Hesse, Hermann

Average customer rating:

I like it
A MUST READ-- every three years or so.
Siddhartha: polarity and unity
Spirit vs Flesh
Buddhist Morality Play

Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553208845
Release Date: 1981-12-01

Amazon.com

In the shade of a banyan tree, a grizzled ferryman sits listening to the river. Some say he's a sage. He was once a wandering shramana and, briefly, like thousands of others, he followed Gotama the Buddha, enraptured by his sermons. But this man, Siddhartha, was not a follower of any but his own soul. Born the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha was blessed in appearance, intelligence, and charisma. In order to find meaning in life, he discarded his promising future for the life of a wandering ascetic. Still, true happiness evaded him. Then a life of pleasure and titillation merely eroded away his spiritual gains until he was just like all the other "child people," dragged around by his desires. Like Hermann Hesse's other creations of struggling young men, Siddhartha has a good dose of European angst and stubborn individualism. His final epiphany challenges both the Buddhist and the Hindu ideals of enlightenment. Neither a practitioner nor a devotee, neither meditating nor reciting, Siddhartha comes to blend in with the world, resonating with the rhythms of nature, bending the reader's ear down to hear answers from the river. In this translation Sherab Chodzin Kohn captures the slow, spare lyricism of Siddhartha's search, putting her version on par with Hilda Rosner's standard edition. --Brian Bruya

Book Description

In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life -- the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace, and, finally, wisdom.

Customer Reviews:

I like it.......2007-06-18

I thought this was a very good book.

A MUST READ-- every three years or so........2007-06-09

I first read this book almost 40 years ago. Then every few years I would read it again. With the help of this book, I could find myself going through various changes and understand these changes. Friends of mine have done the same thing. If spiritual development means anything to you, then this is a MUST READ-- over and over again.-- Sam Yulish, PhD, author of WHERE HAVE ALL THE HIPPIES GONE? and THE HESITANT PSYCHIC and OTHER STARNGE STORIES.

Siddhartha: polarity and unity.......2007-05-28

Just as the river's message to Siddhartha, the depth of insights within the pages of this Indian tale can not be articulated. If one considers this book a "quick read", I might suggest a second reading (and a third). The pages are layered with themes, symbols, and lessons. The tale is a quest for enlightenment. The protaganist's experiences involve love, desire, polarity, time, status, rebirth, freedom, limitations, knowledge, wisdom, values, truth's, and place (just to name a few). The TOTALITY of all experiences is essentially what aides Siddhartha in finding the path towards UNITY. The river holds many lessons, but these lessons could not have been known without previous life experiences and resulting emotions (sometimes extreme). It is only when Siddhartha understands the river's nature of co-existence and polarity does Siddartha reach Om...

"No longer knowing whether time existed , whether this diplay had lasted a second or a hundred years, whether there was a Siddhartha, or a Gotama, a self and others...wounded deeply by a divine arrow which gave him pleasure, deeply enchanted and exalted, Govinda stood yet a while bending over Siddarths peaceful face which he had just kissed, which had just been the stage of all present and future forms..."

(After having lost my 1995 copy a number of years back, it was pleasing to reread this updated translation. The tale is as timely today, as it was in 1995. This is a book to keep as reference by the nightstand...highly recommended!)

Ultimately, this book is not about one thing VERSUS another. It is about the co-existence of polarity for Unity.

Spirit vs Flesh.......2007-05-28

Hermann Hesse explored man's dual nature and the struggle between the carnal and the spiritual in many of his works but in Siddhatha he achieves this in a remarkable and memorable parable. A young Brahmin is drawn to the spiritual life and leaves his family only to abandon that path and live in the world of the senses and materialism. His ultimate return to simplicity and reflection provides an Eastern version of the prodigal son parable.
Siddhartha has universal appeal and is not a Buddhist tract. The struggle that Siddhartha faces is a common hteme in great literature because it resonates with the reality of human nature.
Hesse is one of the masters of this form and Siddhartha is his most accessable work.

Buddhist Morality Play.......2007-05-13

Curious about Buddhism? Hermann Hesse's famous novel SIDDHARTHA is as engaging an entryway into eastern thought as you can find in any religious/eastern philosophy section of a bookstore, because it is both accessible and true to the system of beliefs set down so long ago.

No, it is not a how-to manual complete with advice on meditation techniques, but it does clearly show how the protagonist's journey from the selfish hell of pleasing the body to the heavenly rewards of pleasing the soul can lead to oneness, completeness, and a unique form of happiness.

In our material, self-absorbed times, the message is especially appropriate. At its nadir, Siddhartha's life is comprised of the pursuit of wealth and power, the sexual pleasure of women, the lovely reveries of fine wines, expensive clothes, obedient servants, sweet-smelling perfumes, rich meat and fowl, the siren call of gambling, and the false entitlement that is idleness. In short, he measures success in much the same way as many people in present-day capitalist nations. It is when Siddhartha begins to feel owned by his possessions and paradoxically empty in the fullness of his successes that he desperately seeks answers.

Although the novel is more telling than showing, readers should realize that its purpose is not so much in the plot as in its cautionary theme. The ending, where Siddhartha's friend sees all life reflected in the protagonist's face, hammers home Hesse's appreciation of basic Buddhist concepts about life. For the curious about and the adherents of Buddhism, it is a pleasing morality tale that may be predictable but is no less worth the journey.

SIDDHARTHA is one of those books that serious readers should have under their belt at some point during their lifetimes, no matter where they are on their own personal spiritual journeys...

The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel

Average customer rating:

beautiful character exploration
Hesse's most profound offering
Persevere and you'll be rewarded
It's How You Play The Game...Or Is It?
A Complex and Worthwhile Work, Perhaps Over-Long

The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel
Hermann Hesse
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312278497

Book Description

The final novel of Hermann Hesse, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literatureSet in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

Customer Reviews:

beautiful character exploration.......2006-12-01

This is a story of one man's life and spiritual journey of awakening. It is presented as the biography of Joseph Knetch who, among other things, becomes Master of the Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) in a fictional province of the mind segregated from the rest of the world. The book is divided into four parts. The first, and weakest part, is an introduction to the Glass Bead Game and to the fictional world in which the events take place. If you have the endurance to make it past this introduction, you will find your reward in the second part which is the actual biography of Joseph Knetch, and which comprises the bulk of the novel. The final two parts are collections of Joseph Knetch's writings from his student days: a series of poems, and three short stories depicting his hypothetical life in three different historical settings.

Hermann Hesse's style is reflective and inwardly focused, and he writes with remarkable clarity and depth of insight into human nature. He discusses actions of the mind as effortlessly as most good authors discuss actions of the body. I have never been more content at being able to relate to a character, and I left the book feeling as if I had experienced living another life.

I disagree with the characterization of this book as satire or humor. Do not pick it up expecting humor or satire. While it is set in the future, it is also not science fiction. It is simply a penetrating and beautifully written character exploration that the more mature and reflective readers should find deeply satisfying.

Hesse's most profound offering.......2006-06-02

During my teenage years Hesse was by far the author I was most fond of, having read all his major novels, Glass Bead Game was the penultimate I engaged with, possibly at the age 18, which was slightly too early given the weight of the work. I have re-read it in parts since, and being now in my twenties and somewhat distanced from the ideal, that I can do and experience however I please, trying everything once, as Hesse very much proposes in his other work such as Demian and Siddartha, I perceive Glass Bead Game to be the most fascinating work for any reader above the aged of 25.

This might be personal but I think this book to be superior of much higher regarded novels such as "Crime and Punishment" or "1984", the latter lacking in style the first in philosophical depth what Hesse presents here.

