Demian (Peter Owen Modern Classic) - Softcover

Hesse, Hermann

4.14

112,727 ratings by Goodreads

9780720612813: Demian (Peter Owen Modern Classic)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0720612810 ISBN 13: 9780720612813

Publisher: Peter Owen, 2009

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From the Nobel Prize winning author of Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game.

Emil Sinclair boasts of a theft that he has not committed and subsequently finds himself blackmailed by a bully. He turns to Max Demian, in whom he finds a friend and spiritual mentor ... Published shortly after the First World War and before Siddharta and Steppenwolf, Demian marks a significant turning point in Hesse's literary career. It is the first time Hermann Hesse used the novel overtly as a means to explore ideas of the self, the meaning and purpose of existence, as well as his own ideas and interpretations of theosophy and Eastern Philosophy. As such it is ranked among the finest of his works.

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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 Demian an Existentialist intensity and a depth of understanding that are rare in contemporary fiction.' --Saturday Review

'Beautifully written, it has a seriousness as compelling as as that of The Waste Land . . . the work of a major writer.' --Observer

'One can neither date nor doubt the sincerity of the hero s search for satisfaction or the quality of the spirit that lies behind it.' --Times Literary Supplement

About the Author:

HERMANN HESSE is numbered among the leading figures of twentieth-century literature. Born in Germany in 1877, he rebelled against his stern monastic education later working as a locksmith and a bookseller before embarking on a 65-year writing career. His first major success came with his novels Peter Camenzind (1904) and Untern Rad (1905; translated as The Prodigy). These were followed by Gertrud (1910), Rosshalde (1914), Demian (1919) and Siddartha (1921). After a visit to India in 1911, he settled in Switzerland in opposition to German militarism, and he worked for the Red Cross during the First World War. His later novels included Der Steppenwolf (1927), Narziss und Goldmund (1930) and Das Glasperlenspiel (1943; translated as Magister Ludi). His books were denounced by the Nazis, but in 1946 he achieved world recognition on being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1963 aged eighty-five.

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