The challenge of Goethe's Faust, writes Jane K. Brown, is not its “resistance to interpretation, but rather its incorrigible responsiveness to any question posed to it” (4). Lorna Fitzsimmons quotes Brown in her introduction to underline the enduring power of Faust to resonate with people, and in turn to provoke a wide and diverse variety of responses. These range over literature, art, music, and other performance media, and across national and cultural borders. With this in mind, Fitzsimmons brings together fifteen essays by a number of well-known scholars, not only in literary fields, but performance media in a global context. The result is a stimulating survey of contemporary work in Faust studies, especially in areas that have otherwise often been neglected or marginalized. Fitzsimmons divides the essays into five broad categories.

The first part, “Anteriorities,” groups two essays that explore two neglected sources of material that contribute to Faust. Arnd Bohm focuses on the figure of Alexander the Great in Faust, especially Goethe's use of Hellenistic satire and medieval romance, relating these to Faust's obsession with power and domination, a theme that also resonates with various postcolonial treatments of the Faust tradition. By contrast, Jane Curran is interested in the persistence of the puppet tradition, and how the comic figures of Hanswurst, Kasperle, and Pickelhëring are surreptitiously evoked by Goethe's use of language and byplay.

The second part, “Faust: In Context,” offers three readings. Alan Corkhill looks at both Parts I and II in terms of their use of “sound related words” and “sound images” and the way that these link Goethe's scientific, linguistic, and philosophical preoccupations. Claudia Brodsky, on the other hand, dwells on the treatment of building and technology in Part II, taking Heidegger as her starting point. By contrast, Ehrhard Bahr focuses on Part I, tracing the conflicting concepts of the devil.

The next part, “Faust: Romantic Intertexts” looks at the transactions between Goethe and his British contemporaries. Fred Parker writes on Byron's familiarity with and use of Goethe's Faust, while Frederick Burwick surveys and discusses Coleridge's translation of Faust. Both Parker and Burwick provide good summaries of the early English translations of Goethe as well as his reception.

Part four takes a dramatic turn, looking at the reception of Faust in Asia, bringing together three essays.