The book is deeply philosophical and also raises many valid points, that were not touched upon in such great depth in H’s previous novels. Whilst many claim his style to be ponderous or difficult in G.B.G., I think it is only so compared with the very short and captivating Siddartha and fairly short Steppenwolf. Both books which I think are excellent in their own right don’t quite reach the maturity and level of Glass Bead Game.

Glass Bead Game is besides the underlying story which so magnificently was summed up by other readers on this page, making it pointless for me to repeat it, is about change and movement. We should never get complacent within a position we inhabit no matter how high and respected it is, constantly strive to move forward, trying to find self-realisation. A theme that Hesse uses almost in every single novel, but takes its most profound meaning within Glass Bead Game.

The idea of the Glass Bead Game is another incredible concept that Hesse envisioned for the book an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas. With it Hesse has reached his creative highpoint.

The book is essentially about learning and teaching, such as they come in circles of life and understanding. We should never stop to learn even when we teach and move on. This is Hesse’s essential message until the finishing line of the book.

PS.: Hesse also plays ironically with names. the Magister Ludi before Josef Knecht was “Thomas von der Trave”, his friend Thomas Mann who came from Luebeck which is situated on the River Trave makes it almost too evident, whom he means by this.

Persevere and you'll be rewarded.......2006-04-24

I'm a big fan of Hesse and this was the sixth book of his I've read. I'll remember it as one of the most profound, original and idiosyncratic of this great author's impressive canon.

Initially though I struggled and my patience was tested. In fact it wasn't until perhaps halfway through the book that The Glass Bead Game really started to lure me in and work its unique charms on me as a reader.

There are plenty of other reviews on this site that elaborate and comment upon the plot, the protagonists and the themes of this book; I won't rehash any of that. But I will recommend to anyone - particularly fans of Hesse's other works - that they have a go at and persist with The Glass Bead Game. You will reach the end and reflect on a literary experience quite unlike any other. The whole concept of the story is surely as fresh and original today as it was when it first appeared.

Architecturally it is as sublime as the poetic prose for which Hesse will always remain a cult favourite. Few authors can write about the human condition with quite the same elegance, insight and aching beauty. The way all of these traits converge as he describes Joseph Knecht's last days is simply stunning. Ultimately I was so deeply moved that I feel almost ashamed of my impatience at the beginning.

I am so glad I persisted, and I suspect you will be too.

It's How You Play The Game...Or Is It?.......2006-02-27

This book can be understood as a meditation upon many things: language, communication, symbolism, religion, and authority--to name just a few. It is the story of a young man who studies to become the Magister of the Game, which people gather to observe and to marvel at the beauty of a well-crafted string of symbols. This is one of Hesse's simplest works, probably on a par with Journey to the East. Unlike Demian or Steppenwolf, there is relatively little character development.

The Game is the subject of the piece, and indeed the marginality of its supreme practitioner relative to the Game itself, is one of the things that presses forward upon the reader's consciousness. Is this an indication that giving primacy to symbols diminishes our humanity? It is this sort of question that appears in the the simple story presented by Hesse. It is worth reading and then reflecting upon our lives, the life of the world as we have made it, the Games we have created, and how we have used them...for better and for ill.

A Complex and Worthwhile Work, Perhaps Over-Long.......2006-02-01

I must take issue with the two current "spotlight reviews." First of all, I am an Objectivist (the philosophy that runs through the works of Ayn Rand), and I am uncertain as to how Hesse provides an "antidote" for her, whatever that means. Perhaps it would be clearer if that review's author had explained what he meant. I wouldn't suggest that Hesse and Rand are necessarily compatible philosophically--of course they're not in many ways--but neither is Hesse anything like a formal refutation of what Rand had to say, either. The one issue Hesse really develops at length that opposes Rand directly is his idea of a mind-body split, but he develops his idea through metaphor and analogy, mostly, not as an argued treatise. Further, the "sacrifices" that dominate Hesse's work are always undertaken for the improvement and happiness of the individual; Hesse's characters don't sacrifice themselves for others, they make "sacrifices" for themselves. In this way, it really is more compatible with Rand than might be thought at first.

The other spotlight review says that this is Hesse's best work. I won't say it's not (it's an individual measure, after all), but it certainly isn't my favorite. The Glass Bead Game has many worthwhile things to say; I recommend reading it, for those who are *very* interested in philosophy and/or eastern thought. On the other hand, Siddhartha also has many worthwhile things to say, and Siddhartha is much shorter and more entertaining. Even those without a real penchant for philosophy would probably enjoy the read. Narcissus and Goldmund was also a more entertaining read. The Glass Bead Game is probably too drawn out for the more casual reader, and there were stretches that tried my patience.

Finally, Hesse's fiction often concerns two people who each explore spiritual asceticism versus bodily carnality, and find them incomplete--two halves of a whole, each of which needing to be overcome or transcended. While The Glass Bead Game explores other issues as well (like the cycle of student to teacher to student), this remains the dominant theme, but takes 500 pages to produce it. Having read as much Hesse as I have, it seems as though this was really the song he was longing to sing, and in his various works he found different melodies to incorporate the same beat, if you will. The Glass Bead Game is a complex work, and worth the reading, but Hesse was able to develop his main theme in his other books in less writing and with more excitement. If brevity is the soul of wit, then Hesse has been wittier elsewhere.

Average customer rating:

A Spiritual Read
Critical
Hesse is a true literary master...
A horrible edition of a great novel...
Compare to Siddhartha, the Writing was better, Ideas were worse

Demian (Perennial Classics)
Hermann Hesse
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060931914

Book Description

In Demian, one of the great writers of the twentieth century tells the dramatic story of young, docile Emil Sinclair's descent--led by precocious shoolmate Max Demian--into a secret and dangerous world of petty crime and revolt against convention and eventual awakening to selfhood.

<BLOCKQUOTE> "The electrifying influence exercised on a whole generation just after the First World War by Demian...is unforgettable. With uncanny accuracy this poetic work struck the nerve of the times and called forth grateful rapture from a whole youthful generation who believed that an interpreter of their innermost life had risen from their own midst." <BR>-- From the Introduction by Thomas Mann</BLOCKQUOTE>

Customer Reviews:

A Spiritual Read.......2007-05-26

Hesse's novel is a tribute to what I will refer to as religion with a big 'R'. This novel surpasses the conventions of religion and goes to the root of what it is to be a man and have faith in something even if the something is yourself. This is a very short and quick read so there is no reason that anyone should pass this up.

Critical.......2007-02-10

A confirmation to your spirit that believing in yourself, asking questions and loving life remains worthwhile. Count yourself fortunate to be able to read this book and apply the concepts as you see fit

Hesse is a true literary master..........2007-01-16

Probably my favorite book of all time. Hesse handcrafts every line and every detail. Each is full of meaning and full of life. I am blown away every time I read one of his works. Demian is an essential novel in one's literary journey. Read it once or twice and form your own meaning of Demian. Then begin to look deeper. What could each character represent? Then go to [...] for an amazing look at the book.

A horrible edition of a great novel..........2006-05-16

While I was unpacking books after a recent move, I put aside a few oldies but goodies to add to my spring reading list. Some favorite titles had somehow "disappeared" over the past 20 or 30 years. When I realized Demian was among the missing, I picked up this paperback. What a mess-terpiece! This edition averages over one typo per page!! Skip this overpriced, carelessly produced "tome" at all costs. Don't support a publisher that handles classics so haphazardly. Personally, I will avoid HarperPerennial like dog poop in the park. Any out-of-work proofreaders out there? Appy now!

