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Demian by Hermann Hesse
My daughter read this as a mandatory reading in her English class at a medical magnet program. She claims, it is a very good book and is currently writing about it. ... Read more

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Peter Camenzind, a young man from a Swiss mountain village, leaves his home and eagerly takes to the road in search of new experience. Traveling through Italy and France, Camenzind is increasingly disillusioned by the suffering he discovers around him; after failed romances and a tragic friendship, his idealism fades into crushing hopelessness. He finds peace again only when he cares for Boppi, an invalid who renews Camenzind’s love for humanity and inspires him once again to find joy in the smallest details of every life.
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Customer Reviews (7)

Hesse lays his Foundations

Peter Camenzind, a farmers son in a remote village, gains a scholarship that eventually leads him to university in Zurich. Whilst his true love is for nature, he feels compelled to pursue the intellectual. He drowns his social inabilities in drink.He idealizes women and finds only unhappiness.He is an unsatisfied writer, but redeems himself and finds an Assisian love for all things after befriending the cripple Boppi.He then returns home in contentment....
Hesse's first novel reads so easily and packs so much of the fabric of his future great works into 180 odd pages. His ideal that man, of all the creatures on earth, needs to marry philosophy and art with nature to achieve happiness; our journey from the egoism and vanities of our youth-where we view ourselves as vital and important-even God like- and the frustrations that brings, to an acceptance of merely being a part of a beautiful nature. How we follow the biblical blueprint of leaving paradise only to spend our lives searching for it and reaching it only at the end.
Hesse influenced me a lot as a teenager and coming back to him-and his first novel-rekindled the self awareness and ideas he invoked and reminded how great ideas can be written in accessable stories and language.
Hesse has written greater books (or went on from here to write them!) but this is a great starting point that has all of the main ingredients of Hesse.

Perhaps the place to start?
Those who want to only invest their time in an author's choicest works would probably skip ahead, in Hesse's case, to Demian, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and Magister Ludi. Those are titles I read years ago, and though their impressions are no longer fresh, I remember them as masterpieces. If you are a serious Hesse admirer, you will lose nothing by reading Peter Caminzind, and will gain added perspective on his later works through this expression of his early development as writer and metaphysician. Written when the author was 27, this was his first novel. This is a very easy book to read, but is by no means a shallow one. It is a book of great strengths but also, I think, some serious weaknesses. If this were the only book Hesse had written, I would still consider him a great writer. Because the style and clarity of the book make for such ease of reading, it is essential to take some time with its descriptions of nature, which are very poetic and beautiful. I think the imagery conjured up by Hesse's prose is as effective, or even more so, as formal poetry which has the same intent. This is a book which truly pays homage to nature and seeks to elicit the same appreciation for it that the author feels. This notion that there is a need for us to feel a love of nature - mountains, meadows, clouds, streams, lakes, weather - is a major theme of the book, every bit as pronounced as the coming-of-age theme. The insistence is there that we experience this love in a deep spiritual way, not through mere sentimentality. This need to experience a profound relationship to nature is tied closely to the protagonist's search for his own spiritual identity. He senses that his need to express love is incomplete, and as he progresses through his youth and young adulthood, he comes to realize he must extend this love to people. His upbringing in an isolated mountain village has instilled in him traits which are the very opposite of gregariousness and empathy for fellow man. The novel is the chronicle of the struggles and torments Camenzind suffers in evolving toward a state of mind where he can shed his aloofness, disdain, and mistrust of humanity. One thing that helps him to forge a link to mankind is his secret desire to compose a great poetic work which will show the rest of humanity how to love nature as he does. In the novel this remains a future prospect , but he does begin to reach out for love and friendship by abandoning the intellectual society he had frequented, and seeking a more common human bond. He finds this through taking care of real human needs for others. There are many passages in the book which I find moving, beautiful, and profound, and which caused me to pause in my reading to reflect on them before moving on. But the main weakness which I see in this novel is that it is so internalized, that sometimes the states of mind it describes seem to be rather arbitrary and based more on subjective moods than causes the reader can relate to. The hero describes many episodes of melancholy, feelings of failure and defeat, and revulsion for humanity. Then he experiences feelings of rebirth, renewal of interests and energy, and hope. It seems we are seeing the workings of a mind which dwells too much in itself and which is too ruled by its own limitations of perception. Thus, I think there is a lack of clarity as to why some of his changes in attitude take place, other than that he just became sick and tired of being sick and tired. And I thought the condition of the hero at the close of the novel did not seem to represent a major level of illumination, but was still a provisional, though higher plateau of existence. This would be a natural consequence of being the work of a still very young author, and it is actually admirable that Hesse did not try to overreach himself with unrealistic accomplishments for his protagonist. It is a remarkable first novel and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys literary works which feature the quest for self-knowledge.

