Faust I

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe • 1775

A magnificent drama shaped by themes of redemption and salvation, Faust is the magnum opus of Goethe, athe last true polymath to walk the eartha (George Eliot). As his journey continues, Faust follows Mephistopheles through ancient Greek mythology. Deeply smitten by the incomparably beautiful Helen of Troy, Faust marries Helen, embodying for Goethe his aimaginative longing to join poetically the Romantic medievalism of the Germanic West to the classical genius of the Greeks.a Faust, Part II even includes eerie premonitions of such modern phenomena as inflation and the creation of life by scientific synthesis.