Compare to Siddhartha, the Writing was better, Ideas were worse.......2006-03-31

Herman Hesse's Demian is the first book of its kind that I have ever read. It is a coming of age tale told in retrospect by the narrator at a middle-aged time in his life. Emil Sinclair is the novel's narrator. When Demian was first published the author's name and the narrator were synonymous. Until later when Hesse admitted that he had written the novel. Many parallels between Sinclair and Hesse are apparent in the novel. Sinclair retells the tales of his childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood while adding many thoughts and perspectives to the events. Hesse's novel serves the purpose of explaining growing up from an adult's perspective. Hesse's diction fits older audiences. In Demian, words such as "pious" (92), "antiquarian" (108), and "inexorably" (115) lose their effectiveness on younger audiences. Also, since Demian's narrator is a middle-aged man it narrows Hesse's intended audience to retrospective adults, or people who are interested in his beliefs.

Demian begins with Hesse explaining how in the novel his narrator is unconventional. Hesse explains that "novelists when they write novels tend to take an almost godlike attitude toward their subject" (1) and that in Demian his story is "not a pleasant one; it is neither sweet nor harmonious" (2). After that Sinclair "begin[s] [his] story with an experience [he] had when [he] was ten and attended [his] small town's Latin school" (3). Hesse's first chapter focuses on the central theme of Demian. This idea is that there are "two realms" in the world. The idea that people can either exist as part of "the realm of day" (3) or "the realm of night" (3), meaning that people can succumb to life's conventions or strive to be different by doing socially unacceptable acts. Emil Sinclair is very aware of these separate worlds at a young age, and is bothered by the idea that he does not fit into the realm of the light with his sisters and parents.

Sinclair surrounds himself with peers that he feels will fill this dark void. One of them becomes the infamous Franz Kromer. The boys sit and share tales of the terrible crimes they have committed, and because Emil has never committed any type of crime, he creates one. He states that he stole the apples off of the tree of a local merchant. To his horror, Kromer states that he was offered money in turn for the whereabouts of the apple thief. He begins blackmailing Sinclair into stealing from his family, and people in the town. After a few weeks of being blackmailed, Sinclair meets a character that forever changes the course of his life, Max Demian.

Demian is an astoundingly precocious youth who intrigues Emil because of his obvious knowledge. Demian has one talk with Kromer, and Kromer leaves Sinclair alone for the rest of the novel. Demian shares his ideas about the "story of Cain and Abel" (21), stating that "Cain was a fine fellow and the story was pinned on him only because people were afraid" (24). And Demian shares his idea that people in society bare similar marks to that of Cain, claiming that "Cain's mark [is] a mark of distinction" (25). However the main idea of the novel is freedom of choice.

In the beginning Sinclair just goes along with the flow of society, doing was is socially acceptable. And in the end, after his descent into the "dark realm" of boozing, stealing, stalking, and doing poorly in school, Sinclair rises and is able to be free of society. At the beginning of the novel Demian questions Sinclair about an emblem above the door to his family's manor, saying, "I know the house. There's something odd above the doorway, it interested me at once" (22). To this Sinclair states "it's a bird or something" (22). The actual depiction is that of a bird on its first winged flight escaping from some unknown force. This becomes a symbol in the novel, symbolizing Emil's desire to break free of his family and society and take flight. At first the symbol functions as a connection between Demian and Sinclair, but later in the novel, the reader understands its full meaning.

Initially the story of Emil Sinclair's ascent into adulthood is interesting, and the beginning of the novel declaring that the narrator is not infallible like most narrators will intrigue many readers. But, Demian is less of a novel about infallible narrators and more a novel about possible countercultures and acceptance of going against the norm. Since Herman Hesse wrote this novel about the time prior to World War I, it is easily seen as a parallel to the building up of tension within the world. Emil symbolizes the world and its "two realms" and Demian represents a "God" sent to advise the world in its choices. Hesse's writing in Demian is worth 145 pages of an educated minds time, but his ideas are not.

Average customer rating:

THIS IS IN GERMAN!!!
Warning: Contains Nuts & Loneliness
AMAZING..THE LIFE OF ORGIES, SEX, DRUGS & JAZZ
FOR MADMEN ONLY!
CONDEMNED TO LAUGH

Steppenwolf: A Novel
Hermann Hesse
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Siddhartha
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ASIN: 0312278675

Book Description

With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesses best-known and most autobiographical work is one of literatures most poetic evocations of the souls journey to liberationHarry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine. The tale of the Steppenwolf culminates in the surreal Magic TheaterFor Madmen Only!Originally published in English in 1929, Steppenwolf s wisdom continues to speak to our souls and marks it as a classic of modern literature.

Customer Reviews:

THIS IS IN GERMAN!!!.......2007-05-18

There is no way to tell from the Amazon page, but this version is in the orginal German language. The title (Der Steppenwolf) does provide a hint, but it would certainly be nice if the knuckleheads at Amazon made it clearer.Der Steppenwolf

Warning: Contains Nuts & Loneliness .......2007-03-01

Steppenwolf is a novel that takes the reader on a trip through the spiritual and carnal mind of a hermitic intellectual German in the 1920's. Written by Hermann Hesse (1877-1962: a Nobel prize winning author of many great German classics) throughout much of the mid-to-late 1920's, it would be published in 1928 and to this day is regarded as Hesse's premier work.

Hesse made a reputation for himself by incorporating into his fiction many of the newly forming psychoanalysis theories of the early 20th century. A pure intellectual himself, Hesse was given to a wide range of emotional displays and it is agreed that much of the protagonist's mental tendencies in Steppenwolf are autobiographical.

Steppenwolf is a term given by the protagonist of the novel unto himself for the reason which he regards himself as possessor of multiple conflicting personas. The Steppenwolf within is a savage and animalistic feeling which drives the character to become a nuisance and irritable and is in constant conflict with the 'human' character within. The story is very much about personal spiritual conflict and how various thoughts of reclusiveness, annoyance, cynicism and even suicide are constantly bombarding the mind of a person who knows his faults at face value but does not know how to change and take control of them.

Another primary theme the novel takes is an argument of purpose. Steppenwolf is around 50 years of age and is starting to realize to himself that all of the pursuits of his life - the poetry, essays, histories and learning - were of almost useless value now that death's door is approaching. It is an interesting argument and leads to the character wanting to become associated more with the physical aspect of life which he has missed out on.

The novel is extremely strong from the psychological aspect of the story. I constantly got the impression that the 1920's were a very depressing time for Hesse because with the words and anecdotes used within the story itself it is rather obvious that Hesse is writing about personal experiences. I have often noted how those with creative natures are often extremely prone to wide fluxations of personality and rationality and this novel would serve as an excellent start to people curious about this theme. Besides for a meandering section around a quarter-way through the novel, I found the story to be very enjoyable and it definitely leaves you with the impression that there is a very fine balance needed between that of intellectual pursuits and pleasurable ones.

AMAZING..THE LIFE OF ORGIES, SEX, DRUGS & JAZZ.......2007-01-26

This book was amazing. It is the first book that I encountered by Hermann Hesse and the best! I am a teenager and although at the beginning of the book, there was a warning for different opinions based on age, I feel as though I know EXACTLY what Hesse was trying to portray through Harry Haller. The book was amazing-confusing I will admit at times. But, I am going to read it again, maybe after twenty years, and compare my ideas about it. I still believe that Steppenwolf is one of the best books that I have ever read. I have also read Siddhartha Guatama and The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi)-but this book is still my favorite!

FOR MADMEN ONLY!.......2006-12-22

After finishing this novel, the one question on my mind was - what was Herman Hesse smoking when he wrote this? This is a bizarre, hallucinatory journey into one's inner soul. It is profound, yet confusing and bewildering at times.

The story has a good premise, that of the inner thoughts and spiritual journey of a man with split personalities - half wolf and half man. Much of the novel is a realistic story of the self-awakening of one, Harry Haller, as he attempts to transform himself from an arrogant, haughty, highly-educated but thoroughly miserable hermit, into a fun, exhilarating hedonist. Hesse does a brilliant job of getting "inside" Harry's mind, although he does occasionally delve into a very dry, droll treatise. But overall, this part of the novel is well-written and kept my interest. Indeed, many of us can relate to at least some aspects of Harry's personality, as he attempts to wrestle with his inner demons, as he withdraws further from society and loses his will to live.