Find leitmotive of Hess from this early work
Peter Camenzind is the earliest fictional work of Great Hermann Hesse who has been always one of my favirite authors. I have read Hesse works in reverse choronological order. In comparison to his later works such as Magister Ludi, the plot and prose style are unrefined ,yet they are unadulterated as well as contains leitmotives that Hesse recurs consistently in his later works.

The story is very simple and follows a typical pattern of Bildungsroman, e.i a youth finds his purpose of life and identity through a vissitude of life. In case of Peter, it's quite a journey .Story begins with quintesential Hessian phrase ""In the beginning was the myth. God, in his search for self-expression, invested the souls of Hindus, Greeks, and Germans with poetic shapes and continues to invest each child's soul with poetry every day".

Peter left his alphine hometown for searching for the world with an aspiration to become a poet. He meets Richard and shares intense friendship with him ,while hopelessly fell for a woman who teaches first pain of unrequited love. After the tragic death of Richard and a series of unrequited love as well as his journey to Italy, Peter a bit by bit understands the meaing life andnature of love. Each episode clearly shows different aspects of love and when it comes to his devotion to Boppi , it shows to where Hesse's love finally directed. Throughout this book, spritual crisis and overcoming that very crisis not only widens Peter's view on life and but also encourages him to find the ultimate meaning of life which poem is only a medium of representation. I am especially moved by Peter's devotion for Boppi that is not originated from mere pity but Peter's love for humanity.
There are distinctive influence of Plato, Schopenhauer , and Nietzche's philosophies whichslowly supplanted by Indian and Chinese philosophy in his later works.
this is perhaps only novel that makes you experience all vissitude of life within a couple hours of reading.It's worth reading and you won't regret.

beautiful work
Hesse never fails in aesthetics in his language.Especially after reading modern American novels, whose language is filled with profanity and vulgarity, Hesse's works are like fresh mountain water.This book doesn't fail you either in that respect.It is simple, very easy to read, nothing heavy, yet it has enough depth to satisfy your intellectual spiritual needs.It came to me like a relief especially after reading Faulkner's Light in August.

Although the plot is simple, his quest for love and growth is so sincere, so pure and fresh, which really is the power of this novel, and that power captivates the reader's heart.
The protagonist Peter Carmenzind is naive and touchy and single-minded youth, destined to spend his life as a wanderer/bachelor.He doen't quite fit in the society/community in which he was born and raised, nor in the society in which he seeks refuge in the future.He finds love and friendship in one person at a time (he is not a wide and shallow socialite), but he loses each of them one by one, and he goes through turmoil each time, and falls into heavy drinking.Gradually he regains strength and finds true love and devotion to humanity.
What is so compelling is that each time he finds someone to love, whether it be romantic love or friendship, he devotes himself single-mindedly, and loves that person with his whole heart.That's why he's so devastated when he loses love.
His devotion to the cripple Boppi is particularly moving.This kind of love is rarely written about in novels these days.

The beginning part is sort of slow, with the descriptions of landscapes, general characteristics of the village and its people, but Hesse's poetic language makes it so musical and pleasant.One hardly cares if the story ever moves forward or not.HIs love of nature and life, which is the core of his language, is well established in this work.

