Stories of Five Decades

More about the book

This unique selection of twenty-three stories - all but three available in English for the first time - offers an unparalleled spectrum of Hermann Hesse's writing from 1899 to 1948. The reader can trace Hesse's development from the aestheticism of his youth through to the realism and surrealism of the next decade to the classicism of his old age. All his stories, as Hesse himself realized, are concerned primarily with his own secret dreams, his own bitter anguish and his own lifelong quest to penetrate the mysteries of man's inner reality. <b>Stories of Five Decades</b> is a rewarding and distinguished display of the full range of Hesse's hypnotically vivid and lyrical story-telling as it blossomed over a lifetime. <i>There could be no better introduction to Hesse than this skilfully selected volume</i> - <b>Financial Times</b> <i>All the stories in this book are a kind of dream journey</i> - <b>Times Literary Supplement</b> <i>A really fascinating collection of short stories...if you enjoy Hesse's strange and beautiful prose which so often opens up unknown avenues for speculation, these will richly satisfy</i> - <b>The Scotsman</b> Cover Illustration: Justin Todd