Yet, it is when Harry finds his complement, in the personification of Hermine, that he learns to become a complete person. Hermine is the polar opposite of Harry, and attempts to transform him into a hedonist who loves life. It is not until Harry and Hermine merge into a kindred soul, that Harry will become a new person. Yet, there are some strange aspects of Hermine, as Hesse implies that she resembles a boyhood friend of Harry, and has underlying lesbian and hermaphodite leanings. I don't understand why Hesse made these implications, except to hint that she is really a part of Harry's lost soul.

I suppose this novel would have a more profound impact on someone who is going through a crisis in their life, like the protagonist. Indeed, Hesse wrote this novel as a method of expression for the despair he was going through at the time. Of course, you don't need to be depressed or suicidal to get something out of this novel. My problem, though, was that the "magic theatre" at the end was too surreal and transcendental to extract a rational meaning from it. But maybe that's the point, as Harry's psychedelic trip through the corridors of the Magic Theatre has no rational meaning. Perhaps I was guilty, as Harry was, of taking it too seriously. I guess I just don't "get" what the ultimate meaning and purpose of the novel is.

I wanted to like this book more. I wanted to give it 4 stars. But in the end, that psuedo-acid trip in the "magic theatre" and bizarre ending was too much for me. Perhaps I am not "artistic" enough to fully appreciate this work, but I certainly do not regret reading it. It is a unique experience.

CONDEMNED TO LAUGH.......2006-11-05

Talk about a character study, this novel dices and slices Harry Haller into a hundred pieces -- both figuratively and literally. Having squeezed everything he could from an artistic life, Harry is finally seduced into the world of wine, women and dance, and finally drugs. I don't know how to interpret the ending except as an LSD, acid trip. Magic Theaters don't exist in real life. In Magic Theaters, there is no difference between reflections and reality. These places exist only in the world of hallucinogenics

Harry's guides on his life trip become beautiful Hermine and her real lover, a musician, Pablo. Hermine sees clearly that what Harry lacks is an immersion in sensuality. The way she put it to him was "You have one dimension too many to accept this life." They didn't need any penetrating insights to tell them Harry had never learned how to laugh. They both spotted him as a would be suicide. Death was the bait they used to lure him into a life of sensuality. By allowing Harry to commit murder and experience his own mock execution in the Magic Theater, they opened his mind to laughter. Harry's symbolic execution was that of all mankind. Humor and laughter is the escape hatch every man and woman needs to endure their pitiful lives. Of course, the only real escape hatch for anyone is death. The fact that death only leads one back to the void, that there is no escape, doesn't really matter. Art is all illusion!

Siddhartha (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

Average customer rating:

Lessons for life.
Come On
great if you're in the mood for a mid-life crisis
Amazing!
Humanity Needs This Book

Siddhartha (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
Hermann Hesse
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0142437182

Book Description

Siddhartha is perhaps the most important and compelling moral allegory our troubled century has produced. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, this strangely simple tale, written with a deep and moving empathy for humanity, has touched the lives of millions since its original publication in 1922.

Translated by Joachim Neugroschel
Introduction by Ralph Freedman

Customer Reviews:

Lessons for life........2006-02-18

This is an excellant book for people seeking answers to living life to its fullest. Siddhartha learned the lessons the hard way and through his journey we then learn those same lessons and find out just how simple they really are. I recommend reading this book again as most of us have probably read it years ago.

Come On.......2005-06-25

People that say this book changed your life and that if you get it it is the best book and the only book you need, clearly didn't get the book. That is the antithesis of one of the main points of the book.The point is that "teaching" is wrong, striving to "learn" is wrong. You have to find the answers within yourself, you have to truly see and hear yourself without your ego clouding the truth. This is the way to happiness and "enlightenment" The point of this book is that you cannot learn what it shows/tells you. You must find it within yourself, you must experience it yourself. The point is that a book on enlightenment on spirituallity can never truly show you these things can never bring enlightenment to you, that is something that must be discovered within yourself. You must strive for it, go through hardships for it, it cannot be handed to you or it loses all value.

great if you're in the mood for a mid-life crisis.......2005-04-29

Seriously, if you're gonna read Siddhartha, this is certainly the edition to get -- the slightly oversized Penguin Classics one.

It features a useful (35-page!) introduction by Ralph Freedman, which includes suggestions for further reading.

The translation by Joachim Neugroschel -- a new one -- also reads swiftly and naturally.

There are no footnotes for the text itself, however.

Amazing!.......2004-09-27

this book is simply amazing! and when i say simply, i also mean that it is an interestingly simple book... very short and concise... and yet filled with so much knowledge and meaning... it really is a treatise on life itself.

this book truly is a two way conversation. you just cant help wondering, asking new question you've never asked before... some books are strictly written for the excitement, making them a one way conversation, the author just telling you things and there is nothing you can say that will make what he (or she) said better... but this book, as i said, truly is the opposite of that.

read the book and you will know where I am coming from... it is a great book and worthyto be read by everyone...

Humanity Needs This Book.......2004-05-19

I would have never read this book had it not been for the advice from someone I admire greatly. It was highly recommended as a spiritual experience....so I tried it.

With all of the emphasis placed on religion today I found this book to inspire not religious practice but true inner peace and spiritual values comparable to many religious texts. This book has something to say and if you get it the message will follow you forever, yes it has that much impact on an open heart.

The story revolves around an Indian youth named Siddhartha, who with a restless heart and many questions attempts to experience the world before making a commitment to tradition. He struggles with the ties of family values and the pull of an unknown world. So he takes a plunge and leaves his security nest to find what life is all about. He works, he strives, he succeeds, he finds wealth, love and humanity but in the end all he really needs is peace of mind and freedom to choose his own path. Sounds achingly familiar to us all dosen't it?

Book Description

Hesse's novel of two medieval men, one quietly content with his religion and monastic life, the other in fervent search of more worldly salvation. This conflict between flesh and spirit, between emotional and contemplative man, was a life study for Hesse. It is a theme that transcends all time. The Hesse Phenomenon "has turned into a vogue, the vogue into a torrent. . .He has appealed both to. . . an underground and to an establishment. . .and to the disenchanted young sharing his contempt for our industrial civilization."--The New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

Art, sex, death.......2007-02-09

This was one of my favorite novels in my late teens and early twenties. Ostensibly it is about two medieval seminary friends personifying opposite poles of being: Narcissus, the introspective priest, represents the orderly spiritual and intellectual realm of the father, of the church, and of philosophy and science, while his counterpart Goldmund arrives as an unconfident, confused and dissatisfied student compelled to rebel against the stifling monastery life into which he's been thrust so as to find himself alone in the secular world of art, imagination, and sensuality encompassed by Mother Nature. Like Hesse rereading this same novel after many years ("Events in the Engadine" (1953)) I dusted off and taped together my tattered paperback, underlined and asterisked in revealing passages, and slowly savored it over a recent fall month. Some of the writing seemed a bit overdone and even, "embarrassing", as T. Ziolkowski "The Novels of Hermann Hesse: A Study in Theme and Structure," Princeton U. Press (1965) comments, but I still enjoyed re-experiencing Goldmund's picaresque wanderings throughout the Black Death. He camps in the woods and stops in villages, meets fellow wanderers, drinks and socializes in taverns, finds work where he can, and discovers pleasure and temporary respite in his many encounters with women. Throughout his worldly adventures there is always danger and ignorance to be avoided.