It is a work that Hesse had written when he was young, and one can tell that, but it is still a great work.The protagonist is growing after each crisis, and the reader will grow with him.One of my professors said that Hesse is probably the only writer that would make you feel good after reading, and I have to agree with him 100%.You will meet young, promising, uncontaminated Hesse in this book, which will make you feel really good.

Sweet but largely unmemorable first work
Like most of Hesse's pre-'Demian' novels, this too is rather simplistic and forgettable, even without being compared to the greatnesses which were to come.His early novels are sweet, touching, sincere, and thoughtful, but the plots still aren't as complex or mature as those in his later glories.We follow Swiss mountain boy Peter Camenzind through his youth and early manhood, through his delight and joy in life in his native hamlet, including his first unrequited love, to his idealistic and happy sojourn in Italy with his dear friend Richard (where he once again falls victim to unrequited love), to dissipation in France and yet a third unhappy unrequited love, to a truly touching friendship with an older crippled hunchback named Boppi, and finally back to his native village to care for his aging father and to continue pursuing his dreams of being a journalist and a writer.It's an extremely autobiographical novel, though because it's a first novel, the plot is incredibly simplistic and not very complex or mature; just following the life and loves of a simple Swiss mountain boy.Probably the most memorable part of the book for me, apart from Peter's friendship with Boppi, is when Frau Camenzind dies in the night while Peter is sitting on the bed without even waking his father up to tell him his own wife is dying.When Herr Camenzind wakes up and finds out what has happened, he is furious that Peter didn't call a priest to administer Last Rites, though father and son aren't on the outs for long and soon they're going out drinking together.(The other most memorable part is the classic opening line, "In the beginning was the myth.")The events are interesting and well-described, just not as well-developed or multifaceted as they would be in Hesse's later masterpieces. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Simply beautiful
I have just finished reading this book, and probably should not be attempting to write a review because words fail to describe how wonderful this book is. It is the most beautiful book I have ever read. It is written in Hesse's gentle, quiet style, and consists of metaphorical meditations on wandering. The imagery is graceful while the implications resound deep within one. Each sketch moved me deeply. This is Hesse at his best, a spiritual explorer, free of dogma, immersing himself and the reader in simple yet fascinating reflections. I plan on reading this book frequently, savoring each image and feeling the serenity created by Hesse's prose. I would urge everyone to read this book.

Wandering
I 'wandered' upon the first edition of this book at a yard sale, and once having begun it, was thrilled with every word and every turn of phrase.Hesse, in this lesser-known work, writes with beautiful symplicity and grace.Each short prose piece is accompanied by charming sketches, and each ends with one of Hesse's poems.Here Hesse reveals his deepest fears, hopes, and insights; which once read, will bring any wandering soul closer to enlightenment. Highly recommended!

wandering - hermann hesse
The most wonderful, beautiful book, it has been my absolute favourite for the past 30 years,always makes me feel like I'm home again, in the company of all feelings and emotions that make me feel warm and connected to the earth.

The Heart of the Wanderer
I thought this book essentially epitomized Hesse's search for meaning, but the narrative was simply told in a series of sharp images, ones in which he himself found inspiration. In contrast to his many, more famous novels, Ibelieve Hesse writes in absolute honesty, no longer confined to therestrictions of a classic novel, and the images and sensations hereproduces are stunning. ... Read more

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Student edition, Nobel prize winner 1947 ... Read more

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Hermann Karl Hesse (1877-1962), er schrieb auch unter den Pseudonym Emil Sinclair, war ein deutsch-schweizerischer Dichter, Schriftsteller und Freizeitmaler. 1895 begann Hesse eine Buchhändlerlehre in Tübingen. Ab 1895 arbeitete er in einer Buchhandlung in Tübingen. Noch als Buchhändler veröffentlichte Hesse im Herbst 1898 seinen ersten kleinen Gedichtband Romantische Lieder und im Sommer 1899 die Prosasammlung Eine Stunde Hinter Mitternacht. Alsbald wurde der Roman Peter Camenzind, der 1904 regulär bei Fischer erschien, einen Durchbruch. Von nun an konnte Hesse als freier Schriftsteller leben. Beim Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges appellierte er an die deutschen Intellektuellen, nicht in nationalistische Polemik zu verfallen. 1919 übersiedelte Hesse nach Montagnola, das Hesse über vierzig Jahre seines Lebens zur Heimstadt werden sollte. Der erfolgreichste Roman Hesses war Der Steppenwolf (1927). Ihm wurden unter anderem 1946 der Nobelpreis für Literatur und 1955 die Friedensklasse des Ordens Pour le Mérite verliehen. Zu Hesses bekanntesten Werke gehören: Unterm Rad (1906), Demian (1919), Siddhartha (1922), Narziß und Goldmund (1930) und Das Glasperlenspiel (1943). ... Read more

