Faust: a Tragedy [part 1], Translated from the German of Goethe

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Faust: a Tragedy [part 1]" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is a tragic play first published in 1808. A disillusioned scholar named Faust makes a fateful pact with Mephistopheles, an agent of the Devil: if Mephistopheles can satisfy him completely, Faust's soul belongs to Hell. Transformed into a young man, Faust pursues the innocent Gretchen, setting off a chain of seduction, tragedy, and destruction that tests the boundaries between damnation and salvation in what many consider German literature's greatest work.