Hesse's novels depict individuals at different stages of personal development and N&G picks up where Demian leaves off. A liberated Sinclair is transposed into Goldmund as he seeks out his "Mother Eva" once he's broken from the insular confines of the monastery. What I like most about this novel is the picaresque theme of seeking and personal redemption during times of chaos. To Hesse these redemptive forces are always art. Goldmund meets a master wood carver in a village and becomes his apprentice, eventually becoming a master sculptor himself. The passages where Goldmund is an artist and city-dweller are the most interesting to me, evoking similar scenes from "Steppenwolf" and "Siddhartha", as well as the short stories "Klingsor's Last Summer" and "Knulp". And even though the idyllic medieval setting is simply sketched as a conceptual backdrop, selected by Hesse due to its being a time in which the average European life was ordered around the church, and the ever-present threat of death, it creates space for the reader's imagination and curiosity to wander along with Goldmund.

Yet this time around I felt compelled to focus on Narcissus, hoping against my previous experiences with this novel for a fuller conception of his elusive, rather flatly drawn character, to discover something more profound. While I did re-encounter some descriptive snippets I'd not taken notice of before, especially an insightful dialogue towards the end on "thinking vs. imagining" (p. 277), ultimately, I came to the conclusion that Narcissus should remain the elusive spirit, seemingly devoid of the artistic attention Goldmund receives. Though I would have liked it if Hesse had written more about Narcissus's inner struggles with God and life within Mariabronn, perhaps going off on extended tangents about philosophy and Christianity or celibacy and homosexuality within the church (thus in all likelihood making Hesse enemy #1 to his book-burning countrymen in Nazi Germany, who burned this book anyway; not to mention the probable ire of his editors) but the fact is that Hesse originally conceived the idea of the novel around Goldmund, only later intending for Narcissus to have equal weight. The prototype for N&G can be found in an early, unfinished story called "Berthold" ("Tales of Student Life," Farrar, Straus & Giroux (1976)) in which the focal character of Berthold is essentially an earlier version of Goldmund. Nevertheless, Narcissus's importance is clear in that in the end it is his spiritual life that is the pole from which Goldmund departs and, eventually returns. In any event, a reader wanting more of Narcissus (and many of the philosophical "tangents" & wanderings I mentioned above) will find his reincarnation in Joseph Knecht in the transcendental "The Glass Bead Game". Ultimately, even though Hesse's attempt at a "Doppelroman", or "double-novel" representing two separate lives and realms equally, comes up short in a structural sense, the attempt is perhaps more interesting because of these flaws.

Quintessential Hesse.......2006-03-20

Hesse is widely loved for a number of things: the themes he addresses, the often unexpected light he casts on them, and the detail with which he develops his characters and their setting. His style, even when addressing weighty matters of substance, is simple and never resorts to O'Henry-style tricks. His stories are accessible to most literate people, never relying on technical or obscure language.

Narcissus and Goldmund is probably as good an example of mainstream Hesse as any of his books (at least, of the six or seven I have read over a period of decades). It lacks the exoticism of Steppenwolf and is more complex than several of his shorter works. Perhaps the book it most closely resembles is Siddhartha, since its questions and theme are developed through considering the interplay of spiritual and worldly calling.

In this volume, great principles and different modes of knowing are embodied in the two protagonists. I wept upon reading Goldmund's dying words to Narcissus, as he frames the ultimate question for his cherished friend. Hesse's work is about each one of us, pilgrims on our way to death's shrine.

His friend awakened him- the world and wandering molded him........2006-03-10

_This is the story of two very different young would-be monks in the medieval cloister of Mariabronn. Narcissus was a lunar type- introverted, a thinker and a scholar. On the other hand, Goldmund was a classic solar type- extroverted, a lover and an artist.

_Yet, these two beings of seemingly opposite temperaments became the deepest of life-long friends. This is because different strengths- and different weaknesses- complement each other. In this way two unbalanced natures may in strange alchemy fulfill each other. They may be able to see their shadow in the other- and their pivotal conflict.

_It was in this way that Narcissus saw his friend Goldmund's central repressed crisis. It was this shattering revelation that drove Goldmund out into the world beyond the sheltered cloister. It drove him to a life on the edge as a life-long wanderer. He started in a search for his nearly forgotten mother and ended by finding the eternal feminine in all women. Yet the years of hardship and horror (including murder, the Great Plague, and prison) took their toll on him. When after over a decade of wandering, he finally encountered his friend Narcissus again it saved his life- both literally and spiritually.

_I could not imagine a more Jungian novel. Nor could I imagine a better expression of the meaning of profound friendship.

Narcissus and Goldmund.......2006-01-16

I believe Hermann Hesse was in full form and at the height of his writing prowess when he wrote this ambitious novel.
The book is about two medieval friends. One is a romantic artist 'heart' type - the other, a analytical and upright 'mind' type. The two become friends in the deepest, most meaningful sense of the word. As in all truly bonded friendships - they are what each other needs. They are meant represent the two seemingly opposite, and irreconcilabe poles within the artistic temperment. This is also a story of love and suffering, acceptance and pain. It is a tale of romance and beauty, and being true to oneself in one's life/art calling. It is a book by an artist for the artist.
I love hermann Hesse. I have read almost all of his books (I am saving a few because I do not wish to run out of material too soon). I believe Narcissus and Goldmund stands up to his best work - The great 'five' if you will: Demian, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, and The Glass Bead Game.
Simply put - if you like Hermann Hesse, you will like this book. It is insightful, tender, poetic, honest, melancholy, and like most works of art, it gives the reader a 'place' to go - an escape into the fantasy of the 'real' if you will.
The only problem one might have with this novel is that it is, at times, bit meandering, and also overtly spiritual/psychological in nature. I say 'one' because this is precisely what I love about Hesse. So please take my criticism with a grain of salt.
I hope this review has helped the reader. I also trust that you will drink in and enjoy the secret, and magical beauty of Narcissus and Goldmund.

Hesse's great work!!.......2005-12-28

I read this book after Hesse's another fascinating novel, Demian. I think this book Narcissus and Goldmund has more things to learn than the book Demian.

This book leaves plenty of philosophical questions that make us think. According to the author's work, Narcissus and Goldmund are to represent the two opposite spectrum. Debates between Narcissus and Goldmund about their different belief about God or nature and meaning of their lives or science are especially interesting that author distinguish from Goldmund's nature perspective versus Narcissus's analytical perspective. There are also a lot of literary devices such as symbolism, metaphors, forshadow etc, if you can find easily.

Aside from the abstract ideas that author poses, the story of Goldmund's trip in the wild life is entertaining by Hesse's great descriptive words. I felt as if I were Goldmund in the wild forest or the Goldmund trying to escape all the life and death plights. Not very difficult book even for pleasure reading. You should read this book!

Average customer rating:

HARDCOVER TOO SMALL!
Excellent Transaction!
A book you must experience...
Funny this is paired with THE ALCHEMIST...
Waiting, Fasting, and Thinking

Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse
Manufacturer: Shambhala
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Siddhartha
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ASIN: 1570629706
Release Date: 2002-09-17

Book Description

A classic of twentieth-century literature chronicles the spiritual evolution of a man living in India at the time of the Buddhaâa spiritual journey that has inspired generations of readers. We are invited along on Siddhartha's journey experiencing his highs, lows, loves, and disappointments along the way. Always insightful and inspiring, Hesse begins the novel by showing us the life of a brahmin's son. Handsome, well-loved, and growing increasingly dissatisfied with the life expected of him, Siddhartha sets out on his journey, not realizing that he is fulfilling the prophesies proclaimed at his birth. Siddhartha blends in with the world, showing the reader the beauty and intricacies of the mind, nature, and his experience on the path to enlightenment. Sherab ChÃ¶dzin Kohn's flowing, poetic translation conveys the philosophical and spiritual nuances of Hesse's text, paying special attention to the qualities of meditative experience. The Shambhala Library is a series of exquisitely designed and produced cloth editions of the world's spiritual and literary classics, both ancient and modern. Perfect for collecting or as gifts, each volume features a sewn binding, decorative endsheets, and a ribbon markerâin a delightful-to-hold 4 Â¼ x 6 Â¾ trim size.

