SOURCE: “Critical and Other Works,” in Bayard Taylor, Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1973, pp. 156-179.

In the following excerpt, Wermuth discusses Taylor's translation of Faust, his parodies, and other critical pursuits.

I Translations

The Faust translation is Taylor's most important work, and his only book which has survived. Still considered standard in some quarters, it is currently available in the Modern Library and in the Oxford World's Classics. Taylor seriously aimed at making it the standard version; indeed, he said that it was going to be “the” English Faust and that no one need translate it again after him. He compared all existing translations, mastered the scholarship (extensive even then), and studied the history of the Faust legend; he did all that sheer labor could do to contribute to a fine translation. In the process, he became an expert on Goethe, on Faust, and on some areas of German literature...