Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy

"Kirby reproduces in simple, clear English—and almost always line for line—the meaning of Goethe's German text, with metrical variations that evoke the shifting meters of the original."
      —Jane Brown, University of Washington

SKU
27406g

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Translated, with an introduction and notes, by Margaret Kirby

September 2015 - 192 pp.
Imprint: Focus

Grouped product items
Format ISBN Price Qty
Paper 978-1-58510-740-7
$17.95
Instructor Examination (Review) Copy 978-1-58510-740-7
$4.00

eBook available for $15.95. Click HERE for more information.

While preserving the line structure of the German original and verbal echoes that permeate the poem, Margaret Kirby's translation of Faust I attempts to capture in unrhymed modern English the distinctive voices, wide metrical range, quick shifts in tone, comic and tragic registers, and other key stylistic elements of Goethe’s greatest poetic and dramatic masterpiece.

 

Reviews:

"Kirby's translation of Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy is excellent: lucid and readable, without excessive encumbrance of editorial comments and notes. The notes are brief, but very well judged. In contrast to other translations, Kirby's notes are understood to serve undergraduate reading needs. . . . This translation admirably serves the purposes of an undergraduate survey class and helps get students to actually read the text. The introduction was very fine . . . truly excellent and very thought-provoking.”
      —Neil Robertson, University of King’s College

 

"Kirby reproduces in simple, clear English—and almost always line for line—the meaning of Goethe's German text, with metrical variations that evoke the shifting meters of the original."

      —Jane Brown, University of Washington

 

About the Author:

Margaret Kirby has been a tutor at St. John's College since 1990.