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Goethe

Faust. First edition in Boris Pasternak's translation.

Faust. First edition in Boris Pasternak's translation.

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Boris Pasternak / German literature / Nobel Prize / Translations
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Goethe Johann Wolfgang [Faust]. Faust.

Translation by Boris Pasternak.
Introduction and comments by N. Vil'mont.
Illustrations by A. Goncharov.

[Leningrad], Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1953.
8vo, frontispiece, 620 pp., 5 plates.

In publisher's binding.
Near very good condition.

First edition of 'Faust' translated by Boris Pasternak. One of 10 000 copies printed.

This is the latest and one of the best translations of 'Faust' in Russian. The translator's work was one of the few opportunities for Pasternak to maintain his status as a literary figure during Stalin's era. Pasternak began his career as a translator by translating Goethe's 'The Mysteries' in 1922, marking his first published translation. He also wrote poems titled 'Mephistopheles' (1919) and 'Margarita' (1930), and in the late 1940s, Pasternak returned to Goethe.
Legend has it that in 1944, the renowned Russian poet Anna Akhmatova planted the idea of 'writing a new 'Faust'' in Pasternak's mind. The contract with the publishing house was finalized no later than 1947. Pasternak's son, Yevgeny, wrote: '...waiting for arrest, Pasternak edited the proofs of the first part of 'Faust'' (Pasternak, E. Boris Pasternak: Biography. 1997).
Simultaneously, Pasternak was working on the novel 'Doctor Zhivago' (1945-1955), creating parallel characters such as Doctor Zhivago and Doctor Faust. These were tumultuous years for the writer, reminiscent of Margarete's fate in 'Faust', as Pasternak's beloved, Olga Ivinskaya, was imprisoned, resulting in the loss of their child. In October 1952, Pasternak suffered his first heart attack. Nevertheless, he persisted with 'Faust' as the energy of the play had 'infected' him and 'fascinated primarily by this force acting in the tragedy' (Mal'chukov, L. Easter Chronotope in Goethe's "Faust"... 2008).
Legend also suggests that in the fifth act, Pasternak included references to Stalin. The book was sent to the printer's a few weeks after the death of the Soviet leader.
Andrei Goncharov served as the illustrator of the book, having studied under Vladimir Favorsky at VKhUTEMAS.

Zakharenko, 1995, # 121.

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