Faust

A fresh new translation of Faust, the greatest work by Germany's greatest writer, brings us the immediacy, power and passion of Goethe in modern language. 

Part One, the shorter, simpler, more recognized section, contains the Gretchen story and the famous blood pact between Faust and Mephistopheles. Part Two is symbolical, allegorical, and experimental; even Germans find it unintelligible without hundreds of scholarly footnotes, a notion which Goethe himself scorned.

Yet Wayne's way is accessible; it conveys the energy and eccentricities of the original without extra obfuscation. Like certain Biblical verses, there are some unexpected word sequences, some thorny twists and turns. But each syllable is measured, hand-picked, important, creating a dramatic poem which resonates for readers today much as it did in the early 1800s when Goethe first wrote it.

Poet, playwright, novelist, memoirist, and aphorist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a multifaceted genius, the equivalent of Dante and Shakespeare. He put all he had into his version of Faust, the man who sold his soul to the devil for worldly fame and riches. It is a fable for today and every day.