Demian: the Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth - Softcover

Hesse, Hermann; Thomas Mann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553262467 ISBN 13: 9780553262469

Publisher: Bantam Books, 1981

Synopsis

Hesse portrays the turmoil of Emil Sinclair, a docile young man who is drawn by his schoolmates into a secret and dangerous world of petty crime and revolt against convention. This first major novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse incorporates a theme he returned to again and again in most of his works: the fundamental duality of existence. The youthful protagonist, Emil Sinclair, recognizes that life consists of opposing forces; however, his older friend, Max Demian, manages to both clarify and complicate Sinclair's confusion about life's conflicting values. Recounted in engaging prose, rich in sympathy and imagination, this brilliant psychological portrait of a troubled young man's exploration of the polarities of human nature has retained its remarkable power as a poignant statement of terrors and torments of adolescence. Hesse's classic tells of the turmoil of Emil Sinclair, a docile young man who is drawn by his schoolmates into a secret and dangerous world of petty crime and revolt against convention

About this title

Review

"Hesse is not a traditional teller of tales but a novelist of ideas and a moralist of a high order...The autobiographical undercurrent gives "Damian" an Existentialist intensity and a depth of understanding that are rare in contemporary fiction." -- "Saturday Review""Hesse is a writer whose peculiar vision is worth inspecting. His world is shadowy and close to areas of the heart that will probably never see light. But his vision is a rare one, as commendable for its humane solicitude as for its strangeness and unearthly color."-- "National Review"

From the Back Cover

In Demian, one of the great writers of the twentieth century tells the dramatic story of young, docile Emil Sinclair's descent--led by precocious shoolmate Max Demian--into a secret and dangerous world of petty crime and revolt against convention and eventual awakening to selfhood.

"The electrifying influence exercised on a whole generation just after the First World War by Demian...is unforgettable. With uncanny accuracy this poetic work struck the nerve of the times and called forth grateful rapture from a whole youthful generation who believed that an interpreter of their innermost life had risen from their own midst."
-- From the Introduction by Thomas Mann

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Publication date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553262467
• ISBN 13: 9780553262469
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 142