Hermann Hesse 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.

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)

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.

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.

Demian is a coming-of-age story that follows a young boy's maturation as he grapples with good and evil, lightness and darkness, and forges alternatives to the ever-present corruption and suffering that he sees all around him. Crucial to this development are his relationships with a series of older mentors, of who the titular Demian is the most charismatic, otherworldly and ultimately influential. Many have noted the influence of Jungian psychology upon this novel and it is fascinating to see Herman Hesse's interests in the self, existence and free will play out through through the lens of early twentieth-century Europe; Christian imagery and themes are ever-present, as is the shadow of the First World War.

Steppenwolf is a poetical self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half-wolf. This Faust-like and magical story is evidence of Hesse's searching philosophy and extraordinary sense of humanity as he tells of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope. Yet this novel can also be seen as a plea for rigorous self-examination and an indictment of the intellectual hypocrisy of the period. As Hesse himself remarked, "Of all my books Steppenwolf is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any other".

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."

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.

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.