  Not really Hesse at his best., 2002-07-07
This is basically a story of a boy from a middle class family growing up. He falls under the guiding influence of several older and wiser characters and by his late teens comes to some sort of a spiritual and intellectual enlightenment. Hesse sets off in a matter-of-factly way with a lot of insightful observations about boys from middle class families growing up. Slightly sluggish and self-indulgent perhaps, but altogether quite agreeable. Two things begin to spoil the book towards the half-way mark. Firstly, at about that point the main charachter hits "the awkward age". My impression was that I was getting a very heavily retouched portrait of the author as a young man. Secondly, about the same time the whole thing veers sharply into the sur-real and alegorical. Unusually, Hesse fails to pull it off with grace and gets lost in rather corny gnostic musings. On top of that, he rehashes some of Nietzche's least reputable ideas (inate superiority of the chozen few, cataclysmic rebirth of a morally bankrupt humanity etc.). Perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh. This is a decent book. It reads pretty well and has some interesting things to say. However, for something that has come out of Hermann Hesse, "Demian" is at best mediocre. In terms of flair, depth, lucidity and intensity, it don't hold a candle to "Steppenwolf" or "Siddhartha".
Very good but not what it seems...., 2002-11-21
This a very readable and enjoyable book for the most part, as the above reviewer points out. It definetly seems to be a coming of age story where huge ideas loom below the surface - free will, relegion, homosexuality etc However, the latter half does indeed begin to make less and less sense. These previously hidden ideas emerge in a stream of tedious discussions, and it begins to feel like an very odd fable of 'spiritual growth' (as a comment from The Listener calls it on the jacket.) The ending, in particular, is very cryptic and unsatisfying. Desperate to find some meaning to what had been a mostly engrossing novel, I found an on-line analysis of the book by Stephen K. Rooney of The University of Calafornia. This overturns the traditional interpretatin of the novel, and shows it to be a christian morality play. It is a fascinating article, and it renews your faith in the book (even if you disagree with it's message)
Buy it!!, 2001-06-14
A beautifully written book. Entering the world of children and their fears and how it can manifest itself into adulthood. From the moment I picked this book up I could not leave it alone until I had reached the last word. A wonderful and understanding author.
Adolescent torment on the eve of the Great War, 2008-12-10
Herman Hesse was one of the leading figures of twentieth century literature and this one of his most important works. Cosseted by a prosperous, pious family Emil Sinclair becomes aware of the duality of good and evil through the actions of a school bully. He is freed from persecution by an enigmatic older pupil Max Demian who, along with organ player Pistorius, becomes his master and mentor during a turbulent adolescence. Tormented by vexatious existentialist problems, Emil's sensitivity sees him vacillate between a yearning for a deep, spiritual love and the temptations of self-destruction. Poetically written in the tradition of German Romanticism and influenced, among others, by Nietzsche and Jung, Hesse projects through Emil and Max a vision of the future for a Europe which he believed had lost its soul in the aggressive rush for technical progress.
If you enjoy Demian then read Steppenwolf, where the protagonist is likewise torn between bourgeois respectability and crude, biological instincts.
A gripping treatise on life..., 2004-11-18
As usual, Hesse - in 'Demian' - has produced a rich and thought-provoking comment on life and the individual's place within it. It's very similar to his other work in that it shares certain themes and views...but this makes it no less enjoyable as a text that is still fresh and relevant in the 21st Century. I agree that the novel (novella?) loses focus towards to end. Indeed, perhaps the main narrative never finds a true focus at all. I felt that several characters in the tale were superfluous and brought little to the book's central 'message'. I was, however, extremely impressed with the sense of impending war that Hesse manages to paint towards the end. In a very small amount of pages, the full sense of a world about to collapse in on itself is exceptionally sharp. It really comes close to portraying how the youth of entire nations must have felt in the face of imminent conflict in Europe. Very compelling - perhaps a little muddled, but rightly judged as a classic.
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