GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang Von.

Faust: A Tragedy.

Boston: Houghton, Mifflin And Company , 1887.

$175.00

Out of Stock Item Number: RRB-95809

Custom Clamshell Box

Hand made by the Harcourt Bindery. ~90 days

+$450

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“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live": Finely bound example of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe's most celebrated drama Faust

Finely bound example of Goethe's most celebrated drama. Octavo, 2 volumes. Translated in the original metres by Bayard Taylor. Bound in three quarters morocco over marbled boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, red and black spine labels, raised gilt bands, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled. In very good condition.

The story of a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures, the Faust legend first became popularized in late 16th century England by Christopher Marlowe who gave it a classic treatment in his play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. The Faust of early books—as well as the ballads, dramas, movies, and puppet-plays which grew out of them—is irrevocably damned because he prefers human to divine knowledge; in Goethe's reworking of the story two hundred years later, Faust becomes a dissatisfied intellectual who yearns for "more than earthly meat and drink" in his life.