seeing;In mirrored hues we have our life and being.”On marital dissatisfaction:“Observe the married creature:There I begin; and can in every caseThe purest bliss by idle whims deface,So varies mood and hour and human nature.And holding in his arms what most should charm him,Each fool will set his dreams on some new yearning;From highest joy, now grown familiar, turning,He shuns the sun, and takes the frost to warm him.With practiced hand I rule in these affairs,And bring in Asmodeus, trusty devil,To sow, when time is ripe, conjugal evil,And thus I wreck the human-race in pairs.”

[multifaceted_1 · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

I'm not sure what to think of the tone of the book over all, as I come away from it with a feeling that Faust is being condemned to the devil for seeking too much knowledge. I feel like there is also something of the old "doctor wanting to be god" joke in here, as well. But I get the feeling that, over time, Faust will come to be one of my favorite characters, along with Voltaire's Candide and Camus' Meursault. And there is definitely something "absurdly" tragic about Goethe's character, as well. Because, to me, Faust isn't just about someone who makes a deal with the devil to make his life better. Rather, it's about someone whose thirst for knowledge is never slaked, who seeks to know everything and what it's like to be everyone. Or, should I say, Faust seeks to be omniscient. (And I have to wonder, is that necessarily a bad thing? Would the world be worse off if we knew just what it was like to be the millionaire in his mansion, or the low class beggar in the city?) But to get back on track: at the same time, he realizes he is merely only a human, and he is burdened, depressed, and frenzied by the knowledge that he probably can never know everything--and there is something so full of humility, so pathetically human about his situation. This leads him to not just "make a deal" with the devil, but to acquiesce to Mephistopheles as a sort of last resort. Why not, if there is no other way he can gain omniscient knowledge, anyway? Of course, Mephistopheles makes him become enamored with a woman, and this love transports Faust, and makes him finally feel like he has gained everything he's ever wanted. Where am I going with this? I don't know, because I don't quite know what Goethe was going for, either. But Faust's words say it all the better:"And here, poor fool! with all my loreI stand, no wiser than before"

[miquixote · Bewertung: 5 von 5 Sternen]

What does Faust mean? Tough to find too many books more open to interpretation since Columbus landed on American soil. Obvious comparisons with Adam and Eve and the serpent: except the sinner/first one to bite the apple/knowledge-seeker here is a man (yup, feminists have jumped all over that one). interpretations still up for grab: is the sinner a rebel? overly ambitious? is wanting knowledge a deadly sin (ie. pride) -- should Faust be punished? ; or maybe the socialist interpretations are right and Mephistoles symbolizes dissidence -- truth seekers may just be rejecting oppression...down with the elites, closed minds and limited worldviews! Is Mephistopheles the tempter, trying to destroy Faust or is he freeing him? This book was also the center of a cultural war of interpretation in Germany between the Nazis and the spirit of the Weimar....we all know who won that battle... What Goethe was really trying to say, you'll have to decide for yourself...The cultural war (or class war?) is far from over...so read it!