 SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE ABOUT EVERYONE, 2009-04-13
A beautiful story of a character on his path to self-awareness, told using wonderfully rhythmic and accessible language that allows the tale to be read on so many levels without too much work required on behalf of the reader.
Don't see how anyone could fail to enjoy and get something from this book.
This is the one that I love..., 2009-01-11
Among Hermann Hesse's works it is very difficult to choose one. They are all great and deep. Some are novels of formation (Steppenwolf, Sidhartha, Demian) some are description of a fail in one's life (Knulp, again Sidhartha) and all are stories of love, passion, spiritualiy and some erotism.
My favorite one is this novel.
If you don't know Hesse and you want just to start reading his works I would propose you to read this one. I could say Sidhartha but the problem with that one is that you have to suffer the first pages to understand what is going on in the Indian universe of the novel.
Besides, Demian is happy while Sidhartha ... I stop. I don't want to spoil.Steppenwolf (Essential Penguin)
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.
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)
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