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Fascinating Look into the Life of Hesse!
Really enjoyed the fascinating look into the life of the writer of the great classics, including "Siddhartha". ... Read more

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This is Hesse's last and greatest work, which won for him the Nobel Prize for Literature. Described as "sublime" by Thomas Mann, admired by Andre Gide and T. S. Eliot, it is considred one of the important novels of this century. ... Read more

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Hermana Hesse nos ofrece en la serie de sus novelas y relatos la vision de un mundo esencial-mente intimo. Aseguraba no haber escrito otra cosa que lo que ""queria salir de el"", y nos lego una obra que hay que considerar, en su conjunto, como una confesion, una descripcion de su manera de pensar y de su vida, ""idealizacion no, solo confesion"", escribio. La obra de Hesse es ""juego e intento"" de superar las propias experiencias y sensaciones. Para el comenzaba siempre un nuevo trabajo en el instante en que vislumbraba un personaje que durante algun tiempo podia convertirse en simbolo y portador de su experiencia, de sus pensamientos, de sus problemas. Por eso llamaba a sus trabajos ""biografias del alma"", en el fondo son monologos en los que una sola persona se contempla en sus relaciones con el mundo y el propio yo. ... Read more

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Dimyan
Dimyan is me some how.. but i hope to be him completely ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Beautiful Book!
Steven B. Herrmann, PhD, MFT
Author of "William Everson: The Shaman's Call"

It has been said by many Jungian's that Jung's attitude was not aesthetic, but with the recent publication of his Red Book, it is clear that he was a skilled artist, a calligrapher and also a poet.The early misunderstanding by Jungians about his basic psychological attitude towards art has much to do with Jung's own judgments towards the products of his active imagination experiences.He did not view them as art.Miguel Serrano was one of the first friends of Jung who saw through his empirical and scientific attitude to the artist underneath.He thought that Jung passed beyond the frontiers of science when he said to Serrano in a reverie:"Somewhere there was once a Flower, a Stone, a Crystal, a Queen, a King, a Palace, a Lover and his Beloved, and this was long ago..."In this marvelous book, which I loved reading many years ago, Serrano says that Jung spoke these words "as though he were in a trance.""Nobody understands what I mean," Jung said to his friend, "only a poet could begin to understand...." (60).Moved by what he had heard, Serrano told Jung: "You are a poet" (61).After his interview with Jung, Serrano began to wonder if there was a "second language" in the process of individuation described by Jung that is "waiting to be discovered" by one of his disciples, an "underlying language" which "is already there as a palimpsest" (64).Serrano felt this hidden aspect of Jung's works needed only to be interpreted by "a priest, a magician or a poet" (64).Serrano captured this latent shamanic meaning in Jung's works, and although he may have mislabeled it as the achievement of a poet, many of Jung's works border on poetry.For this reason I find Serrano's Record of Two Friendships to be a first attempt to arrive at a synthesis between a scientific and aesthetic view of Jung.With the recent publication of the Red Book, the preponderance of evidence that he was indeed an artist and a poet is leading towards a more balanced view that shows how prescient Serrano was.This is a beautiful book, one that will be of interest to anyone interested in Serrano's writing, in Jung, and in poetry and literature.

