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    Faust
    Faust
    Faust
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    Faust

    Written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    Narrated by Samuel West, Auriol Smith, Derek Jacobi and

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Faust is one of the pillars of Western literature. This classic drama presents the story of the scholar Faust, tempted into a contract with the Devil in return for a life of sensuality and power. Enjoyment rules until Faust’s emotions are stirred by a meeting with Gretchen, and the tragic outcome brings Part 1 to an end. Part 2, written much later in Goethe’s life, places his eponymous hero in a variety of unexpected circumstances, causing him to reflect on humanity and its attitudes to life and death.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateOct 1, 2011
    ISBN9781843795506

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    Reviews for Faust

    4/5

    616 ratings29 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wonderful and delightful performance with music and songs as well. Will listen again.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Wow. This was an excellent performance. I especially loved the choral music.
    • 5/5
      Not knowing the whole story, only the beginning, was pleasantly surprised at all the adventures of Faust, and of his and the devil’s endings. Loved the music.
    • 2/5
      The first half was excellent. The Gretchen tragedy was incredibly disturbing and dramatic. However, I was bored by the second halfs descent into what seemed like a series of unrelated scenes. By the end of the long digression into Greek myth, I was bored by the whole thing and no longer even cared what happened to Faust
    • 5/5
      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!
    • 5/5
      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"
    • 5/5
      It's a strange notion, "reviewing" a text that is one of the pillars of German national identity and has had untold hectolitres of ink spilled over it by critics in the last couple of centuries. Maybe the most appropriate question to ask in a place like this is "What does Faust I have to offer the casual modern reader?" Two main things, I think: amazing language and a cracking good yarn.Like Hamlet or the KJV in English, reading Faust through is a bit like joining the dots between dozens of quotations you already know. The language has a very direct appeal to the reader: you don't have to be an expert in 19th century German verse to make sense of it (though I'm sure you would get more out of it if you were). After a few pages you entirely forget what a strange notion it is to be reading a verse drama, and just enjoy the sound of the words.The story isn't as "big" and "epic" as you might imagine. The core story of Gretchen's seduction and fall is told in a very intimate, naturalistic way, and even the big Walpurgisnacht scene is essentially a series of little cameos rather than a big spectacular.
    • 5/5
      This is a fine abridged introduction to Faust. It has motivated me to read the unabridged version.
    • 1/5
      Found this very boring and couldn't make it further than about a quarter, but I think it may have just been an uninspiring translation. (George Madison Priest.)
    • 5/5
      Goethe packs a lot of original truth into this very sensual work. In particular, his observations about society, learning, and, of course, religion, are thought provoking. The style and plot are also unique and impressive, especially in the interaction between Faust and Mepistopheles and Margaret.
    • 5/5
      Unmatched!
    • 5/5
      "Último grande poema dos tempos modernos", no dizer de Otto Maria Carpeaux, o Fausto de Goethe está para a modernidade assim como a Divina Comédia de Dante está para a Idade Média. Repletos de referências aos mais diversos campos do saber, os dois textos representam não apenas a obra máxima de seus autores, mas a suma do conhecimento humano e das aspirações espirituais de suas épocas.Escrito e reescrito ao longo de mais de 60 anos, o Fausto integral - compreendendo a primeira e a segunda parte - só seria concluído às vésperas da morte do autor, ocorrida em março de 1832. Já a primeira parte da tragédia (também conhecida como Fausto I), que tem como cerne o pacto de Fausto com Mefistófeles e a conseqüente "tragédia de Margarida", foi elaborada por mais de três décadas, de 1772 a 1806, sendo finalmente publicada, com aprovação de Goethe, em 1808. É esta primeira parte - que pode ser lida também como obra independente - que aqui se publica. A presente edição, bilíngüe, traz a elogiada tradução de Jenny Klabin Segall (livre dos vários erros tipográficos que se haviam acumulado ao longo de sucessivas reedições) acompanhada por uma esclarecedora introdução do professor Marcus Vinicius Mazzari, da Universidade de São Paulo, autor também das notas e comentários.Este volume conta ainda com o chamado "Saco de Valpúrgis" - versos bastante obscenos que deviam integrar a cena "Noite de Valpúrgis" mas que o próprio Goethe, num gesto de autocensura, deixou de fora da edição canônica de 1808, e que são agora publicados, pela primeira vez em nossa língua, em tradução literal de M. V. Mazzari.Ilustrado com desenhos e litografias de Eugène Delacroix, considerado por Goethe o homem certo "para se aprofundar no Fausto e provavelmente criar imagens que ninguém poderia imaginar", este lançamento tem tudo para se tornar a edição de referência do Fausto I em nosso país, a ser seguido em breve pelo Fausto II, também em tradução de Jenny Klabin Segall, com apresentação e notas de M. V. Mazzari.
    • 4/5
