Editing Faust (section)

==Literary adaptations==

[[File:Faustus Manuscript in the Huntingdon Library.jpg|240px|thumb|Marlowe ''Faustus'' in the [[Huntington Library]], [[San Marino, California]]]]

===Marlowe's ''Doctor Faustus''===
The [[Historia von D. Johann Fausten (chapbook)|early Faust chapbook]], while in circulation in northern Germany, found its way to England, where in 1592 an English translation was published, ''The Historie of the Damnable Life, and Deserved Death of Doctor Iohn Faustus'' credited to a certain "P. F., Gent[leman]". [[Christopher Marlowe]] used this work as the basis for his more ambitious play, ''[[The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus]]'' (published {{circa|1604}}). Marlowe also borrowed from [[John Foxe]]'s ''[[Foxe's Book of Martyrs|Book of Martyrs]]'', on the exchanges between [[Pope Adrian VI]] and a rival pope.

[[File:Page 004 (Faust, 1925).png|240 px|thumb|Illustration by [[Harry Clarke]] for Goethe's ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]'']]

===Goethe's ''Faust''===
{{main|Goethe's Faust}}
Another important version of the legend is the play ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]],'' written by the German author [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]. The [[Faust, Part One|First Part]], which is the one more closely connected to the earlier legend, was published in 1808, [[Faust, Part Two|the Second]] appeared posthumously in 1832.

Goethe's ''Faust'' complicates the simple Christian moral of the original legend. A hybrid between a play and an extended poem, Goethe's two-part "[[closet drama]]" is epic in scope. It gathers together references from Christian, medieval, [[ancient Rome|Roman]], eastern, and [[Ancient Greek literature|Hellenic]] poetry, philosophy, and literature.

The composition and refinement of Goethe's own version of the legend occupied him, off and on, for over sixty years. The final version, published after his death, is recognized as a great work of German literature.

The story concerns the fate of Faust in his quest for the true essence of life ("{{lang|de|was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält}}"). Frustrated with learning and the limits to his knowledge, power, and enjoyment of life, he attracts the attention of the Devil (represented by Mephistopheles), who makes a bet with Faust that he will be able to satisfy him. Faust is reluctant, believing this will never happen. This is a significant difference between Goethe's "Faust" and Marlowe's; Faust is not the one who suggests the wager.

In the first part, Mephistopheles leads Faust through experiences that culminate in a lustful relationship with Gretchen, an innocent young woman. Gretchen and her family are destroyed by Mephistopheles' deceptions and Faust's desires. Part one of the story ends in tragedy for Faust, as Gretchen is saved but Faust is left to grieve in shame.

The second part begins with the spirits of the earth forgiving Faust (and the rest of mankind) and progresses into allegorical poetry. Faust and his Devil pass through and manipulate the world of politics and the world of the [[Greek god|classical gods]], and meet with [[Helen of Troy]] (the personification of beauty). Finally, in anticipation of having tamed the forces of war and nature and created a place for a free people to live, Faust is happy and dies.

Mephistopheles tries to seize Faust's soul when he dies after this moment of happiness, but is frustrated and enraged when angels intervene due to God's grace. Though this grace is 'gratuitous' and does not condone Faust's frequent errors with Mephistopheles, the angels state that this grace can only occur because of Faust's unending striving and due to the intercession of the forgiving Gretchen. The final scene has Faust's soul carried to Heaven in the presence of God by the intercession of the "Virgin, Mother, Queen, ... Goddess kind forever ... Eternal Womanhood".<ref>Goethe, ''Faust, Part Two'', lines 12101–12110, translation: [[David Luke]], Oxford World Classics, {{ISBN|978-0-19-953620-7}}.</ref> The woman is thus victorious over Mephistopheles, who had insisted at Faust's death that he would be consigned to "The Eternal Empty".

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 |quote  = Goethe's ''Faust'' is a genuinely classical production, but the idea is a historical idea, and hence every notable historical era will have its own ''Faust.''
 |source = [[Søren Kierkegaard|&emsp; — Kierkegaard]]<ref>{{cite book |first=S. |last=Kierkegaard |author-link=Søren Kierkegaard |title=Either / Or: Immediate stages of the erotic |title-link=Either/Or (Kierkegaard book)}}</ref>
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===Mann's ''Doctor Faustus''===
[[Thomas Mann]]'s 1947 ''{{lang|de|[[Doctor Faustus (novel)|Doktor Faustus: Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn, erzählt von einem Freunde]]}}'' adapts the Faust legend to a 20th&nbsp;century context, documenting the life of fictional composer Adrian Leverkühn, as analog and embodiment of the early 20th&nbsp;century history of Germany and of Europe. The talented Leverkühn, after contracting venereal disease from a brothel visit, forms a pact with a Mephistophelean character to grant him 24&nbsp;years of brilliance and success as a composer. He produces works of increasing beauty to universal acclaim, even while physical illness begins to corrupt his body. In 1930, when presenting his final masterwork (''The Lamentation of Dr.&nbsp;Faust''), he confesses the pact he had made: Madness and syphilis now overcome him, and he suffers a slow and total collapse until his death in 1940. Leverkühn's spiritual, mental, and physical collapse and degradation are mapped on to the period in which [[Nazism]] rose in Germany, and Leverkühn's fate is shown as that of the soul of Germany.

