wagner79c2

A sublime and wonderful work. Stuart Atkin's translation commendably shows the power and grandeur of Goethe's masterwork in a complex but somehow still (mostly) accessible English rendition. Reading about the history of the work and of Goethe himself, it's not that it's a wonder that the work is what it is now, but rather that it was ever conceived and finished at all. The first part is wonderful, even in its linearity, but the second part transcends not only the form of the closet drama but of the idea of story in a (then) modern vein juxtaposed with the classical sources from which it sprung forth and attempts to simultaneously break free and do homage to. Not enough good can be said about this work, it must be read, and it must be acknowledged as one of the crowning achievements of Western and world literature.

2020-08-21 13:57