      Faust is Goethe’s masterpiece and the heart of his life’s work. He started thinking about it and writing it when he was bored with his studies at University and at the time he quickly cranked out “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, but by contrast he did not complete Faust (Part 1) until decades later, when he was in his fifties. He continued on with Part 2 right up until death at 82.This is not the origin of what has been popularized in so many different ways over the centuries in “selling your soul to the devil” stories, but one of the better versions and certainly a standard reference for the others. It’s the story of not just the condition of Faust’s everlasting soul as he ponders the abyss of suicide, but the condition of man on planet Earth. Jacques Barzun summarizes it well in the introduction to this edition: “…the torment comes from the awareness that man is at once wretched and great. He is wretched because he is a limited, mortal creature; he is great because his mind embraces the whole universe and knows its own wretchedness. No ordinary satisfaction can quench Faust’s desires; forever he sees and wants something beyond. The ultimate bliss would be to feel at one with nature, through knowledge not merely intellectual but emotional also, virtually instinctive; whereas all learning serves but to make Faust more self-conscious and isolated, till he scarcely feels that he lives. Clearly, this defines the situation of modern civilized man, whose increasing knowledge makes him more and more self-critical, anxious, beset by doubts, and hence more and more an alien in the natural world that is his only home.”Epic and grand in scope. Man’s soul, his passions, his fate. Not quiiite as brilliant as I had hoped for from its reputation, but Part 1 is in the “must read” category. Quotes:On beauty:“Often the perfect form appearsOnly when ripened slowly many years.What glitters lives an instant, then is gone;The real for all posterity lives on.”On living life:“Yes, of this truth I am convinced –This is wisdom’s ultimate word:Only he deserves this life in freedomWho daily earns it all anew.”On transience:“Here shall I satisfy my need?What though in thousand volumes I should readThat human beings suffered everywhere,And one perchance was happy, here or there?Why grin, you hollow skull, except to sayThat once your brain, perplexed like mine,Yearning for Truth, pursued the light of day,Then in the dusk went wretchedly astray?”On the passing of youth. :-(“Then give me back those years long pastWhen I could still mature and grow,And when a spring of song welled fastOut of my heart with ceaseless flow,When all the world was veiled in mist,When every bud a miracle concealed,And when I gathered myriad flowersCrowding the valley and the field.Though naught was mine, I had enough in youth,A joy in illusion, a longing for the Truth.Give back the surge of impulse, re-createThat happiness so steeped in pain,The power of love, the strength of hate –Oh, give me back my youth again!”
    • 5/5
      greath y g u h j f i u j j
    • 4/5
      No denying the beauty of the language in this, the iconic "sell your soul to the devil" story, but it seemed lightweight for it's subject. This modern verse translation of Part I is the only verse translation to be perfomed in the modern theater--which speaks highly of it's readability.
    • 3/5
      Holding off on further review until finished Part II. Currently finding it a little challenging to read but sticking with it as a seminal work (see for example the use of Faustian as a tag).
    • 3/5
      Although it's been staged, Goethe's Faust is described as a "dramatic poem" and at least in the translation I've read (Walter Kaufman for Part One) reads much more to me like Milton than Shakespeare. Indeed, there are to my ear echoes of Milton--and The Book of Job for that matter--in the Prologue where God and the devil Mephistopheles have a discussion that results in putting the soul of Faust into play. A lot of the of the plot and even some lines were familiar to me from classical music. Operas by Gounod and Boito, an oratorio by Berlioz and German lied by Schubert and Schumann among other works were adapted from from Goethe. I really got a kick out of recognizing the inspiration for Gounod's "Jewel Song" and Schubert's "Gretchen at her Spinning Wheel." Most of those adaptations only deal with Part One of the two part work, and for good reason. Part One was mostly a joy to read. The language is often striking and gorgeous and only one small segment made me go huh? (The Walpurgis Night's Dream with the Wedding of Oberon and Titania, which didn't seem to contribute to the plot or theme.) Mephistopheles first shows up by Faust's side as a poodle, and he helps a lot in cutting a lot of Faust's often high-flown language with his acid sarcasm, and I actually found a lot of humor in the first part of the poem--such as the scene where Martha flirted with Mephistopheles. If I were rating just Part One, I'd give Faust five stars for an amazing read. Part Two is a different matter altogether. In the book featuring the Kaufman translation, only the first scene and the last Act of Part Two is included. In the introduction Kaufman defends this saying it is his "hope that those who who would like to enjoy Goethe's Faust--as opposed to those who want to be able to say that they have read it, all of it" should find his edition to their liking. Well, I'm stubborn--and I did want to read all of it. Among the reasons Faust was listed in Good Reading's "100 Significant Books." Faust isn't just a classic--it's a formative, incredibly influential classic, and I've found in tackling those you aren't just entertained--you're educated. So, I read Part Two in another edition and translation. And found Kaufman is right. Part Two isn't enjoyable. It seems almost an entirely different work without the Gretchen element and with long static, weird set pieces that include Faust involving himself with Helen of Troy. Indeed, Faust disappears for long stretches in this part--so much of which seemed bizarre. I didn't like Part Two much at all. And not just as a reader wanting to be entertained. If there's one thing I've learned about myself reading the classics, it is that I like a sense of unity and structure, and have held it against works such as Moby Dick, War and Peace and Les Miserables when they seem to go off the rails in self-indulgent pedantry and digressions. I adore Dante, and Dante is erudite--and his philosophy very much opposed to mine. But I'm awed by the structure of The Divine Comedy. Nothing, but nothing is superfluous--down to the rhyming scheme and the number of Cantos. I can't say the same of Faust, particularly Part Two. For me Part Two is just one big huh?? and incredibly tedious. Maybe I'm missing something, but no, I can't say I got a lot out of Part Two, thus why this is winding up with a much lower rating than if I were reviewing Part One alone.
    • 4/5
      yo. evil is evil y'all.

