Best Selling Books by Hermann Hesse

First published in 1915, Knulp was Hesse''s most popular book in the years before Demian. This is the first edition in English. Knulp is an amiable vagabond who wanders from town to town, staying with friends who feed and shelter him. Consistently refusing to tie himself down to any trade, place, or person, he even deserts the companion who might be considered Hermann Hesse himself the summer they go tramping together. Knulp''s exile is blissful, gentle, self-absorbed. But hidden beneath the light surface of these "Tales from the Life of Knulp" is the conscience of an artist who suspects that his liberation is worthless, even immoral. As he lies dying in a snowstorm, Knulp has an interview with God in which he reproaches himself for his wasted life. But it is revealed to Knulp that the whole purpose of his life has been to bring "a little homseickness for freedom" into the lives of ordinary men.

Hans Giebernath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the narrowly circumscribed world of the academy. Finally sent home after a nervous breakdown, Hans is revived by nature and romance, and vows never to return to the gray conformity of the academic system.

An autobiographical novel featuring Harry Haller in "an experimental mix of symbolism, realism, and fantasy."--Cover.

A collection of essays from Hermann Hesse concerning World War II, his personal anguish and his antagonism to racism, nationalism and war.

This is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character who set each other on different paths in life.

Recounted in engaging prose, the first major novel by Nobel Prize– winning author explores the fundamental duality of existence through the tale of a troubled young man''s confusion about life''s conflicting values.

Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life but soon becomes restless and discards it for pleasures of the flesh. He is quickly bored and sickened by the unending lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, he comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life – the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace and, finally, wisdom Hermann Hesse’s beautiful rendition of the journey of a young man during the times of the great Gautam Buddha is not just an evocative piece of art but also a work of mystery offered to the reader to solve for himself. Hermann Karl Hesse was a German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual’s search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946.

Eight stories about the distillation of wisdom, concerning dream worlds, magical thinking, the subconscious and the soul.

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 Gotama 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 Brahmin, 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 Hermann 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.

The famous coming-of-age novel by Nobel-price winner Herman Hesse.--En la jaro 1919, la germana-svisa verkisto kaj posta nobelpremiito Hermann Hesse (18771962) publikigis sian parte au''tobiografian romanon Demian sub la pseu''donimo Emil Sinclair (Sinkler). i estas romano pri la ofte komplika vojo de junuloj al sintrovo au'' memrekono, antau'' chio de tiuj junuloj kiuj, kiel Hesse mem, kiel adoleskuloj sentis sin pli soluloj ol partoj de grupoj de samaghuloj.

A collection of twenty-two fairy tales by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, most translated into English for the first time, show the influence of German Romanticism, psychoanalysis, and Eastern religion on his development as an author.

Set in the 23rd century, "The glass bead game" is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game)