Faust, Part I, Egmont & Hermann, Dorothea, Dr. Faustus

Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf.
Volume XIX features important plays that continue to inspire modern works of literature:
- Faust, Part I, the 1808 deal-with-the-Devil morality play by German writer JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749-1832), as well as his 1788 tragedy Egmont and his 1797 verse novelette of the French Revolution, Hermann and Dorothea
- Dr. Faustus, by English dramatist CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564-1593), the earlier take on the Faust legend, which remains one of the finest examples of Elizabethan drama

Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (1749 - 1832) was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of meters and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy and color: and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters and nearly 3,000 drawings by him exist.