Hilda Rosner Books

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.

With Gertrude , Herman Hesse continues his lifelong exploration of the irreconcilable elements of human existence. In this fictional memoir, the renowned composer Kuhn recounts his tangled relationships with two artists--his friend Heinrich Muoth, a brooding, self-destructive opera singer, and the gentle, self-assured Gertrude Imthor. Kuhn is drawn to Gertrude upon their first meeting, but Gertrude falls in love with Heinrich, to whom she is introduced when Kuhn auditions them for the leads in his new opera. Hopelessly ill-matched, Gertrude and Heinrich have a disastrous marriage that leaves them both ruined. Yet this tragic affair also becomes the inspiration for Kuhn's opera, the most important success of his artistic life.

In simple, mesmerizing prose, Hermann Hesse's Journey to the East 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 an opening 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.