Customer Reviews:

HARDCOVER TOO SMALL!.......2007-01-19

Buy the bigger softcover version. This is like a pocket version. Remember, you'll be reading this again when you're old and your eyes are shot.

Excellent Transaction!.......2005-10-12

The item was received in a timely manner and was in perfect condition. I would buy from seller again.

A book you must experience..........2005-09-24

I admit that it has been several years since I read this book. I also admit that as it is one of my favorite novels I am not an unbiased source (but who is). With that grain of salt having been swallowed this book is foremost a tale about the birth of a new kind of spirituality. Siddhartha is about the process experienced on the road to enlightenment. I feel that some other reviewers who were perhaps not at the right point in their lives to appreciate that this is a story of the process rather than a how to. It is not a self help book or a short-cut guide to enlightenment. The novel tells with simple prose which is different from any of Hesse's other work in its simplicity. It tells of the human frailty and failings of a being that leads to the discovery of the Buddhist philosophy. The story pushes for you to think about what Siddhartha discovers, especially in the scene by the river, and to understand how this revelation relates to your world view. I found this book at a time in my life when I needed to, and I hope it finds you at the right point in your life as well. The fewer expectations you have the better. A very short novel, nothing more. If you have ever been curious to know more about Buddhist thought this book encapsulates the most intrinsic tenets of the religion. I hope you experience this book. It is just a story, don't miss the forrest for the trees. I hope any of this helps you to chose to read or to know it is not for you.

Funny this is paired with THE ALCHEMIST..........2005-05-26

As I read this book, (it took me about an hour and a half,) I kept thinking about how similar it is to THE ALCHEMIST by Paolo Coehlo. Lots of the same messages: follow your heart, seek enlightenment, be yourself, learn about love, among others. The reason I like this book better is simple. It came out first. I'd venture to say it was some kind of inspiration for THE ALCHEMIST. This book leaves a wonderful taste in your mouth, and is a must read for anyone who may feel lost or out of touch with themselves. I loved it.

Waiting, Fasting, and Thinking.......2005-02-22

This is the story of a man who is spiritually reborn several times in different forms, all the with goal of discovering true enlightenment. Siddartha uses his skills of waiting, fasting, and thinking as he easily accomplishes mortal goals yet struggles for true immortality and peace.

While this book is about a spiritual jounrey, I did not find the book spiritual in itself, and if you're looking for spiritual guidance I don't think you will find it here. That was my only problem with this book -- that it sometimes took itself to be of higher spiritual value than it actually was.

Average customer rating:

A damning indictment of the Prussian Education System
Not a German "Catcher in the Rye"
Think of the wheel as cyclical. 1906 or 2006?
work of a great writer before he became great
Unterm Rad

Beneath the Wheel
Hermann Hesse
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 031242230X

Book Description

Hans Giebernath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the narrowly circumscribed world of the academy. Finally sent home after a nervous breakdown, Hans is revived by nature and romance, and vows never to return to the gray conformity of the academic system.

Customer Reviews:

A damning indictment of the Prussian Education System.......2007-05-18

This is a brilliantly written critique - of the Prussian Education System - in the form of a novel. Herman Hesse intended to show how a natural genius(or any child) is stiffled under an educational system that does not care for the needs and desires of the children. A system that is designed for the benefit of the status quo social structure, but ignores the freedom of the children to grow up in accordance with their own dreams.

The central character in this book is Hans Giebernath, a brilliant student in school, but a miserable failure in college after a short while. He is burned out - studying, studying, studying - matters irrelevant to him. He is not able to enjoy and cherish the joys of life. This is the story of his tragedy. His attempts to find a different path for himself in life, his desire to break out of the cage of the academy.

Many will be able to relate to the story; I especially felt a strong similarity between Hans' lifestory and my own. I was a brilliant student in high school, went to an elite college carrying high hopes placed upon me by everybody that knew me, but burned out by the sheer boredom and irrelevance of the 'ivory towers'. However, unlike Hans Giebernath, I managed to put myself through four years, but not without much frustration similar to that felt by him. That is why I loved this story, finally a book that understands and sympathizes with young men like me.

Hans' story continues after the college, has a few surprise twists and an ending that many can see coming. But that is not a shortcoming of the book, the author has built it up so that many a readers will not feel surprised by how the book ends.

What can be said about the writing itself? It's brilliant and choke full of great imagery. Even without a florid prose, Herman Hess has created a work that is great pleasure to read for it's quality of writing and deep thoughts contained therein.

Not a German "Catcher in the Rye".......2007-04-19

Although I have seen this Hesse novel called "a Black Forest 'Catcher in the Rye'," I see little similarity beyond a young male protagonist who drops out of school. Otherwise, both the book's tone and the protagonist's personality are wildly different from Salinger's. Hesse's book is more steeped in academia than Salinger's, which only briefly treats Holden Caulfield's disillusionment with school early on in that book. Here the criticism of the academic grind are more focused and take up more than half the book. Also, "Beneath the Wheel" contains Hesse's trademark Romanticism and obsession with nature, and though we can consider Salinger's young hero a frustrated Romantic of sorts, sarcasm and cynicism are the preferred vehicles used and there's little in the way of paeans to nature as seen in the German tale.

Fans of Hesse will find this book of interest, but might consider it "Hesse Light" compared to the author's more heavyweight entries. There's a touch of "Little Lord Fauntleroy-itis" to our young hero, Hans Giebermath, and some of his Werther-like sufferings are staples of adolescent tales we've read before. In his rebellion, Hans will sample blue-collar work and the siren calls of beer and cigars, but it is his forays into nature that lend the story its appeal. Hesse is at his best when describing forest streams with silent fish rising to dimple the surface, autumn valleys with milk-white mist rising from their crevices, and the torches of October trees turned bright red and orange before the approach of winter. If you love description, "Under the Wheel" will not disappoint. As a bildungsroman of a young man in school, however, it is very good, if not the strongest example of its kind.

Think of the wheel as cyclical. 1906 or 2006? .......2006-06-20

As an educator, I just had two of my gifted students read this novel, and am pleased that I can now read it with multiple lenses. I re-read it recalling my own experiences of high pressure and one-up-manship from an affluent Catholic suburban high school. But now, as a teacher, I see all the dangers in creating gateways and irreversible standards for present day students where colorless logic and linguistics have sadly replaced the need for creativity, independence, and integrity.

Set in pre-World War Germany of the early 1900s, it's also a remarkable read when you compare it to the state of affairs of modern America. These timeless themes have surprisingly remained the same: social status over spiritual discovery, labels and test scores over substance and meaning, product over process. One must ask, are we headed in the same direction as early 20th century Germany?

How many Hans Giebenrath's will we neglect in our lifetime? How many times will we set up an education system where genius is stifled? It makes you wonder how many great minds are lost in the rat race of modernity.

This classic is a great way to generate discussion between teacher and student, especially the student who strives for excellence yet struggles to maintain sanity and identity in a world that has unfortunately favored high SAT's and social rank over family, honor, friendship, and art for art's sake.

It's a beautiful contrast of the real and the ideal; the simple life and the complexity of adolescence.

work of a great writer before he became great.......2005-10-13

This book tells a meaningful story about a young boy struggling with an academic system that stifles freedom and creativity. He finds great success academically until he is awakened by a rebellious and free-spirited friend, who makes him rethink his drive to succeed on someone else's terms. This story seems to be going somewhere- as the boy falls out of the academic system he ultimately finds some new satisfaction in manual labor and finds a second chance to experience childhood. However, the story ends in a melodramatically tragic way, without exploring the boy's conflict in any real depth.

