Studies in Goethe

92 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY The treatment of Victory most especially is vitiated by the critic's having passed from the defence to the attack. Mr. Hewitt speaks of the reader's sense of Heyst's flaw being "swamped by the response of admiration which he receives as a man who is in touch with the beauty and tranquillity of the islands"; and he quotes descriptive passages. But he does not quote the passage in the first chapter which robs the scene of all mystery and "romance" by stressing the shallowness of the tepid ocean and by comparing the smoking volcano with Heyst's cigar, nor yet the integral (rather than "rhetorical") symbolism of the statement that Heyst's only companions were the shadows of clouds. And when Heyst must be convicted by any standard of indulging in "rhetoric," Mr. Hewitt says, "we echo Lena's comment: 'You are putting it on,' " seemingly forgetting that Conrad supplied Lena with the comment. As for the objection to the black-and-white of the characters, here, I think, is where a more adequate conception of romance would have produced better criticism. Conrad emerges from this study a figure to be reckoned with, but still to be reckoned with. STUDIES IN GOETHE" H. BOEscHENsTEIN The Fortunes of Faust, by Miss Butler, is a richly stratified book. To do justice to it one would have to apply as many critical methods as it turns facets towards us. Its basic and broad foundation amounts, almost of necessity, to a survey of all the Faust-texts, from the Spiess Faust-book of 1587 down to Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus published in 1947. There is, at present, no better history of this particular slice of M otivgeschichte, of the Faust-theme, extant. Both in completeness and in concise, though searching, characterization of a vast number of works, Miss Butler has easily outdistanced her English, French, and German rivals, and whatever her own bias or final evaluation does to the material, she strives hard and manages admirably to make first of all the objective qualities of her texts translucent. If we were to mention one exception it would be Fausts Leben by Klinger, where the author fails to consult the Epilogue to clarify-or to deepen-her *The Fortunes of Fausl. By E. M. BUTLER. Cambridge: at the University Press [Toronto : The Macmillan Company of Canada], 1952. Pp. xviii, 365. $6.50 Goethe the Alchemist: A Study of Alchemical Symbolism in Goethe's Literary and Scientific Works. By RONALD D. GRAY. Cambridge: at the University Press [Toronto: The Macmil1an Company of Canada). 1952. Pp. x, 312. $6.75 Fifly Years with Goethe. 1901- 1951. By A. R. HOHLFELD. Madison, Wisc.: The University of Wisconsin Press [Toronto: Burns & MacEachern]. 1953. Pp. xiv, 400. $6.25 Goethe's World: As Seen in Letters and Memoirs. Edited by BE'RTHOLD BIER. MANN. London : Peter Owen Limited [Toronto: The 'Copp Clark Co. Limited]. 1951 [1952]. Pp. xxiv, 422[4]. $5.00 REVIEWS 93 uneasy feeling of rational and anti-rational ambiguity, of a Faust at once revolutionary and reactionary. Impressive as the historical part of her work is- and to call it simply a collection of widely scattered and partly remote documents would do her less than justice-her aim is to accept the challenge of the theme and interpret it in terms of its religious, philosophical, and psychological implications. But while she was undoubtedly wise in circumventing the German habit of Procrustean imperiousness, Miss Butler seems to have delayed unduly long the process of viewing or reviewing her Faustian heroes with a critical eye. A few hints, dispersed throughout the book, as to the ultimate way in which things will be assessed are not very helpful, either in revealing her criteria or in imposing a more definite order than that provided by chapter headings. The latter serve at best as a sort of preliminary classification; the Lutheran Fausts, English Fausts, Hybrid Fausts of the first three chapters cannot be meant to form part of a systematic treatment, even if they are all covered by the description Traditional Fausts and followed by Brave New Fausts, Interim Fausts, Post-Goethean Fausts. Nor...