Goethe: Faust Part One

Nicholas Boyle begins with a fascinating survey of earlier versions of the Faust story. He then offers a detailed reading of Faust Part One, emphasising the poetic and dramatic coherence of the work and tracing its links with the thought and culture of Goethe's time. The play emerges as a tragic poem which may, to a certain extent, be read independently of Faust Part Two.