Magical and life-changing
I discovered this book during a bleak time in late 2002, and magic and mystery returned to my life as a result. The book inspired me to make the pilgrimage to Chile to visit the author, just as he himself had visited Hesse and Jung decades earlier, and I will always cherish the memory of the afternoon I spent with him in Santiago in March 2005.

Unfortunately Serrano has now passed beyond this world, but his spirit lives on, forever part of the Hermetic Circle he writes of in this wonderful book.

Frank McShane, who was a friend of Serrano, has rendered it brilliantly into English, but despite its accessibility few will ever read it, partly for reasons Serrano himself mentions on the very first page: "Even today, I would go half-way round the world to find a book if I thought it essential to my needs, and I have a feeling of absolute veneration for those few authors who have given me something special. For this reason I can never understand the tepid youth of today who wait for books to be given to them and who neither search nor admire."

Today, of course, few even read at all, and especially not writing like this, so saturated in meaning and magic, and filled with synchronicity, from the bee sting that caused Hesse to be at home when Serrano first visited him to the lightning bolt which struck Jung's favourite tree the night of his death.

People who believe the universe is a dead machine will laugh at this book...but let them. Serrano already mentions them in a chapter called 'The Dream': "They were untroubled by doubt and had no concern for vital essences. [...] The last exponents of a world of flesh and blood had departed and, with their concern for a living earth with gods and demons, were considered by this new generation of anti-men as romantic idealists, the product merely of a decayed bourgeois society..."

Serrano's book, on the contrary, belongs to that living earth of gods and demons. Just read it and immerse yourself in the magical atmosphere of Bremgarten and the great world of dreams, and the essence of a Legend beyond time or space.

When Conversation Matters
Carl Jung and Hermann Hesse unplugged in a fascinating and accessible way. The reader is a fly on the wall during Serrano's visits to these spiritual giantsover the years. In my memory now, I almost feel like I was at a series of small dinner parties- Jung, Hesse, Serrano and me. Serrano has helped Jung and Hesse become 'companions' in the background and trajectory of my life. And these are some friends to have! Imagine that...

Read this review before you buy
While I enjoyed this book, it fell short of the other reviews posted here. I'll preface my review - my readings of Jung are more limited than Hesse. I would rate the Hesse portion 2 stars, and the Jung Section 4 stars.

Serrano romanticizes both Hesse and Jung to the point that they are portrayed as spiritual leaders. Serrano reminded me of a wide-eyed traveler who enjoyed idealizing the East, never really becoming entrenched in the culture. Spirituality isn't found by moving to India as much as Serrano alludes. It is possible my cynicism is a result of a recent trip to Asia where I encountered many travelers that reminded me of Serrano's worldly immaturity, although his later fascination with Nazism lends itself to my analysis.

I was looking forward to the linkage between these authors and East theology/philosophy, but I think Serrano came up short. Some ideas he purports came from Jung or Hesse were around long before either author was born, and I do not think either author would say otherwise.

Serrano fixates, at times, on himself a bit too much. Maybe some readers find Serrano interesting, but I was reading the book for insight into Hesse and Jung.

Serrano wrote about Hesse as if Hesse were the Buddha. If you are interested in spiritual guidance I'd search elsewhere. Personally I think Hesse led a life of greater inner turmoil than Serrano lets on in this piece. I can appreciate the other reviewer's comment about people misunderstanding Hesse, however I found reading Hesse's "Wandering" more fruitful than this work.

I did enjoy the Jung section. Serrano focuses less on himself in the Jung section and has more detailed accounts of interactions which I found fascinating. However, my readings of Jung are somewhat limited so the section may not actually offer much insight compared to other works.

I'd recommend reading the book for the Jung section, but maybe get this book from the library rather than buying it.

The Hermetic Circle
_This is the second time that I have read this remarkable book. Both times I found myself envying the author for having established friendships with two of my greatest heroes, two of the greatest sages of modern times, Hermann Hesse and C.G. Jung.

_This is not some collection of trivial exchanges- from the first meeting with both men the tone of the conversations were deep and significant. As the author says, it was like he had known both men before and they were resuming an old discussion. Hess himself commented on it and said that, "Here, only the right guests meet. This is the Hermetic Circle...." Sounds rather like Jung's concept of synchronicity, though Jung also speaks of Hermetic links with past and future in these discussions.