Hesse makes some insightfully cutting remarks about academia's taming of young genius "like a jungle... cleared and its growth thwarted," and manipulation of students as vessels to store teachers' ideas. However, Hesse just as often gets distracted in irrelevant details and overly brief development of flat characters.

This is certainly not near at the level of Hesse's best works, though this is still early in his career (1906). Also, though there are thematic comparisons to Catcher in the Rye, this is an otherwise very reserved and repressed writing style typical of its time.

Unterm Rad.......2005-09-19

(4.5 stars, actually)

'Beneath the Wheel,' or, as it was originally titled in German, 'Unterm Rad,' is a stunningly good early Hesse novel, one of his best and more memorable early books (although my personal favorite of his early work is 'Rosshalde'). I wouldn't say it's as memorable as a book like N&G or 'Steppenwolf,' but it's more memorable than, say, 'Knulp' or 'Peter Camenzind.' It concerns a promising young schoolboy, Hans Giebernath, one of the brightest minds in his local school, who is so intelligent and accomplished a scholar he is chosen to take an important test that, if he passes, will grant him entry into a higher institution of learning and knowledge, so much more advanced and well-equipped than the village school he's currently enrolled in. If accepted, he will be able to make a better life for himself and make his father, a widower, proud of him. However, as much as Hans is longing for this opportunity to break away from stagnant home village, he also isn't too keen on the idea of having to study 'round the clock instead of being able to spend more time in one of his very favorite pastimes, fishing.

Hans is incredibly worried he won't pass, even after all he's given up and how much he's studied, convinced he has completely blown the Latin or Greek portion of the test. But, since he's so brilliant, he passes with flying colors and is able to go away to the big school. However, before he leaves, the local priest counsels him that they may teach him Greek in a "heretical" fashion; i.e., in a way that may expose some centuries-old mistranslations and misinterpretations of the Bible, and therefore cast into doubt the entirety of religion and the authority of priests such as he is. Hans doesn't agree with the priest's narrow-minded view, and determines he'll study Greek however he wants to, whether or not it conflicts with traditionalist translations of the Bible.

Upon arriving at the school, Hans very soon finds himself crushed further and further "beneath the wheel." Instead of encountering enlightened nurturing teachers, he finds teachers who are little more than machines, not instilling any love of or joy in learning. He starts falling behind in his studies and suffering from ill health as a result of all of this, and in addition has become friends with Hermann, another nonconformist the school is trying to crack down on. This friendship gets him into trouble with the other boys as well, not just their teachers. What follows exposes the dangers lurking in ivory towers, how bright innocent young people who come to post-secondary institutions full of joy, hope, and promise, on a quest for knowledge, enlightenment, and people who feel the same way they do are often turned into mindless automatons or risk paying the price for how they don't fall into line. Hans himself is eventually expelled the same way Hermann is, finding his way back to his native village, looked on with shame and stigma, with little choice but to follow in his father's footsteps and become a mechanic. The final result of all of this was really a surprise to me; I did not see the end coming, though some people might have predicted it.

Average customer rating:

Another amazing work from Hesse
Misleading mystical mystery tour with some occasional insights
Hesse's Bundesroman of the Third Kingdom
Only in Non-Linguistic Experiential Subjectivity Goes East
'Journey to the East 'or into Hesse's mind?

The Journey to the East
Hermann Hesse , and Hilda Rosner
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312421680

Book Description

In simple, mesmerizing prose, Hermann Hesse tells of a journey both geographic and spiritual. H.H., a German choirmaster, is invited on an expedition with the League, a secret society whose members include Paul Klee, Mozart, and Albertus Magnus. The participants traverse both space and time, encountering Noah’s Ark in Zurich and Don Quixote at Bremgarten. The pilgrims’ ultimate destination is the East, the “Home of the Light,” where they expect to find spiritual renewal. Yet the harmony that ruled at the outset of the trip soon degenerates into open conflict. Each traveler finds the rest of the group intolerable and heads off in his own direction, with H.H. bitterly blaming the others for the failure of the journey. It is only long after the trip, while poring over records in the League archives, that H.H. discovers his own role in the dissolution of the group, and the ominous significance of the journey itself.

Customer Reviews:

Another amazing work from Hesse.......2007-01-15

There are several reviewers here, such as Christopher Nelson and Richard Schwartz, who are perfectly in tune with this novel. To truely understand this novel, you have to understand Hesse. I wouldn't recommend picking this book as one's first Hesse novel. Start with "Siddhartha" and "Narcissus and Goldmund" and then move into Demian. Find some essays on Hesse and the meanings of Demian and do a little research on Jung ([...]). Those will help to enhance one's understanding of this novel. To give a review of the meaning, intent, or purpose of this novel would be to contradict the novel itself. Hesse tries to point out in the book that it is through experience that we learn.

"No, our historical efforts were of no use; there was no point in continuing with them and reading them; one could quietly let them be covered with dust in this section of the archives...How awry, altered, and distorted everyone was in these mirrors, how mockingly and unattainably did the face of truth hide itself bhind all these reports, counter-reports, and legends! What was still truth? What was still credible?"

Begin your journey of the study of Hesse and begin a journey into yourself. Read each book four or five times and give yourself up to it and you will receive. Any Hesse book is a five-star in my opinion!

Misleading mystical mystery tour with some occasional insights.......2006-12-31

When one thinks of a 'Journey to the East' one thinks of a trip to India or China. This is not however what this book is about.
The only real place in this book is the mind of the writer. The narrator tells of his membership in a strange kind of society called the League, and his strange journey in Time and Space. He does not in fact go to any real place which is concretely and specifically described. And the people he travels with are mostly distinguished historical figures, philosophers, mystics, writers - just names mentioned perhaps to impress. The only figure of substance is named Leo, who in the beginning is the faithful servant, the most virtous of all the members of the League. When he disappears the narrator searches for him and finds him walking, engages him in a conversation in which we come to understand that Leo is the great wise figure but cannot really help the poor narrator.
This trip is a mind - trip and it has something to do with escaping with the horrors of history and civilization. Or at least that's the way I interpret. Hesse was a strong pacifist, influened by his parents in their pietistic Christian home. He also was influenced by the great historican Jacob Burckhardt who perhaps is the figure Leo in the book is modeled after.
I am actually a bit confused about whether to recommend this book or not. It certainly is 'different'. And Hesse throws in ideas now and then which are interesting.
The idea of an unreal journey or a journey purely in the mind was of course highly suited to those of the psychedelic hippy generation.
And we all want to escape sometimes.
However there is no character here, even Leo, who moves the way a great character in Literature does.
There is no situation, no connection , no human relationship which moves in such a way either.
This is a very lonely book written out of a very lonely and weird mind.
It can be interesting but I was grateful that it was not longer.

Hesse's Bundesroman of the Third Kingdom.......2006-04-21

The Bundesroman is German for the lodge or "league novel", a style popularized in the later half of the 18th century when secret orders such as the Masons were emerging in response to an uninvigorating status quo. These secret societies influenced the writings of authors such as Goethe, Hoffmann, and Holderline - all favorites of Hesse. The common theme is a secret society with a hieracrchy of orders similar to the Rosicrucians. There is a Superior who represents the spiritual ideals of the order whose seat is in some mysterious castle or building with archives and secret chambers. A more lengthy description of this type of novel as it related to Journey to the East can be found in Theodore Ziolkowski's insightful study of Hesse, "The Novels of Hermann Hesse" (Princeton University Press, 1965).