      also I'm a closet Romantic
    • 3/5
      Titanenwerk, maar niet helemaal samenhangend: diverse stijlen, diverse invalshoeken; eerder losse commentaren bij huidige en vroegere cultuur. Moza?ekachtige structuur, wirwar van symbolische taferelen en soms ronduit een spektakelstuk vol special effects. Uiteraard is er de impressionante en in essentie tragische figuur van Faust zelf, de mens die ten onder gaat aan zijn drang om meer te weten, meer te kunnen. Pareltjes zijn volgende fragmenten: de Walpurgisnacht (een waterval van beelden en sc?nes in de meest uiteenlopende versvormen), het Homunculus verhaal (sprankelend en aangrijpend), het Philemon en baucis-verhaal.Ronduit zwak: het Gretchenverhaal (Gretchen is te onbeduidend als figuur), het Helenaverhaal (ook zij is letterlijk niet van lijf en leden), Euphorion (te kort uitgewerkt), en ook het slot (iets te hemels, beklijft helemaal niet zoals bij Dante)
    • 3/5
      Dear friend, all theory is gray, and green the golden tree of life.

      What else to say? Towering as an archetype, akin to Hamlet, the Inferno and White Whale -- this tale of pact has been absorbed into a our cultural bones, like an isotope. It is more telling to consider that I listened to Tavener while reading this. I recently gave Pandora a spin but found that I owned more Schnittke than was afforded by my"station" but if I leave such, will I miss those Penn Station ads?

      I will say that I should've read my Norton critical edition, well actually, my wife's copy -- the one I bought for her in Columbus, Ohio ten years ago. I went with a standard Penguin copy and I'm sure many of the historic references were lost for me.

