Faust I & II
What a fantastic story! I can't believe I have never read Faust before. I had always assumed this to be a dry and boring book but I loved it. In a review in a Dutch newspaper: "Faust is much loved but not often read", haha, that was true for me to.
A tragic story of course, especially the storyline about Gretchen, but lots of humor too and very modern in its outlook. I liked the explanation for the introduction of paper money in act II: Mephistopheles argued that the money is backed by all the undiscovered gold buried under the ground (which by default belongs to the Emperor), and that it's not really necessary to dig it up!
Act II reminded me of Dante, a story where many famous people make their appearance. Much to my amazement I saw a reference to Galatea, a character from a Dutch book I'm currently reading to the kids, De Kleine Kapitein. Both Goethe and Paul Biegel referenced a Greek story.
Two funny quotes:
The new burgomaster will raise taxes
Grumphy Nereus 8095
I read the book in English. Somewhat against my own rules -- but reading this in German would have taken me many weeks, and the translation by Stuart Atkins was excellent. I used Wikipedia and several other online sources to get more background on book.
