Excerpt from Faust, Vol. 1: Edited With an Introduction and Notes The editor of an edition for American students, then, may rightfully claim to be exempt from an office which even the most competent German scholars would hesitate to undertake. All that the present introduction can at tempt is briefly this. To set forth to the industrious student the general nature of the poem, to explain the functions of the leading characters, namely Faust and Mephistopheles, and to show (with extreme brevity) the connection between the original Faust-legend and Goethe's treatment of it. The Notes treat chiefly of German manners and customs, obscure allusions, and syntactical constructions that are more than ordinarily difficult. They presuppose throughout that the student has already mastered the grammar of the German lan guage. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.