_While both sections cover a remarkable amount of the core meaning of the life work of both men, there is also a personal sense here. You feel like you are meeting them yourself, are also guests in their houses. Not that the ideas are all rehash either- here and there something new pops up. An example would be how in one of the interviews with Jung the discussion turned to how both the ancient Greeks and the Native Americans both thought from their hearts and not their heads. Thinking exclusively from one's head is the result of dissociation between ego and Self- and sets up a tension that may tear a person or culture to pieces. In any case, you feel that you know both men. Of course, Hesse's novels were autobiographical in the deepest sense (and it is reaffirming to know that he actually was an accurate reflection of his characters- it wasn't just a show.) As for Jung, he states outright that he wrote primarily for his own process of individuation and that the fact that so many others read him made him frankly uncomfortable.

_I was glad to see that my own perceptions of these often misunderstood and misinterpreted men seem to have been accurate from the start. For me too it was like a conversation with old friends- relinking with the Hermetic Circle.
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a story by story run-through of the collection
CHILD'S SOUL: Hesse is largely an autobiographical author. Even when events in his novels or stories took place in the distant past or in the fantastically created future, he wrote about what he had lived through. His renowned novel "Demian" is very much autobiographical. The story "Child's Soul" may be the only thing ever written by Hesse, which is more autobiographical than "Demian". The narrating person in "Child's Soul" does not have a mental equilibrium. He can not draw a line between good and evil, between love and destruction; his mental state is characterized by fear. Nonetheless, he only sees the "chaos" and takes its existence into consideration. His future fate is unknown, but there we see a sparkle of hope that he will gain a foot-hold and achieve the state of mental equilibrium. PS: the term "chaos" was used by Hesse himself in one of his articles. [Rating: 5/5]

KLEIN AND WAGNER: An uxoricide and a filicide escapes from Germany to Italy to find peace for his tormented soul. He finds there death, however. Unlike the narrating person in the story described above, here we know for sure that Klein self-destructs. This story, especially, is laden with philosophical passages. Here (and in the story described bellow, as well) we see how Hesse uses associations; "klein" is the German adjective that stands for "small" and Wagner is not only the name of another uxoricide and filicide, but also that of a famous composer, whose music is tied in Klein's imagination with eroticism of his youth. [Rating: 5/5]

KLINGSOR'S LAST SUMMER: a story of a dying painter, who, as we know from the preface, is only forty-two years old. In this case, the name Klingsor comes from one epic poem that dates back to the seventh century. In that poem Klingsor was a magician, which suggest some sort of kinship between the art and the magic. This particular story is somewhat ambiguously written, even Klingsor's death remains ambiguous. One can not say with a certainty whether Klingsor committed a suicide, even though the whole mood of this story is imbued with ideas of life's frailty and death's imminence. This ambiguous narration (which Hesse employed in many of his works) does capture the atmosphere in which Klingsor spent his last days (and perhaps most of his life), but it bears a mark of abstractness. [Rating: 4/5]

Mind Triptych
fascinating, luscious stories filled with spiritual and debaucherous intrigues of the most unexpected sorts.

Hesse waves tales infused with rich mythological imagery and interesting turns around every corner.

Three stories that run the gamut from romanticism to melancholy.

Always a mystery and forever a joy.

More of Hesse�s beautiful spirituality
Not one review of this book! Incredible, you don't know what you're missing if you have not read this author. This is not one of the most recognized works of the Nobel prize author (my personal favorite), but it has everything of what made their other novels so remarkable: the beautiful and deep description of his characters' thoughts and emotions.

