Faust: A Tragedy.
GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von. Translated by Bayard Taylor.
Faust: A Tragedy.
"One of the central works of German literature": The Riverside Press large paper edition of Goethe's masterpiece Faust: A Tragedy
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1906.
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Item Number: 151485
The Riverside Press large paper edition of Goethe’s masterpiece, translated by Bayard Taylor. Quarto, four volumes finely bound in full contemporary black morocco at the Riverside Press with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, elaborate gilt ruling and decorations to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, tissue-guarded frontispiece to each volume in both colored and uncolored states. One of 650 numbered copies, this is number 22. Translated into English by Bayard Taylor. In fine condition. A stunning set.
Goethe’s Faust stands as one of the central works of German literature and a defining text of European intellectual history, synthesizing elements of Enlightenment thought, Romantic subjectivity, and classical form. Composed over several decades and published in two parts (1808 and 1832), the drama reinterprets the traditional Faust legend through the figure of a scholar who, dissatisfied with the limits of human knowledge, enters into a pact with Mephistopheles in pursuit of transcendence and experience. While Faust I focuses on the personal and tragic consequences of desire, most notably in the Gretchen tragedy, Faust II expands into a more abstract and allegorical exploration of politics, economics, aesthetics, and human striving. Central to the work is Goethe’s conception of Streben (striving), through which Faust’s perpetual quest—though morally ambiguous—becomes the basis for his ultimate redemption. As such, Faust resists simple moral categorization, instead presenting a complex meditation on ambition, knowledge, and the possibilities of human fulfillment.
