Explore the latest books of this year!
Bookbot

Hermann Hesse

    July 2, 1877 – August 9, 1962

    Hermann Hesse's literary works delve into the individual's profound search for spirituality and meaning outside societal norms. His narratives, often imbued with a yearning for a more natural existence, resonated deeply with readers seeking alternative paths amidst rapid societal change. Hesse masterfully weaves themes of identity and self-discovery with a distinctive narrative style that has earned him widespread acclaim.

    Hermann Hesse
    Steppenwolf
    Demian
    Magister ludi (The glass bead game)
    The Seasons of Life
    Stories of Five Decades
    Siddhartha
    • Siddhartha

      • 94 pages
      • 4 hours of reading
      4.5(9354)Add rating

      Siddhartha is a literature & fiction classic 1922 novel written by German novelist Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha is categorized by some as literary fiction or genre fiction, while others classify the novel as religious & inspirational. Siddhartha deals with the spiritual journey of self discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language, siddha which means achieved and artha which means what was searched for, and which together it means he who has attained his goals or he who has found the meaning of existence. Siddhartha was Hermann Hesse's ninth literature & fiction novel and it was written in a simple, lyrical style. Whether categorized as literary fiction, genre fiction, or religious & inspirational, Siddhartha has a cemented place in literature & fiction as a classic novel and an all time great work by Hermann Hesse.

      Siddhartha
    • A collection of 23 short stories written during 1899-1948, 20 here translated for the first time: The Island Dream (1899)Incipit vita nova (1899)To Frau Gertrud (1899)November Night (1901)The Marble Workd (1904)The Latin Scholar (1906)The Wolf (1907)Walter Kompff (1908)The Field Devil (1908)Chagrin d'Amour (1908)A Man by the Name of Ziegler (1908)The Homecoming (1909)The City (1910)Robert Aghion (1913)The Cyclone (1913)From the Childhood of St. Francis of Assisi (1919)Inside and Outside (1920)Tragic (1923)Dream Journeys (1927)Harry, the Steppenwolf (1928)An Evening with Dr. Faust (1929)Edmund (1934)The Interrupted Class (1948)

      Stories of Five Decades
    • The Seasons of Life

      • 160 pages
      • 6 hours of reading

      A never-before-seen volume of poetry by the preeminent poet laureate Herman Hesse--a beautiful companion to Seasons of the Soul and the author's better-known prose work. Organized into four parts--spring, summer, autumn, and winter--The Seasons of Life relates the transitions in nature to the organic progressions of human life from birth through death. From the mundane to the sublime, the spiritual to the political, and private feeling to expressed opinion, Hesse touches on the range of human experience, inviting the reader to consider both the beauty and what Hesse called the "adversities of life." Beloved by readers as a wise and open friend, Hesse offers in this never-before-translated volume an honest portrayal of a whole life: its lessons and mysteries, its glories and despairs. The poet's voice--so treasured in his novels among a worldwide English-speaking audience--can now be enjoyed through this new translation in the follow-up to Seasons of the Soul.

      The Seasons of Life
    • Set in a distant post-apocalyptic future, the narrative revolves around an elite group of intellectuals engaged in an intricate game that synthesizes cultural and scientific knowledge from various eras. This profound exploration of modern life's complexities showcases Herman Hesse at the peak of his creativity, reflecting his philosophical insights. Celebrated by literary figures like Thomas Mann and T. S. Eliot, it stands as a significant work of the twentieth century, encapsulating Hesse's prophetic vision and artistic mastery.

      Magister ludi (The glass bead game)
    • Demian

      • 184 pages
      • 7 hours of reading
      4.2(74504)Add rating

      Schoolboy Emil Sinclair boasts of a theft and finds himself blackmailed by a bully. He turns to Max Demain in whom he finds a friend and mentor. Under this strangely self-possessed figure's guidance, Emil discovers a new world of corruption and evil.

      Demian
    • Steppenwolf

      • 416 pages
      • 15 hours of reading
      4.2(137879)Add rating

      "These pocket-sized titles are stunning....They make the perfect stocking stuffers!" - Metro "Bought together or separately, these fiction titles are ideal stocking stuffers for the literature lover." - USA Today With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesse's best-known and most autobiographical work is one of literature's most poetic evocations of the soul's journey to liberation. Harry 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 Theater-For 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. For more than twenty years, Picador has been producing beautifully packaged literary fiction and nonfiction books from Manhattan's Flatiron Building. Our Twentieth Anniversary Modern Classics line pairs iconic books - The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson - with a design that's both small enough to fit in your pocket and unique enough to stand out on your bookshelf.

      Steppenwolf
    • Reflections

      • 187 pages
      • 7 hours of reading

      Hermann Hesse; selected by Volker Michels; translated by Ralph Manheim. Reflections. New Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1974. 1st American Edition, Hardbound, 8.5 inches tall, 197 pages. Sources. "The aging Hermann Hesse arranged to have privately printed a collection of thirty-nine brief passages culled from his writings, with which to reply to some of the innumerable letters he received. The existence of this book provided encouragement for the present expanded volume, which a first published in Germany in 1971."

      Reflections
    • The Glass Bead Game

      • 558 pages
      • 20 hours of reading
      4.1(30772)Add rating

      The Glass Bead Game, for which Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, is the author’s last and crowning achievement, the most imaginative and prophetic of all his novels. Setting the story in the distant postapocalyptic future, Hesse tells of an elite cult of intellectuals who play an elaborate game that uses all the cultural and scientific knowledge of the Ages. The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature. This edition features a Foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski that places the book in the full context of Hesse’s thought.

      The Glass Bead Game
    • The Hesse-Mann Letters

      • 196 pages
      • 7 hours of reading
      4.1(158)Add rating

      s/t: The correspondence of Hermann Hesse and Thomas Mann 1910-55 The letters present two great XX century Nobel Prize writers grieving for the ruined world. In the 1930s and 1940s, they rail against the stupidity of war and the cowardice of diplomats, against the social savagery of the Nazis, against the blind forces of abstraction and nationalism. They brood about the fate of Germany and of Europe after the last shots have been fired. They have lived through a time of extraordinary horror and yet they have not surrendered to despair or nihilism. Reading the letters, the reader will feel like some privileged guest in a special room, sitting off to the side somewhere, listening while these men talk.

      The Hesse-Mann Letters