This edition contains three stories: "Child's soul", "Klein and Wagner" and "Klinsor's last summer" The first one succeeds in showing how intense a child's feelings can be, the happiness and sadness that can be reached while being so young, how a small mistake can trigger the biggest of fears... Klein and Wagner, for me the best one of this book. And "Klingsor's last summer" the story of an artist who is dying, while reading this you become Klingsor...I wonder how could Hesse succeed to such degree in portraying thoughts and feelings, no other existentialist author I've read so far reached this complexity. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume offers a substantial portion of Hesse's copious writings and is representative of his fundamental themes and interests. Includes Siddhartha, Hesse's most celebrated work, which reflects his lifelong studies of Oriental myth and religion, Demian, an inner journey which had an unprecedented impact on the youth of its day, plus other writings which show Hesse as a master of self-irony and the short-story form. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Demian, in my own words
I feel that the novel Demian was a highly intellectual novel and very enlightening!It's like no other book I've read in which it's not your usual story of a boy growing up.It's about a boy growing up andquestioning his faith with the help of a boy named Demian who is aclassmate.Emil, the main character feels that Demian is the image inwhich he wants to be.He fantisizes about this image and will do anythingto be it.Demian helps Emil to break from his contious mind and enter hissubconcious.It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend in to anyphilosophy fans, or anybody at all. ... Read more

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This book is an allegorical tale of a Brahman boy who seeks peace and enlightenment after leaving his well off circumstances. He sets his goal to self-denial and ascetic life among the numerous holy men than roamed the land in that time. After dissatisfied with ascetic life he seeks love and wealth in the city. His best friend becomes the follower of Gotama Buddha but Siddhartha is not satisfied to do the same. Finally he meets the ferrymen and learns to listen to the river. This and meeting and parting with his son are the heights of the book. The river represents the eternal and timeless existence and oneness, and the meeting and parting with Siddhartha's son represents the attachments as obstacles to reach enlightenment. ... Read more

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A Book that Took 11-Years to Write
Hesse conceived the idea for Siddhartha in 1911, following a long visit to India looking for the fulfillment that he thought Oriental philosophies could give him. Siddhartha is an exceptionally intelligent Brahman, which is the highest caste in the Hindu religion. Siddhartha feels hollow, despite what seems to be a good life existing around him.He sets off on his journey of self-discovery.This journey to "find himself" leads him through several different types of lives:a period of asceticism and self-denial, though he eventually turns his back on these paths as he realizes they disrupt life by denying a part of it, the physical body. After this realization, Siddhartha decides to pursue physical pleasures and material success. After becoming a great lover and businessman, he eventually realizes that these pleasures too are superficial and don't satisfy his deeper spiritual side.

A meeting with Buddha leaves him intellectually stimulated, but not spiritually affected, and Siddhartha continues along his own journey. Even meeting the Buddha could not convince him that salvation comes from suffering. Siddhartha even reminds Buddha of his own journey to enlightenment, pointing out that nobody finds salvation through someone else's teaching, and that communicating enlightenment cannot be done through mere words. Because we know of the struggles Hesse has survived during the period just before writing this piece, we know that he is laying himself bare for our review, so that we might decide what these ultimate meanings are on our own.

Disillusioned that so many varied paths had failed, Siddhartha nonetheless doesn't stop looking for the true meaning of life and his existence. Ultimately, Siddhartha finds his peace by the river. While repeatedly crossing the river and relentless soul searching, he finally reaches his own "hour of enlightenment." In this third phase, Siddhartha finally is able to reconcile the physical and spiritual parts of himself by becoming closer to nature and simple work as a ferryman. His search for identity and truth, or the "inward journey" that Hesse referred to consistently as a recurring theme in all his work, is very much reflective of the introspective nature of Hesse's writing.

The storyline of Siddhartha is most often viewed in light of Hesse's confession that the book's protagonist's pilgrimage mirrored his own. Each of the stages in Hesse's evolution of consciousness is spelled out in Siddhartha. Many critics even today maintain that this book was Hesse's statement of "liberation from Brahmanisn, Buddhism, and Hinduism."

