Faust: Der Tragödie Erster Teil
1808
Faust: Der Tragödie Erster Teil
1808
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust ranks among the most audacious achievements in Western literature. The play opens on a brilliant scholar who has mastered every field philosophy offers, law, medicine, theology, only to find his achievements hollow. Faust stands on the edge of despair, his spirit crushed by the unbearable gap between what knowledge promises and what it delivers. Then he turns to forbidden magic and summons Mephistopheles, the devil himself. What follows is a bargain that would reshape literature forever: in exchange for his soul, Faust demands to experience everything, pleasure, passion, the full depths and heights of human existence. Part One follows this catastrophic deal through seduction, tragedy, and a descent into the supernatural that remains startling after two centuries. Goethe's masterpiece asks the question that haunts every ambitious soul: what would you trade for a life without limits? The answer is as disturbing now as it was in 1808.
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“All hope abandon, ye who enter here.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and pain.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The devil is not as black as he is painted.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Through me you pass into the city of woe:Through me you pass into eternal pain:Through me among the people lost for aye.Justice the founder of my fabric moved:To rear me was the task of power divine,Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.Before me things create were none, save thingsEternal, and eternal I shall endure.All hope abandon, ye who enter here.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. ””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The man who lies asleep will never waken fame, and his desire and all his life drift past him like a dream, and the traces of his memory fade from time like smoke in air, or ripples on a stream.””
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
