The power and magic of the Faust story, the man who, in a pact with the Devil trades his soul in return for a period of total knowledge and absolute power is one of the most potent of all European myths. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) worked on this poetic drama in bursts from his twenties until the end of his life. He reshaped the perpetually fascinating legend, probing the nature and process of human striving and questioning the assumed divisions between the forces of good and evil. His Faust has become a landmark in world literature.