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Faust: Parts I & II

By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Narrated by: Philippe Duquenoy
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Summary

Faust has long been considered one of the most important works of European literature ever published. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began writing Faust in the 1770s while still a young man, spending most of his adult life on the project. Faust was finally finished almost 50 years later, near the end of his life.

Faust is a philosophical drama full of humor, satire, and tragedy. In Part 1, the demon Mephistopheles makes a bet with God that he can lure Faust from the path of good. Faust is in the middle of a personal crisis when he is visited by the demon. Mephistopheles successfully lures Faust into putting his soul on the line for a chance at true happiness but the deal only leads to tragedy.

In Part 2, the tragedy has faded and Faust now finds himself on a new path of adventure as he strives to redeem himself and is eventually released from his evil pact with the demon.

Public Domain (P)2018 Take 2 Studios
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What listeners say about Faust: Parts I & II

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Essential Reading

At first I was put off by the sample but this was the only complete version available. I did, however, enjoy the reading and will listen to it again in the future. As a classical music lover I was already familiar with the general outline through the compositions of Berlioz, Schumann, Schubert and Mahler and in particular the opera setting by Gounod. I have also heard abridged dramatisations on BBC Radio. Reading it complete filled the gaps and put everything in context.
My preferred way of reading such a work as this is to follow the visual text and have it read by a more experienced reader than myself. The main snag with this rendition was having the characters’ names relayed before every item of spoken dialogue. Although this was irritating and sometimes confusing it is an unfortunate necessity in an Audible book. However it would have helped if the narrator had changed the pitch of his voice for these headings. I got used to it and in any case it was less of a nuisance in the longer speeches which were also more poetic.
I also found a guide very useful. I would strongly recommend this despite the mentioned snags.
Ken Smith

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Readers Beware - Extreme Challenges Ahead

This is no book one can speed-read, and grasp - but instead a Curse.

Faust is a poetic puzzle inter-twined with the main character surfing through Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman mythos - layered with Biblical tales.

It will require you to dive deep to read up on various historic figures, philosophers, kings and hero's to get just the basic understanding of what is being collated through the text.

This text, although slightly over 10 hours, took over a week to conquor. In the same time, I have spent nearly 50 hours on additional reading, research, and re-reading passages to understand what Goethe was trying to portray.

At desperate times, I even retreated to academic articles, and online summaries, just to get through nearly impenetrable sections of Goethe's

Heed my warning, and steer clear Goethe's magnum opus that took 50 years to write.

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Narration is absolutely useless

I cannot distinguish between the
characters.
The reading is slow, boring and dynamically posh. Increasing the speed only makes it harder to hear due to the particular pronounciation.

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