      No one should consider that I regard Faust as emblematic of power politics in the US or a possible Brexit across the water. I'm too feeble for such extrapolation.
    • 5/5
      Goethe is an amazing writer. Faust despairs and wants the death because he can not understand the truth.Dissatisfied with knowing all there is to know about everything, Faust sells his soul to the devil to learn, experience and understand more.It's classic, it's brilliant and full of wisdom and eternal truths.
    • 5/5
      Part One of Faust was one of the few books in my life that forced me to put on a pot of coffee and give up a night's sleep to finish it. The young Goethe simply nailed it. When I then got a hold of Part Two (written by the much older Goethe) and sat down with it, I was stunned. His style had completely changed; I never would have guessed it was by the same author. I'm not judging Goethe or the work as a whole, that would be arrogant and ridiculous given his stature as a writer, but simply noting that the experience of reading those two parts of Faust raised serious questions about critical editorial / literary analysis research which makes claims about authorship. It also convinced me that as a writer I should finish what I start. The idea of a long work being as organic and unified as a grapefruit--as John Gardner puts it--instinctively appeals to me.
    • 5/5
      (original review, 2004)I’m planning on spending a few weeks on Goethe’s Faust in multiple translations and as much of the German as I can manage, supplemented by hundreds of pages of notes and commentary.I first read the book while in high school in the totally un-annotated Bayard Taylor translation from Modern Library – one of the texts I’m currently reading. I’m still pretty fond of Taylor’s version – with some exceptions generally preferring him to Walter Arndt in the Norton Critical Edition. Taylor’s a relatively local boy – born in Kenneth Square, PA where the town library carries his name.One thing I recall from that ML edition is that a few lines were Bowdlerized with dashes. For example, this song sung by Faust and Mephistopheles with two witches:FAUST ( dancing with the young witch)A lovely dream once came to me;I then beheld an apple-tree,And there two fairest apples shoneThey lured me so, I climbed thereon.THE FAIR ONEApples have been desired by you,Since first in Paradise they grew;And I am moved with joy, to knowThat such within my garden grow.MEPHISTOPHELES ( dancing with the old one)A dissolute dream once came to meTherein I saw a cloven tree,Which had a————————;Yet,——as 'twas, I fancied it.THE OLD ONEI offer here my best saluteUnto the knight with cloven foot!Let him a—————prepare,If him—————————does not scare.I imagined something really obscene was being masked there, but it turns out to be a double entendre only slightly more risqué than the “apples” in the first exchange. Here’s Arndt’s uncensored rendering:FAUST [ dancing with the YOUNG ONE]In a fair dream that once I dreamed;An apple-tree appeared to me,On it two pretty apples gleamed,They beckoned me; I climbed the tree.THE FAIR ONEYou’ve thought such apples very nice,Since Adam’s fall in Paradise.I’m happy to report to you,My little orchard bears them too.MEPHISTOPHELES [ dancing with THE OLD ONE]In a wild dream that once I dreamedI saw a cloven tree, it seemed,It had a black almighty hole;Black as it was, it pleased my soul.THE OLD ONEI welcome to my leafy roofThe baron with the cloven hoof!I hope he’s brought a piston tallTo plug the mighty hole withal.I am reminded in re-reading it how much in common Faust has with the fantasy books that were my staple reading at the time I first encountered it Tolkien, Peake, E. R. Eddison. I was reminded of this by some of the comments today about "The Buried Giant" (disclaimer I’ve not read any Ishiguro). For centuries literature and fantasy were almost synonymous – only in the 18th century did it start to require a kind of warning label.Just about all the operas are adaptations of Faust Part 1, though Arrigo Boito, as I recall, included an episode with Helen of Troy. The dual language Anchor Books edition with Walter Kaufmann’s translation, which seems to be the most commonly available in my neck of the woods, includes only bits of Part 2 from the first and last acts. This may make sense insofar as the edition is intended for students of German, but really makes a hash out of Goethe’s intentions for the work as a whole. I’m really enjoying wrestling with the complexities of Part 2; my recent readings in Greek tragedy helps – Goethe writes a very credible pastiche of the form in the first half of Act 3. [2018 addenda: In Portuguese, our most distinguished Germanist, João Barrento, has already published his Magnum Opus, Faust’s full translation. I haven’t read it yet, but I will].In acquiring various versions of Faust over the years I’ve been mainly interested in those that are complete – the portions editors are the most likely to cut are those that I think would gain the most from multiple viewpoints.
    • 4/5
      Read it to check it off my list of great books. The performance kept a difficult story interesting. A few insights for todays world on topics of freedom and the sin of paper money. Not my favorite, but glad I experienced it. I am very happy that this performance is the version I chose.
    • 5/5
      Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust begins with a prologue set in Heaven. The scene is modeled on the opening of the Book of Job in the Old Testament. While the angels Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael praise the Lord, Mephistopheles mocks human beings as failed creations because reason makes them worse than brutes. God tells Mephistopheles that he will illuminate his servant Faust. Mephistopheles wagers with god that he can corrupt Faust instead. With the assent of god Mephistopheles goes into action.In the next scene, Faust appears in acute despair because his intellectual studies have left him ignorant and without worldly gain and fame. In order to discover the inner secrets and creative powers of nature, he turns to black magic. Thus, he conjures up the Earth Spirit, the embodiment of the forces of nature. However, the Earth Spirit mocks Faust’s futile attempts to understand him. As he despairs of understanding nature, he prepares to poison himself. At that moment, church bells and choral songs announcing that “Christ is arisen” distract Faust from killing himself. Celestial music charms Faust out of his dark and gloomy study for a walk in the countryside on a beautiful spring day in companionship with his fellow human beings. Observing the springtime renewal of life in nature, Faust experiences ecstasy. At this moment, Faust yearns for his soul to soar into celestial spheres.This Easter walk foreshadows Faust’s ultimate spiritual resurrection. However, he must first undergo a pilgrimage through the vicissitudes and depths of human life. In a famous moment he proclaims that "two souls are dwelling in my breast". It is in this battle within himself that he becomes emblematic of modern man. As he battles Mephistopheles offers him a wager for his everlasting soul that will provide him a fleeting moment of satisfaction in this world. Mephistopheles commands a witch to restore Faust’s youth so that he is vulnerable to sensuous temptations. When Faust sees the beautiful young girl Margaret, he falls into lust and commands Mephistopheles to procure her. Mephistopheles devises a deadly scheme for seduction. Faust convinces Margaret, who is only fourteen years old, to give her mother a sleeping potion, prepared by Mephistopheles, so that they can make love. Mephistopheles makes poison instead; the mother never awakens.Unwittingly, Margaret has murdered her mother. Furthermore, she is pregnant by Faust and alone. When Faust comes to visit Margaret, he finds her brother, Valentine, ready to kill him for violating his sister. Mephistopheles performs trickery so that Faust is able to stab Valentine in a duel. Dying, Valentine curses Margaret before the entire village as a harlot. Even at church, Margaret suffers extreme anguish as an evil spirit pursues her.In contrast, Faust escapes to a witches’ sabbath on Walpurgis Night. He indulges in orgiastic revelry and debauchery with satanic creatures and a beautiful witch until an apparition of Margaret haunts him. Faust goes looking for Margaret and finds her, in a dungeon, insane and babbling. At this moment, Faust realizes that he has sinned against innocence and love for a mere moment of sensual pleasure. Even though it is the very morning of her execution, Margaret refuses to escape with Faust and Mephistopheles. Instead, she throws herself into the hands of God. As Faust flees with Mephistopheles, a voice from above proclaims, “She is saved!”Goethe will continue his drama with a second part, but the narrative from this first section has become one of the markers for the beginning of the modern era of human culture. I have previously written about some of the ideas in this drama in my discussion of "Active vs. Reactive Man". Translated by many over the two centuries since its original publication it has become a touchstone for the study of the development of the human spirit. It has also inspired other artists to create operas and novels based on the characters from Goethe's drama.
    • 4/5
      While I do not care for Goethe, I do like MacDonald's rhyming translation. It makes it much better to get through it! Did this for Part II so that the Kindle could read the rhyming to me with the text to speech feature.
    • 4/5
      I read this in January 1952 and said on Jan 20: Decided to read Faust despite the unfavorable atmosphere for reading presented by barracks life. It is almost stiflng in its beauty, and I wish I had a dead silent room to simply surrender my mind to it. The translation I am reading is Bayard Taylor's, which is in verse form, and quite literal--so that verbs are often at the end of sentences. As an example of clear beauty, romantic and untouched by sarcasm and cynicism I give you this from Scene 2 of the first Part: "Then would I see Eternal Evening gild The silent world beneath me glowing,On fire each mountain-peak, with peace and valley filled,The silver brook to golden rivers flowing..." I finished the first part on Jan 21, and said the second part is allergorical and I am afraid I shall get nothing from it, because conditons for studying are not good--or maybe it's just that I am not good at divining deeper, subtle meanings of things. I finished the book on Jan 23 and said: Finished Faust--got little out of the second Part.
    • 3/5
      Nederlandse vertaling van begin XXste eeuw, maar niet meer te genieten, zeer archaisch, vooral het eerste deel
    • 4/5
      Obviously a classic, but the second scene between the archangles, God and Mephistofoles is pure music.