Goethe's Faust

Discussion in 'Bibliophile's Corner' started by naqshbandijamaati, Aug 6, 2008.

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  1. :s1:

    Wow! This was a magnificent work of literature and one I had wanted to read for a long time. I'd, of course, been aware of it for a long time as, arguably, European literature's greatest single work, but I really wanted to read it when Iqbal praised it in his poetry (Bang e Dara and Javidnamah). I finally read it last night and today. It is a wonderful work of great poetry and it is spiritual too. It was written at a time in Europe when the spiritual still mattered and the heart of it is the conflict between the material and the spiritual. (A man, Dr. Faust, sells his soul to the Devil in order to gain supernatural knowledge...)

    With poetic license Iqbal referred to Goethe as someone 'who was given a book [Faust] but who was not a Prophet!'

    I cannot read German so had to make do with an English translation [Goethe: Faust Part One, translated by David Luke; Oxford World Classics]; I'd highly recommend it to all!

    And here is an Indian professor's article on Iqbal and Goethe
    http://www.goethezeitportal.de/fileadmin/PDF/db/wiss/goethe/bhatti_iqbal.pdf
     

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