Hesse, Hermann 1877-1962

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
786 editions published between 1900 and 2011 in 50 languages and held by 5,272 libraries worldwide
Blends elements of psychoanalysis and Asian religions to probe an Indian aristocrat's efforts to renounce sensual and material pleasures and discover ultimate spiritual truths.

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
551 editions published between 1927 and 2011 in 35 languages and held by 4,380 libraries worldwide
In postwar Germany, a fifty-year-old man regards himself as a dual personality, half man and half wolf.

Demian, the story of Emil Sinclair's youth by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
595 editions published between 1919 and 2011 in 36 languages and held by 3,445 libraries worldwide
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, 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 exploration of the polarities of human nature has retained its remarkable power as a poignant statement of the terrors and torments of adolescence.

The glass bead game (Magister Ludi) by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
392 editions published between 1943 and 2010 in 29 languages and held by 3,073 libraries worldwide
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).

Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
363 editions published between 1930 and 2010 in 29 languages and held by 2,994 libraries worldwide
First published in 1930, Narcissus and Goldmuna is the story of two diametrically opposite men: one, an ascetic monk firm in his religious commitment, and the other, a romantic youth hungry for worldly experience. Hesse was a great writer in precisely the modern sense: complex, subtle, allusive: alive to the importance of play. Narcissus and Goldmuna is his very best. What makes this short book so limitlessly vast is the body-and-soul-shaking debate that runs through it, which it has the honesty and courage not to resolve: between the flesh and spirit, art and scientific or religious speculation, action and contemplation.

Beneath the wheel by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
316 editions published between 1900 and 2010 in 19 languages and held by 2,344 libraries worldwide
Constitutes an attack on educational systems that foster intellect, purposefulness, and ambition to the detriment of emotion, instinct, and soul.

The journey to the East by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
186 editions published between 1900 and 2010 in 20 languages and held by 2,188 libraries worldwide
"The story of a pilgrimage which apparently fails"--Cover.

Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
313 editions published between 1904 and 2010 in 26 languages and held by 2,074 libraries worldwide
After a young writer leaves his Swiss mountain village to experience the world, his illusions are crushed by the suffering he witnesses, until a friendship with an invalid restores his hope.

Strange news from another star, and other tales by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
112 editions published between 1900 and 2008 in 14 languages and held by 2,012 libraries worldwide
Eight stories about the distillation of wisdom, concerning dream worlds, magical thinking, the subconscious and the soul.

Gertrude by Hermann Hesse ( Book )
214 editions published between 1910 and 2010 in 27 languages and held by 2,010 libraries worldwide
In this fictional memoir, the renowned composer Kuhn recounts his tangled relationships with two artists - his friend Heinrich Muoth, a brooding, self-destructive opera singer, and the gentle, self-assured Gertrude Imthor. Kuhn is drawn to Gertrude upon their first meeting, but Gertrude falls in love with Heinrich, to whom she is introduced when Kuhn auditions them for the leads in his new opera. Hopelessly ill-matched, Gertrude and Heinrich have a disastrous marriage that leaves them both ruined. Yet this tragic affair also becomes the inspiration for Kuhn's opera, the most important success of his artistic life.