"All I really wanted was to try and live the life that was spontaneously welling up within me. Why was that so very difficult?"
Generations of readers have recognized the impassioned cry that introduces the young narrator of Demian, and embraced this tale of a troubled young man's struggle toward self-awareness. Initially published in Berlin in 1919, the novel met with instant critical acclaim, as well as great popular success among people

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A moral allegory, set in ancient India, about one soul's quest for the ultimate answer to the enigma of man's role in this world. The hero, Siddhartha, undergoes a series of experiences to emerge in a state of peace and wisdom.

Hermann Hesse's "Steppenwolf" is a thrilling trip into the human soul. Readers are immersed into a world of psychological distress and emotional suffering via the protagonist, Harry Haller. Harry, a sophisticated and contemplative character, struggles with his dual identity as a cultured intellectual and a wild, untamed 'Steppenwolf.' As he navigates his conflicts, he meets Hermine, a mysterious young woman who takes him on a journey of self-discovery...

This selection of twenty-three stories (twenty available in English for the first time) offers a spectrum of Hesse's writing from 1899 to 1948 that could be matched only by an edition of his poetry, since in no other form-novel, essay, autobiographical reflection-did he span so many years. Here, within the covers of a single volume, the reader can trace Hesse's development from the aestheticism of his youth through the realism and surrealism of the...

Hermann Karl Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Francis of Assisi, Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Siddhartha: An Indian novel is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named...

This collection of poems, written during the same period as Steppenwolf, was first published in 1928 in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. Hesse's uneasiness about the degree of self-exposure in these quite untypical poems is evident in that the majority (and many of the best) were never reprinted during his lifetime. Astonishingly frank and raw at times, they reflect his effort to balance the constraints of his intellectual life with his longing...

Hermann Hesse: A Pictorial Biography offers a wealth of unknown photographic and textual material, which was first discovered among Hesse's literary effects after his death. Over 200 photographs chronicle his family background, his school and apprentice years, his first literary efforts and initial successes, his travels to India and throughout Europe, his continuing growth as a writer. These photographs, apart from illustrating Hesse's long and varied...

Hans Giebernath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the...

Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend Hermann Hesse - Wie alle Hauptwerke Hermann Hesses hat auch der Demian, den der damals 40jährige Autor mitten im Ersten Weltkrieg schrieb, eine ebenso ungewöhnliche wie spannende Entstehungs- und Wirkungsgeschichte. Daß dieses im Herbst 1917 vollendete Buch erst im Juni 1919, ein halbes Jahr nach Kriegsende, veröffentlicht wurde, lag an der Unbekanntheit des Verfassers. Denn Hesse hatte das Manuskript...