Faust [part 1]. Translated into English in the Original Metres

Faust, Germany's greatest literary export, opens with a scholar damned by his own brilliance. Dr. Heinrich Faust has devoured every branch of knowledge only to find it worthless. Philosophy cannot answer his questions, medicine cannot heal his soul, law cannot bind his restless hunger. In his midnight study, he abandons scholarship for black magic and summons Mephistopheles, the devil himself, offering his immortal soul in exchange for one moment of absolute fulfillment. The wager is set: Mephistopheles will serve Faust until he encounters joy so perfect he wishes it would last forever, at which moment his soul belongs to hell. What follows is both cosmic spectacle and intimate devastation as Faust, buoyed by demonic power, seduces the innocent Gretchen with tragic consequences that cascade into madness, infanticide, and damnation. Goethe transforms a medieval legend into a ferocious meditation on the cost of wanting everything.