Faust — Part 1
1808
Faust — Part 1
1808
A brilliant scholar,Dr. Heinrich Faust, has spent his life buried in books only to find himself desperate and hollow. He invokes a spirit from the darkness, terrified by what he sees, then receives a visitor that will damn him forever: Mephistopheles, the devil himself, appearing as a traveling scholar. In a scene that has haunted Western imagination for two centuries, Faust trades his immortal soul for knowledge and experience. But the contract is nuanced: if Mephistopheles can ever show Faust a moment so perfect he wishes it would last forever, then Faust belongs to hell. What follows is a wild, grotesque, often hilarious descent through earthly pleasures: seduction, drink, magical deception, and the destruction of an innocent young woman named Gretchen, whose tragedy becomes the play's devastating emotional core. Goethe's masterpiece isn't a simple morality tale. It's a troubling, exhilarating exploration of what humans will sacrifice for meaning, and whether any experience can justify the cost.
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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
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Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust — Part 1. Lex, lex-books.com/book/faust-part-1-924dc269-13bf-43b9-9791-b443ec9d06a3.Goethe, J. W. V. (1808). Faust — Part 1. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/faust-part-1-924dc269-13bf-43b9-9791-b443ec9d06a3Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust — Part 1. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/faust-part-1-924dc269-13bf-43b9-9791-b443ec9d06a3.
![Faust [part 1]. Translated into English in the Original Metres](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fd3b2n8gj62qnwr.cloudfront.net%2FCOVERS%2Fgutenberg_covers75k%2Febook-14591.png&w=3840&q=75)
