298 Book Reviews against the "Dichtung" is an enormous task, but wUl remain necessary Ui assessing Goethe's overaU strategy. Regrettably, Stelzig was not able to provide the central part of his planned triptych, the discussion of The Prelude. As it stands, the mentions of Wordsworth act as signposts to the missing section, tending to frustrate rather than Uluminate the reader. Also annoying are the vagaries of the index and of the Ust of the works cited, which do not include aU the cited references. Sterne is mentioned at least twice (146, 225) but is not indexed. This may be a telling omission , for Tristram Shandy was at least as important as Rousseau for Goethe's conception of autobiographical writing. FoUowing that trau would have compUcated the effort to present Rousseau and Goethe as models for Romantic autobiography . Despite the caveats, this is a capable and accessible study of Rousseau and Goethe as autobiographers. Free of jargon, with aU the quotations translated Ui EngUsh, it can be recommended as a balanced reading and should find a wide audience. Carleton University ArndBohm Sabine Doering, Die Schwestern des Doktor Faust: Eine Geschichte der weiblichen Faustgestalten. Göttingen: WaUstein Verlag, 2001. 371 pp. Sabine Doering's Habilitationsschrift is a thorough and conscientious account of female Faust figures in European Uterature (drama, poetry, prose) from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is the first serious Uterary history of this particular figure, and most specimens derive from Goethe's Faust, rather than from the Faustbuch itsetf—though she does discuss some examples of the latter ancestry and also several instances of female pre- or proto-Faust figures from medieval legend. Defining and delimiting the species is a compUcated, but ultimately inclusive task for Doering. Female Faust figures G5FF) may be any of the foUowing: characters who thirst for knowledge, those who make pacts with the devU or demonic mentors, or those who are identified by theft authors or critics as Faustian. This latter category includes those who are named after Faust (Faustina, Fausta) and those who are compared with the Doctor either within the text or Ui reviews. Thus we have a vast and rather diverse and Ui some cases arbitrary grouping and aU these FFF together constitute a topic that resists unified organization or presentation—a not at aU unusual starting point for productive uterary history. The book is more of a compendium or reference work than it tends to acknowledge, but it is both informative and rewarding when consulted for its parts or read as a cumulative argument for certain general developments (in history and Uterature) that position women as potential Fausts. Doering, who is one of the clearest academic writers I have ever read, states her terms Ui the first paragraph: Der Doktor Faust ist ein Mann. Das mag selbstverständlich klingen, aber gerade das Selbstverständliche kann, wenn es ausgesprochen wird, Anstoß zu neuem, kritischem Nachdenken geben. (7) This defines the spirit of her inquiry as a departure from the beaten path and an exercise Ui openness to eclectic combinations and conclusions. She begins with a relatively succinct review of the tradition and the question of definition, or what it is that characterizes or qualifies a Faust figure who is not Faust and is furthermore not a man. Doering first identifies the thirst for ever greater knowledge and the matter of the pact with the devil as basic elements of a Faust figure Goethe Yearbook 299 Ui general—criteria that, tf loosely appUed to women, might just qualify most witches. Furthermore, I think that the desire for knowledge that characterizes male Faust figures might transfer as a less-than-admirable curiosity to woman figures, such as the first woman who wanted greater knowledge and did what the devU told her. Doering notes with respect to more recent mixtures of women and Wissensdurst, however, that the rise Ui the number of FFF in the second half of the nineteenth century corresponds with greater acceptance and approval of women's education and female academics. This is a highly interesting and most reasonable assertion that underscores the value of constituting a "field" of FFF, as Doering is doing. She (and perhaps she...