===Benét's ''The Devil and Daniel Webster''===
[[File:Richard Westall - Faust and Lilith.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''Faust and [[Lilith]]'' (1831) [[Richard Westall]].]]
[[Stephen Vincent Benét]]'s short story "[[The Devil and Daniel Webster]]" published in 1937 is a retelling of the tale of Faust based on the short story "[[The Devil and Tom Walker]]", written by [[Washington Irving]]. Benet's version of the story centers on a [[New Hampshire]] farmer by the name of Jabez Stone who, plagued with unending bad luck, is approached by the devil under the name of [[Old Scratch|Mr.&nbsp;Scratch]] who offers him seven years of prosperity in exchange for his soul. Jabez Stone is eventually defended by [[Daniel Webster]], a fictional version of the famous lawyer and orator, in front of a judge and jury of the damned, and his case is won. It was adapted in 1941 as a movie,  ''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster (film)|The Devil and Daniel Webster]]'', with [[Walter Huston]] as the devil, [[James Craig (actor)|James Craig]] as Jabez and [[Edward Arnold (actor)|Edward Arnold]] as Webster. It was remade in 2007 as ''[[Shortcut to Happiness]]'' with [[Alec Baldwin]] as Jabez, [[Anthony Hopkins]] as Webster and [[Jennifer Love Hewitt]] as the Devil.

=== Selected additional dramatic works ===
* ''Faust'' (1836) by [[Nikolaus Lenau]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Pagel |first=Louis |title=Doctor Faustus of the popular legend Marlowe, the puppet-play, Goethe, and Lenau, treated historically and critically |pages=46 }}</ref>
* ''Faust'' (1839) by {{interlanguage link|Hermann Ludwig Wolfram|de}}
* ''Doctor Faust: Dance poem'' (1851) by [[Heinrich Heine]]
* ''Faust: The third part of the tragedy'' (1862) by [[Friedrich Theodor Vischer]]
* ''The Death of Doctor Faustus'' (1925) by [[Michel de Ghelderode]]
* ''Mephisto'' (1933) [[Klaus Mann]]
* ''Faust, a Subjective Tragedy'' (1934) by [[Fernando Pessoa]]
* ''[[Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights]]'' (1938) by [[Gertrude Stein]]
* ''My Faust'' (1940) by [[Paul Valéry]]
* ''Faust '67'' (1969) by [[Tommaso Landolfi]]
* ''Doctor Faustus'' (1979) by [[Don Nigro]]
* Temptation (1985) by [[Václav Havel]] (translated by Marie Winn)
* [[Faustus (play)|''Faustus'']] (2004) by [[David Mamet]]
* ''Wittenberg'' (2008) by [[David Davalos]]
* ''Faust'' (2009) by [[Edgar Brau]]
* ''Faust 3'' (2016) by [[Peter Schumann]], [[Bread and Puppet Theater]]
* [[Life and Trust|''Life and Trust'']] (2024) by [[Jon Ronson]]

===Selected additional novels, stories, poems, and comics===
* ''[[The Devil and Tom Walker]]'' (1824) by [[Washington Irving]]
* ''[[Faust (Turgenev)|Faust]]'' (1856) novella by [[Ivan Turgenev]]
* ''The Cobbler and the Devil'' (1863) by [[August Šenoa]]
* ''Fausto'' (1866) by [[Estanislao del Campo]]
* [[Faust (manga)|''Faust'']] (1950) [[manga]] adaptation by [[Osamu Tezuka]]
* ''[[The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant]]'' (1954) by [[Douglass Wallop]] adapts the Faust theme to baseball
* ''[[The Recognitions]]'' (1955) by [[William Gaddis]]
* ''[[The Master and Margarita]]'' (1967) by [[Mikhail Bulgakov]]
* ''Faust'' (1980) by [[Robert Nye]] 
* ''Mefisto'' (1986) by [[John Banville]]
* [[Faust (comics)|''Faust'']] (1987–2012) series of [[American comic book|comic books]] by [[David Quinn (writer)|David Quinn]] & [[Tim Vigil]]
* ''[[Eric (novel)|Eric]]'' (1990) by [[Terry Pratchett]]
* ''[[Jack Faust (novel)|Jack Faust]]'' (1997) by [[Michael Swanwick]]
* ''Frau Faust'' (2014–Present) by [[Kore Yamazaki]] 
* ''[[Soul Cartel]]'' (2014–2017) by [[Haram and Youngji Kim]]
* ''Teeth in the Mist'' (2019) by [[Dawn Kurtagich]]
* ''The Master's Apprentice'' (2020) by [[Oliver Pötzsch]]
* ''The Devil's Pawn'' (2021) by Oliver Pötzsch