'The corpse is prone and when the spirit flies
I show her my entitlement, blood-signed'
After the sorrowful loss of his beloved Gretchen, the soul-sold Faust is tempted by the demon Mephistopheles with the grandest distractions of politics and power. Eager for new sensations, Faust calls for a vision of the unsurpassed beauty of Helen of Troy, and then, overwhelmed, for her to be brought back from the underworld and delivered to him bodily. But even this does not bring contentment, or satisfy his appetite for fresh experience. Completed a few months before Goethe's death, the concluding part of his masterpiece is a rich and allusive work, weaving together a wealth of diverse philosophical ideas and influences, reworking the medieval myth of Dr Faustus and speculating upon the search for truth in the Age of Enlightenment.
David Constantine's major new translation includes a preface by A. S. Byatt on Goethe's Faust and other representations of the character throughout literature. This edition also includes an introduction by Constantine, chronology, notes, a synopsis of each scene and further reading.
Translated with an introduction and notes by David Constantine
With a preface by A. S. Byatt
