Book contents
- The Faust Legend
- The Faust Legend
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Prologue
- Chapter 1 The Background of the Faust Legend
- Chapter 2 Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus
- Chapter 3 Goethe’s Faust
- Chapter 4 Post-Goethe Dramatic Versions of the Faust Legend
- Chapter 5 Cinematic Fausts
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Prologue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2019
- The Faust Legend
- The Faust Legend
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Prologue
- Chapter 1 The Background of the Faust Legend
- Chapter 2 Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus
- Chapter 3 Goethe’s Faust
- Chapter 4 Post-Goethe Dramatic Versions of the Faust Legend
- Chapter 5 Cinematic Fausts
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The literature of the Western world has been dominated by a few pervasive myths that have obsessed human consciousness for hundreds of years. A number of these immediately rush to mind: the Cinderella fantasy (perhaps the formative myth of our Western civilization); the biblical story of David and Goliath; the folk tale of Jack the Giant Killer or St. George and the dragon; the narrative of King Arthur, the Round Table, and the Holy Grail. My study focuses on another of the seminal legends that define Western culture: the magical Faust story. This hardy legend found its roots in the marshy soil of medieval folklore, budded in the Renaissance, blossomed in nineteenth-century drama and opera, and flowered in twentieth- and twenty-first-century drama, opera, novel, and cinema.
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- The Faust LegendFrom Marlowe and Goethe to Contemporary Drama and Film, pp. 1 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019