To Siddhartha, the river symbolized the teacher he had been missing up to that point. Vasudeva, who was the ferryman, teaches Siddhartha what he had learned about the river and finding peace within oneself. "The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it" Siddhartha took this to heart and soon began to learn from the river. He learns that there is in reality no such thing as time, and begins to see his life as the river and what it teaches him. "Siddhartha the young boy, Siddhartha the mature man, Siddhartha the old man were only separated by shadows, not through reality."This teaches him that all things in his life will remain a part of him- knowledge and memories remain with him always.
Alone with his solitude, he explored further writing projects, painted, and published Klingsor's Last Summer in 1920. Finally, after many years of being immersed in Indian culture and Buddhist philosophy that he'd developed at an early age, he published Siddhartha in 1922. Even Hesse's characterization of Siddhartha's evolving ideology make a lot more sense when viewed through the light of Carl Jung's psychology of the unconscious. Jung's psychology insisted on also "acknowledging the dark side" of human nature and allowing for its manifestations along your life path. Sex, gambling, and greed possessed Siddhartha for a while but still never completely fulfilled him.

A new dimension that we find in the novel Siddhartha is his smile. Siddhartha is a similar story as that which was written in Demian: the search for self through all the stages of despair, alienation, guilt, and on to the experience of fulfilling the whole. In this new story, Hesse insists upon using love as the creator of this fulfillment, and he regards this component as "natural growth and development" out of earlier beliefs.In his essay "My Faith", which he wrote in 1931, he clarified "that my Siddhartha puts not cognition, but love in first place: that it disdains dogma and makes the experience of unity the central point...."

Hesse's works are challenging and unlike almost any other works of Western writers, and he's had periods of great fame, and also periods of scorn and neglect.Upon his receipt of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, a great flurry of translations of his works was begun, including a 1951 English translation of Siddhartha.His books did not get much attention in the English-speaking world until the political and social upheaval in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Because he excelled in depicting personal crisis's and private agonies, and this type of literature also seems to be remarkably popular during dark periods in culture, which also accounts for Hesse's large-scale adoration in Germany during both devastating wars.

This book review is excerpts from my blog (Ancient Wisdom Blog).

Great story, bad spelling
This book is cheap, and after reading it I noticed why, there are quite a number of spelling errors. It doesn't really detract from the quality of the story, but it is a bit annoying. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

Translation is filled with grammatical errors
The layout and cover are beautifully done.Hesse's book is a masterpiece.The translation also has a kind of poetry that I suspect is close to the German, however there are a fair number grammatical errors or typos in this edition - it seems they used spell check so the typos aren't obvious, but I can't go more than a few paragraphs without having to read a sentence a few times to figure out which word was left out or spell-checked into the wrong word.'Learned' becomes 'Leaned', 'that' becomes 'That', 'ice' becomes 'icy', 'breaths' becomes 'breathes', commas break sentences in ways that unintentionally change meaning, etc... These are just some examples from a few pages chosen at random.This problem is consistent throughout the book.There is even an instance where a question left by the translator, in German, is sitting IN THE TEXT in a sentence, which is just absurd.

A Pretty Edition, A Different Translation.
This edition of the classic Siddhartha is beautifully presented, and the translation of this version of the timeless story is deeply moving. I have read this book over and over, and will read it over and over again! ... Read more

Product Description
Embark on a spiritual journey with these four books on spirituality:

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse,
The Essentials of Spirituality,
Concerning the Spiritual In Art, by Wassily Kandinsky,
Spiritual Life and the Word of God ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Hesse - the Bearer of Human Longing
The collection - to my philosophical taste - starts out slow: poems of beauty. But after a few pages: bam! - poems of meaning, angst, metaphysical longing.I am not sure if this thematic trajectory is an artifact of how the collection was collated or if this trajectory parallels development of Hesse's psyche.I've seen a similar kind of thematic arc in other poets (in Esenin, for example).

In sum, these poems are a "backstage pass" into Hesse. As for the edition: I haven't had a chance to see the 2008 one - but this one, 1970, has both German and English - and German, whether you read it or not, provides - font-wise - an a propos goth-y, existentially angst-y, visually cameral background to the English translation.

Pavel Somov, Ph.D., author of EATING THE MOMENT: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time (New Harbinger, 2008)
www.eatingthemoment.com ... Read more