Basically, I have hard time thinking most readers unfamiliar with Hesse would really get anything out of this novella which really isn't a novel or story but a narrative Bundesroman. It is highly symbolic of Hesse's own development as a writer and individual, and one of the more important points here is that this is the first of his full-length novels with a title not after an individual, but an ideal. This is the predecessor to the Glass Bead Game, setting the scene for Hesse's arrival in Castalia.

The Journey itself is a timeless, universal, philosophical and spiritual quest that includes all the great ideas, individuals or gurus, and events of one's personal repository of knowledge & level of enlightenment. Our main character, symbolically represented by two initials only, H.H. (he has not yet achieved a full name like Leo), searches for "Princess Fatima". Others' goals include "Tao" and "Kundalini". H.H. joined the League after the Great War. He shares his spiritual quest with like-minded brothers who all lose their good friend Leo along the way at Morbio Inferiore, a Swiss mountain village. Little known to them, Leo is not only a servant, but the Superior of the League. They disband and defect, losing the Secret amidst their own persoanl chaos. This amounts to the loss of one's childhood romantic ideals and dreams as they become more worldly and pragmatic (a common theme with Hesse). For H.H. the spark yet flickers, but he is in despair. As the narrative continues Hesse deftly correlates despair and depression with "individuation" - the insistence on personalizing life. H.H. eventually yields to Leo (a paradoxical name that Ziolkowski believes is actually St. Francis' favorite disciple, Leo Pecorella).

Despite having now read this novella four or five times over the last decade I continue to re-discover the strange, inspiring power within the Journey. Though very different, the Journey to the East picks up where Siddhartha left off and captures a crucial transitional phase on the way to Castalia. Here, Hesse has actually defined his "Third Kingdom" (Third Reich - a term hijacked by the Nazis to Hesse's chagrin when he stopped using the term), the realm of the spirit; which can only be reached through magical thinking.

So hope on board the Caravan! Come join Collofine the Sorcerer, Louis the Terrible, the Steppenwolfe's Pablo, the artists Klingsor and Paul Klee, Don Quixote and Lao Tze - poets, philosophers, artists, musicians - fellow seekers on their way towards the Home of the Light.

Only in Non-Linguistic Experiential Subjectivity Goes East.......2004-09-24

This book is a great read in mysticism and personal journey that portrays the value in subjectivity alone that exists in value of the mystical experience. No other as a guide, or written accounts, or league documents will do. There must be faith in non-verbal, non-linguistic experiential consciousness that outweighs all other means in order to find what one is deep down searching for.

Here Hesse joins a league and journeys to the east in search of an ideal, the beautiful Fatima. In his journey he experiences poetics and symbols that appear greater than the poets and people themselves, something beyond linguistics and explanations, things that cannot be simply written down in books for others to interpret, but rather only with personal experiences can such come about. His feeble attempts to write down in words such explanations of his journey and experience prove entirely futile and so does the vast array of other accounts attempted in such, including all attempts to even describe the league itself. Hesse finds out that only in despair does one continue his journey of experience that eventually learns to disregard the intellectual mind and it's attempt at explanations. Ultimately, it is only the experiential and subjective nature that has any value at all and subsequently, the eventual dissolving of oneself into all others, a unity that brings forth personal experience, mystical awareness: nothing else will suffice. And such a dissolving of the self, Hesse witnessed symbolically in a melting of a self portrait candle figure into a self portrait candle figure of the league's president.

This book is short and an easy read for the avid book reader. If you're ready as an individual, you will understand this message, a beautiful and inspiring message; the profound "isness" in non-linguistic, non-logical subjectivity, the magic, wonder and marvel of simply "being." Babies, that's right, infants, "know," unlike some of the greatest intellectuals and well-read amazon book reviewers. To understand is of course tied up with the individual's own spiritual journey toward the east. A wonderful book.

'Journey to the East 'or into Hesse's mind?.......2004-01-06

'The Journey to The East' by Hermann Hesse is one of various biblical references disguised in Indian mysticism, which can leave the reader a little confused. Nevertheless their are some statements, poetically written, which leave you pondering and questioning for your own interpretation. These are the true joys of the book. Without a doubt a book that needs a second read in order to understand for it appears to be written in a stream of consciousness at times, leaving us deserted with nothing to cling onto. I had to re-read a page to re-find my track.
Without a doubt DADA comes to mind with his thinking.....However DADA versus religion? If that's even possible?
Worth a read if your into the Fluxus or DADA movements, or have a spare two hours.

Average customer rating:

Narcissus and Goldmund
Perhaps Hesse's greatest novel. It's certainly my favorite.
His friend awakened him- the world and wandering molded him.
An incredibly moving tale unlike any other
Narcissus and Goldmund

Narcissus and Goldmund: A Novel
Hermann Hesse
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Steppenwolf: A Novel
The Glass Bead Game: (Magister Ludi) A Novel
Demian (Perennial Classics)
The Journey to the East
Beneath the Wheel

ASIN: 0312421672

Book Description

Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher’s fierce intellect and sense of discipline. When Narcissus persuades the young student that he is not meant for a life of self-denial, Goldmund sets off in pursuit of aesthetic and physical pleasures, a path that leads him to a final, unexpected reunion with Narcissus.

Customer Reviews:

Narcissus and Goldmund.......2007-04-12

I felt a sense of loss after finishing this novel. Not as I read its last pages and not as I closed it, but days later, when I thought to myself that for a week, it had been sustaining something in me--something introspective and romantic and idealistic. The novel traces Goldmund's development from youth to a premature old age. However otherworldly and idealistic the boy's thoughts sometimes seem, they are always deeply sincere, and the respectful tone he has for everything around him carries over into the reader's own attitude toward life. Next to Steppenwolf, which is beautifully darker and more solitary, Narcissus and Goldmund is fast becoming my favorite among Hesse's works. It is a novel which will be remembered fondly, and it is so complete and fulfilling that readers might be left with a sense of aimlessness after it is done. In the end, perhaps only novels which leave one with this feeling are truly worth the read.

Perhaps Hesse's greatest novel. It's certainly my favorite........2006-12-12

I actually don't read a lot of fiction, but when I do I try to read very high quality material with a lot of depth, complexity and a story that reflects life as it is really lived with all of the uncertainties, difficult emotions, paradoxes, etc. This book succeeds on all accounts and is top notch in every way e.g. round characters, carefully developed plot and engaging interwoven themes that anyone can relate to.

This story deals with the struggle between the intellect and flesh. This personified by the two main characters. One is of a more artistic temperment and the other is a very disciplined type. The two are in search for truth and meaning, but they approach their search differently although they both start out life the same as monks.

In the end, as in real life I don't think the dilemma is resolved or completely understood. However, it is clear that both paths seem to lead to similar realizations. On one hand, the disciplined, intellectual approach to reality and on the other the more meandering, open and free-spirited path of direct experience guided by intuition.

There are many other reviewers who have written more detail about the plot, specifics and other details, so I won't repeat what they have said. What I would like to add is that this book shines a light on the important existential questions we all have and does it in a very powerful and moving way.

His friend awakened him- the world and wandering molded him........2006-07-12

An incredibly moving tale unlike any other.......2006-03-21

This is one of the most captivating and beautifully written novels in history. Hermann Hesse is a fascinating story teller and vividly romantic poet. Deep introspection, hilarious laughter, pensiveness, tears, and spiritual elevation are all experienced within the pages of this incredible and unmatched journey. Worth every minute... you won't waste a moment once you turn the first few pages. An amazing read!

Narcissus and Goldmund.......2006-01-19

Do yourself a favor and read this book - especially if you have enjoyed any of Hesse's other wonderful works of art.

If you care about life, mystery, dreams, artistic endeavors, love, and truth: read this novel and drink in it's secret and magical beauty.

Who knows? You might just be one of the one's who 'get it'.
And this my friend, is no small prize for those delvers into the inner reaches of the soul.

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