Abstract
This paper explores Goethe's Faust I ( 1808) by analyzing certain material versions of this canonical text : the circulation of monumental Fausts between 1850 and 1870. The first copies of these monumental books - more specifically, the German editions by Engelbert Seibertz (1852-1854), August von Kreling (1876) and Alexander Liezen-Mayer (1876-1877) - which illustrate a powerful ideological and patriotic reading of the tragedy, circulated throughout Europe and the United States. In the course of their peregrinations, these texts underwent numerous metamorphoses, adapting to the expectations of specific audiences. Their analysis enables us to grasp a particular aspect of the articulation between material and mental libraries.
