Faust, First Part in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 17, 2013 Bogdan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: theatrum-mundi

Ah, master of poetry! These romantic writers are the poets I like most. And the translator, Ion Iordan, does a good job in bringing this masterpiece into Romanian. I did search a little bit and Ion Iordan is the pen name for Immanuel Weissglas, a Romanian poet of Jewish extraction that was born in Cernauti, a town that it is now part of Ukraine, but was historically part of Romania. It seems that he has translated some other works, all from German, but none of them that I have read, and also had Ah, master of poetry! These romantic writers are the poets I like most. And the translator, Ion Iordan, does a good job in bringing this masterpiece into Romanian. I did search a little bit and Ion Iordan is the pen name for Immanuel Weissglas, a Romanian poet of Jewish extraction that was born in Cernauti, a town that it is now part of Ukraine, but was historically part of Romania. It seems that he has translated some other works, all from German, but none of them that I have read, and also had wrote some verses of his own. Anyway, all my praises for the translations.

Regarding the play, I enjoyed very much as Goethe does a great job. The verse is very clear, right to the point, thus focused on facts. In comparison with Dante, this was much more down to Earth, although it uses also fantastical elements. It simply has more substance, it is not just a description.

The premise of this tragedy is deeply rooted in early 19th century realities: the thirst for knowledge will generate trouble. Dr Faust is a scientist that presumably has learned all that can be learned. So he turns to alchemy for more, then crosses paths with the supernatural, which provokes the tragedy. While this was perhaps true in the 1800s, nowadays it is almost impossible to imagine a contemporary Faust. This is why I will give it a 4 for premise.

Regarding the form, I enjoyed greatly the translation and I only wished I was able to read fluently in German, in order to enjoy it in original. I believe in the original language it is much more powerful, but I will closely monitor the Bucharest Opera for a show based on Faust. And as soon as this is announced, I will not miss it. So I cannot rate it less than 4 at form.

In terms of originality, as it is inspired over a popular legend, I cannot rate it with maximum. But, still, I haven't read other work on this subject, so it cannot be lower than a 4.

The characters are perhaps what I liked most about this play. Especially Mephistopheles is exceptionally portrayed, cunning and ironic, just I am imagining myself. Perhaps the women were a little too stereotypical and goofy (maybe due to the misogyny of the age). I shall rate it with a 4 for characters.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, I can only praise all the effort needed to write this play into a verse. I always admired the ones that could do that, Shakespeare being one of them. But Goethe is from the same league and I believe this play is comparable with the great tragedies of Ancient Greece. So I will rate it with a 5 for complexity and difficulty.

The last criteria is edition. This book is part of a collection created by Adevarul Holding to be distributed along with their main newspaper. It was a marketing strategy to support the decrease of sales in regular newspapers, a trend that was popular couple of years ago among most publishers. They invested a little bit in the books, as they are all with hardcover binding, having some drawings from time to time and the covers looking like leather. I am appreciating this volume as it had no grammar erros, as many other volumes from the collection had, so I will rate it for edition with a 4.

To summarize, I enjoyed it a lot and it helped me to understand a lot better the Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. All in all, my final rating for the play is 4.33, rounding it up to a 4 star on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 4.33 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+