Siddhartha |
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Author:
Hermann Hesse
By Picador
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £12.99
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780330354851
ISBN: 033035485X
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 1998-03-06
Publisher: Picador
Studio: Picador |
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Amazon.co.uk Review
In the shade of a banyan tree, a grizzled ferryman sits listening to the river. Some say he's a sage. He was once a wandering shramana and, briefly, like thousands of others, he followed Gautama the Buddha, enraptured by his sermons. But this man, Siddhartha, was not a follower of any but his own soul. Born the son of a Brahman, Siddhartha was blessed in appearance, intelligence, and charisma. In order to find meaning in life, he discarded his promising future for the life of a wandering ascetic. Still, true happiness evaded him. Then a life of pleasure and titillation merely eroded away his spiritual gains until he was just like all the other "child people," dragged around by his desires. Like Hesse's other creations of struggling young men, Siddhartha has a good dose of European angst and stubborn individualism. His final epiphany challenges both the Buddhist and the Hindu ideals of enlightenment. Neither a practitioner nor a devotee, neither meditating nor reciting, Siddhartha comes to blend in with the world, resonating with the rhythms of nature, bending the reader's ear down to hear answers from the river. --Brian Bruya
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 Zarathustra meets the Buddha, 2010-03-28
The sources of this book include classics like Nietzche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita and elements of Buddhism. It is the story of a quest that mirrors the quests of several Indian sages from the Buddha to countless Sadhus since. It is important to let go of preconceptions when reading this book, it is however probably more suitable to westerners who don't appreciate Indian religions that don't bear comparison with monotheistic traditions that seek salvation using one totem. Indeed, Hess seems to treat Buddhism just like another totem to be ignored given that as a religion it implies "allegiance". Taking refuge with an open mind is not the same as swearing allegiance. Everyone has to discover realisation/s for themselves. The Buddha said this. Leaving this aside, Hess is deeply sympathetic to Buddhism but prefers instead an individualistic path based on love and a simple appreciation of the world, the way many human beings come to terms with the world. It is not necessarily the path to the realisation of ultimate truth, but more coming to terms with the problems of life. I was especially touched by the descriptions of listening to the soothing river. Chapter after chapter offers various teachers and the book as a whole is about the quest and not necessarily about answers.
Philosphically the book is about independence and individualism and makes the case for a lone seeker "fare lonely as a rhinoceros" as a Buddhits text has it. This means being wary of any religion or movement and understanding the limits of concepts. Many of us do have to join groups to come to understand this and it has to be borne in mind that Siddhartha, the protagonist finds his way by forming relationships, not by being entirely alone. Siddhartha asks questions and is keen to form bonds with sources of wisdom. In the end, he only has so much time and when he is old he has that much wisdom to offer. It may not be the whole realisation, but it is what is suitable for most readers of this book.
The book is a light and pleasant read and needs to be read slowly with enough time for digestion of each of the chapters. It is well thought out and enjoyable and though it may not be on the bestseller ranks, it is just the sort of book that someone may need and enjoy.
peace, 2010-08-05
I read this as a young man, and again now.....if you wish to look inside yourself, try this...it is beautiful.
Beautiful life-changing life-inspiring book, 2010-08-11
What a beautifully written book. Really touches a chord and I certainly reflected and re-evaluated my life afterwards. Even though this book mentions religions, it doesn't matter if you are not affiliated to any religion, you just take what you want from the book. If you haven't read the Alchemist, strongly recommend that as well.
Siddhartha, 2010-02-16
`Siddhartha' is one of those books that is both simple to read and yet powerful and profound at the same time. Following a young Brahmin's son as he tries to find his spiritual path in life, this book manages to weave a tale that is both captivating and enlightening. This book is so good I could read the first 30 pages alone and put the book down a happy man, the remainder is purely icing on the cake! Hesse manages to write in a deceptively simple style that belies the depth to the message he shows us and the skill behind his writing. He won the nobel prize for good reason. This may be a short book, but it is one that will stay with you long after you have read it and will bring you back to rediscover it's delights at regular intervals. Beautiful prose, beautiful message and highly recommended indeed.
Lets just call it 3.5 stars..., 2010-08-15
There is always a difficulty when leaving reviews of how to reconcile yourself to giving something an indelible judgement or value on such a narrow scope as the 5 star system allows. How can we justify that I have decreed that `Othello' and `Lucky Jim' both merit identical marks? Where then does a pot boiler from the airport which helped to pass an interminably uncomfortable flight fit in? This is why I had difficulty in deciding on a mark for `Siddhartha'.
My conclusion was that each book must be marked on a mixture of how well it fulfils both our personal expectations and the intentions of the author. Thus, an airport thriller with no (cue pretension) `literary merit' can be easily given 5 stars as we expect nothing more from it than sex, explosions, a clichéd ending and a few hours tolerably passed.
Siddhartha sets out to broach the probably impossible subject of our search for self knowledge so obtaining full marks was always unlikely. Hesse writes in the style of a parable and although our impression of such writing is coloured by saccharine Sunday school stories, it does allow messages to be conveyed in a simple and powerful manner. Certainly this is no Nabokov book to be read for its lyrical prose, yet this is not an inevitable failing as it allows us to engage with the questions being asked by Hesse.
Siddhartha is probably more valuable for the philosophical questions it raises rather than the answers it attempts to provide. Indeed, the belated conclusions reached by the eponymous hero include the assertion that "knowledge can be shared; wisdom is not communicable." In that phrase Hesse neuters my contentions that the thoughts of his protagonist fail to adequately measure up to the questions he asks by saying we must essentially find our own path to the answers. In any case, the greatest thinkers of history have abortively attempted to work out how to live the `good life' and attain self knowledge; that the answer is not found in Siddhartha should not surprise anyone.
One potentially more valid criticism is that the book is very much a zeitgeist of the eastern influence of the 60s and seemed a little bit dated now that wrapping belief in vague and exotic terms no longer seems a panacea to any problem we may face. Not that Buddhism doesn't contain some excellent thinking, but (at least in my translation) there was no interest in explaining many of the terms used and it did seem that words were occasionally being bandied around for their novelty rather than their true explanatory worth. Much of Hesse's world view will be unfamiliar to a reader born after the eastern `boom'.
Siddhartha is not to be read for its love of intricate word play nor its unpredictable or thrilling plot. It is a pseudo philosophical book which asks many existential questions. Nonetheless it is not a dull book, and its short length means it is easily consumed by the eye and digested by the mind. Certainly it is interesting if you want a chin scratcher but have no desire in tackling altogether more dense books by those who set out to do philosophy rather than write a novel.
Given its short length, worth reading.
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