  johann wolfgang von goethe's faust is a tragic play in two parts:  (translated as: faust: the first part of the tragedy) and  (faust: the second part of the tragedy). although rarely staged in its entirety, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on german-language stages. faust is goethe's most famous work and considered by many to be one of the greatest works of german literature. goethe completed a preliminary version of part one in 1806. the 1808 publication was followed by the revised 1828â29 edition, which was the last to be edited by goethe himself. prior to these appeared a partial printing in 1790 of faust, a fragment. the earliest forms of the work, known as the urfaust, were developed between 1772 and 1775; however, the details of that development are not entirely clear. urfaust has twenty-two scenes, one in prose, two largely prose and the remaining 1,441 lines in rhymed verse. the manuscript is lost, but a copy was discovered in 1886.goethe's plays, by johann wolfgang von goethe, translated into english with introductions by charles e. passage, publisher benn limited 1980 isbn 0510000878 / 9780510000875 / 0-510-00087-8 goethe finished writing faust part two in 1831. in contrast to faust part one, the focus here is no longer on the soul of faust, which has been sold to the devil, but rather on social phenomena such as psychology, history and politics, in addition to mystical and philosophical topics. the second part formed the principal occupation of goethe's last years. it appeared only posthumously in 1832. ==the first part of the tragedy== thumb|faust i, first edition, 1808  the principal characters of faust part one include: * heinrich faust, a scholar, sometimes said to be based on the real life of johann georg faust, or on jacob bidermann's dramatized account of the legend of the doctor of paris, cenodoxus * mephistopheles, the devil * gretchen, faust's love (short for margaret; goethe uses both forms) * marthe, gretchen's neighbour * valentin, gretchen's brother * wagner, faust's [[wikt:
Goethe\'s_Faust Plays_adapted_into_films The_Devil_in_fiction