Editing Goethe's Faust (section)

{{short description|Play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe}}
{{About|the 19th-century work by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe||Faust (disambiguation)}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Goethe's ''Faust''}}
[[File:Auerbachs Keller.JPG|thumb|Sculpture of Mephistopheles bewitching the students in the scene "Auerbachs Keller" from ''Faust'', at the entrance of what is today the restaurant [[Auerbachs Keller]] in Leipzig]]
[[File:Anton Kaulbach Faust und Mephisto.jpg|thumb|[[Anton Kaulbach]]: ''Faust and Mephisto'']]
'''''Faust''''' ({{IPAc-en|f|aʊ|s|t}} {{respell|FOWST}}, {{IPA|de|faʊst|lang|de-Faust.ogg}}) is a [[tragedy|tragic]] [[Play (theatre)|play]] in two parts by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], usually known in English as ''[[Faust, Part One]]'' and ''[[Faust, Part Two]]''. Nearly all of Part One and the majority of Part Two are written in rhymed verse. Although rarely staged in its entirety, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages. ''Faust'' is considered by many to be Goethe's ''[[Masterpiece|magnum opus]]'' and the greatest work of [[German literature]].<ref>{{cite book |title= The Greatest Books in the World: Interpretative Studies |last=Portor |first=Laura Spencer |author-link=Laura Spencer Portor Pope |year=1917 |publisher=Chautauqua Press |location= Chautauqua, New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/greatestbooksin00unkngoog/page/n95 82] |url=https://archive.org/details/greatestbooksin00unkngoog }}</ref>

The earliest forms of the work, known as the ''{{ill|Urfaust|de}}'', were developed between 1772 and 1775; however, the details of that development are not entirely clear. ''Urfaust'' has twenty-two scenes, one in prose, two largely prose and the remaining 1,441 lines in rhymed verse. The manuscript is lost, but a copy was discovered in 1886.<ref>{{cite book|title=Goethe's Plays|author=Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|others=translated and introductions by Charles E. Passage|publisher=[[Ernest Benn Limited]]|year=1980|isbn=978-0510000875}}</ref>

The first appearance of the work in print was ''Faust, a Fragment'', published in 1790. Goethe completed a preliminary version of what is now known as ''Part One'' in 1806. Its publication in 1808 was followed by the revised 1828–29 edition, the last to be edited by Goethe himself.

Goethe finished writing ''Faust, Part Two'' in 1831; it was [[List of works published posthumously|published posthumously]] the following year. In contrast to ''Faust, Part One'', the focus here is no longer on the [[soul]] of Faust, which has been sold to the [[devil]], but rather on social phenomena such as [[psychology]], [[history]] and [[politics]], in addition to mystical and philosophical topics. The second part formed the principal occupation of Goethe's last years.