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GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832). Faust. Eine Tragödie. Stuttgart and Tübingen, J.G. Cotta, 1834.
First publication of the combined text in a single volume. The Faust legend, deriving from one Georg Faust (c.1480-1540), 'an obscure figure, half scholar, half quack,' was first put into writing in the latter part of the 16th century, and spread wide and far, inspiring the English playwright Christopher Marlowe. By the 18th century, these fables were well established in the popular imagination, and the subject of the man making a pact with the devil, and its attendant warnings of the dire consequences of dabbling in witchcraft and fruitless theological speculation, was to consume Goethe for most of his life. In 1773 he attempted to write a play; the earliest published portion is Faust, ein Fragment (1790). At Schiller's instigation, Goethe spent a further 10 years writing, producing part one, a prologue in Heaven, in 1808. Act III (Helena and Faust) appeared in 1827, while Act I appeared the following year, with Acts II and Act V in 1830, and Act IV in 1831. The complete Second Part was completed in January 1832, but published posthumously that year just after the author's death. The present lot is the first complete edition. 'Not surprisingly, Goethe is one of the most original and powerful German lyric poets, but the immense panorama of Faust, reflecting the developing vision of a lifetime, with its comedy and tragedy, pathos, wit, and satire, is a work of inexhaustible ambiguity and magical poetry' (Oxford Companion to German Literature). PMM 298.
2 parts in one volume, small octavo (146 x 90mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait (occasional faint spotting). Contemporary half cloth (recased, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: Lina Elfert (ownership inscription).
First publication of the combined text in a single volume. The Faust legend, deriving from one Georg Faust (c.1480-1540), 'an obscure figure, half scholar, half quack,' was first put into writing in the latter part of the 16th century, and spread wide and far, inspiring the English playwright Christopher Marlowe. By the 18th century, these fables were well established in the popular imagination, and the subject of the man making a pact with the devil, and its attendant warnings of the dire consequences of dabbling in witchcraft and fruitless theological speculation, was to consume Goethe for most of his life. In 1773 he attempted to write a play; the earliest published portion is Faust, ein Fragment (1790). At Schiller's instigation, Goethe spent a further 10 years writing, producing part one, a prologue in Heaven, in 1808. Act III (Helena and Faust) appeared in 1827, while Act I appeared the following year, with Acts II and Act V in 1830, and Act IV in 1831. The complete Second Part was completed in January 1832, but published posthumously that year just after the author's death. The present lot is the first complete edition. 'Not surprisingly, Goethe is one of the most original and powerful German lyric poets, but the immense panorama of Faust, reflecting the developing vision of a lifetime, with its comedy and tragedy, pathos, wit, and satire, is a work of inexhaustible ambiguity and magical poetry' (Oxford Companion to German Literature). PMM 298.
2 parts in one volume, small octavo (146 x 90mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait (occasional faint spotting). Contemporary half cloth (recased, extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: Lina Elfert (ownership inscription).
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