Faust. With Illustrations by Harry Clarke. From the German by John Anster. London: George G. Harrap & Company, 1925. First Edition, Limited Issue. Pp 253, uncut. Folio. Publisher’s quarter vellum over paper boards, green and black pictorial end papers.

Edition limited to one thousand copies for England and one thousand copies for the United States, of which this is No. ‘426’ of the English issue Signed by Harry Clarke.

Illustrated with beautifully haunting and nightmarish renderings by famed Irish book illustrator and stained glass artist, Harry Clarke (20 full page illustrations 12 in colour, many fantastic vignettes).

The illustrations are magnificent, their style impeccably suited to the tale. Abundant head and tail pieces brim with stylised figures and symbolic motifs, while Clarke’s full-page drawings captivate with their eerie, occult ambiance and surreal creatures.

The striking contrast between Goethe’s themes of good and evil, along with the mythic grandeur of his characters—Mephistopheles, Faust, Margaret, and Martha—is brilliantly brought to life in these extraordinary artworks.