Faust

Faust is the protagonist of a popular German tale that has been used as the basis for many different fictional works. It concerns the fate of a learned gentleman, Faust, who summons the Devil, who in the tale is usually called Mephistopheles, and offers to sell him his soul if the Devil will serve him for a given period of time. This legend has also inspired the western culture's literary classic Faust by German writer and humanist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Historical origins

The tale has some basis in history. Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approximately 1480-1540) was a German alchemist who was born in the village of Knittlingen, Württemberg. A German chapbook about his sins was translated into English in 1587, where it came to the attention of Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, in turn, was studied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and as such the fictional Faust came to overshadow the historical Faust, about whom little is known. Another very possible inspiration for Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is John Dee (1527-1609), who practiced forms of alchemy and science and developed Enochian magic.

Works which retell or allude to the Faust tale

Pen name

"Minister Faust" is a pen name for Canadian writer, broadcaster and activist Malcolm Azania; as Minister Faust, he wrote the science fiction novel and social satire The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad.

Drama

• Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
• Dorothy L. Sayers's The Devil to Pay
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part One
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part Two
• Michel Carre's Faust et Marguerite

Prose fiction

• Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita
• Tom Holt's Faust Among Equals
• Alfred Jarry's Faustroll
• Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus
• Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer
• Terry Pratchett's Faust Eric
• Michael Swanwick's Jack Faust
• Ivan Turgenev's Faust
• Douglass Wallop's The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant
• Zoran Z<caron>ivković's Time-gifts
• Valery Bryusov's The Fiery Angel, the tavern scene from Goethe's Faust, pt. 1, is spliced into the rest of Bryusov's storyline.

Nonfiction

• Bertrand Russell's essay "A Free Man's Worship"

Poetry

• Heinrich Heine's "Der Doktor Faust"

Opera

• Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele (1868)
• Ferruccio Busoni's Doktor Faust (1916-25)
• Charles Gounod's Faust (1859)
• Sergei Prokofiev's opera based on Bryusov's The Fiery Angel

Music

• Hector Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust (1845-46) (sometimes performed in staged opera versions)
• Ludwig van Beethoven's Opus 75 no 3 (1809) Song - Aus Goethes Faust: "Es war einmal ein König"
• Charles Gounod's Ballet music from his opera Faust (1859). The ballet occurs as an interlude in the Fourth Act during the Walpurgis Night scene familiar from Goethe's Faust Part 1. The ballet or ballet music is often performed independent of the opera.
• Franz Liszt's A Faust Symphony (1854-57)
• Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (1906-07)
• Modest Mussorgsky: "Mephistopheles' song of the flea", is just that: a version of the song that Mephistopheles sings in the tavern scene of Goethe's Faust, pt. 1.
• Alfred Schnittke's cantata Faust (1982-83)
• Franz Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade (1814)
• Robert Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust (completed 1853)
• Richard Wagner's Faust overture (1840, originally intended as the first movement of a Faust symphony)
• Art Zoyd's song "Faust"

Movies

• F. W. Murnau's Faust (1926)
• The Band Wagon
• Peter Cook and Dudley Moores Bedazzled (1967), remade in 2000.
• Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
• Jan Svankmajer's Faust (1994 film) (1994)
• I Was A Teenage Faust

Musicals

• The Little Shop of Horrors
• Damn Yankees

Anime and manga

• Shaman King (A character in Shaman King, Faust VIII, is a descendant of Dr. Faust)

See also

• Walpurgis Night
• The Brocken a.k.a. Blocksberg
• Brocken specter

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Faust.

• Devilish Deeds in Staufen (http://www.internationalliving.com/postcards.cfm?pcard=2379)
• Pacts with the Devil: Faust and Precursors (http://www.usao.edu/~facshaferi/FAUST.HTML)
• E-texts:
  • At Projekt Gutenberg-DE:
    • Goethe's Faust, part 1 (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/goethe/faust1/faust_to.htm)
    • Goethe's Faust, part 2 (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/goethe/faust2/faust2.htm)
    • Heine's Der Doktor Faust (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/heine/fstheine/fstheine.htm)
  • Marlowe's Dr. Faustus (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Texts/faustus.html)
• Jan Svankmajer's Faust (http://www.illumin.co.uk/svank/films/faust/faust.html)

Faust is also the name of a German krautrock band. See Faust (band).

Faust is also the German word for fist, although the name "Faust" may be related to Italian "Fausto" rather than the German word.

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